Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (born 15 April 1958) is a British writer, dub poet and Rastafarian. He was included in The Times list of Britain’s… [623540]

1
Benjamin Zephaniah
Non-standard English

Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (born 15 April 1958) is a British writer, dub poet and
Rastafarian. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post -war writers in 2008.
He writes that his poetry is strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and what
he calls "street politics". His first performance was in church when he was eleven, and by the age of
fifteen, his poetry was already known among Handsworth's Afro -Caribbean and Asian communit ies.
He received a criminal record with the police as a young man and served a prison sentence for
burglary. Tired of the limitations of being a black poet communicating with black people only, he
decided to expand his audience, and headed to London at the age of twenty -two.

The table s show the examples of non-standard pronunciation and non-standard grammar
found in B enjamin Zephaniah ’s language in the debate and the explanation of the deviation from
standard language .
Example Explanation
Appalling
wrong both are pronounced with a k -like sound at the end
Took (2 times)
Money (2 t)
Young all are pronounced with a [ ʊ] (northern BrE pronunciation)
Fend Benjamin has probably a slight lisp as he says fend instead of sent
Non-standard pronunciation
Example Explanation
This great and wonderful Absence of copula (he is then relating what people are saying or
would say in a particular situation)
she could at least given
them beds Absence of the auxiliary verb have
we going back Absence of copula (might be slightly heard or swallowed)
Non-standard grammar

Some examples of non -standard pronunciation are largely influenced by a Birmingham or
northern British English pronunciation, such as [ ʊ] in money , but and young instead of [ ʌ]. The glottal

2
quality of the ending g which almost sounds like a k is more could be a non -standard British accent,
rather than a Jamaican who has influenced one since then glottali sation is not found in Jamaican
English.
The non -standard grammar that appears in Zephaniah's speech clearly shows that
abandonment from the copula “be ” and in one case the omission of the auxiliary “have” . These are
typical features of the Jamaic an creole, but can also be found in other non -standard varieties such as
African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
There are not many examples in the debate, but it is interesting to note in what situations
Benjamin Zephaniah uses them. The first example is when he is relating to what poor people are
saying or rather would not say. This is a very clear example of Bell’s (2010) explanation about
initiative style shift mentioned earlier namely that an absent reference group can be so important for
the speak er that he adopts their style of speaking to the people present. The second example is said
in a moment in the debate when different views clashed and feelings were upset. Since the speaker’s
attention is then less on his speech and more on content, a styl e shift can be noted that displays the
speaker’s first acquired language variety.
The influence of his Jamaican background varied in the poetry collection, too. In poems
related to musical tradition the influence was highest while in poems more related to the course of
life there were very few non -standard forms. There was hardly no Jamaican influence in these poems
either. Since reggae and dub are Zephaniah’s musical genres, both originally from Jamaica, the
influence of Jamaican English in poems about music is rather natural. The low usage of non -standard
forms in poems related to the course of life could be explained by Zephaniah wanting to address a
broader audience.
Although, Zephaniah’s Jamaican English language use is more prevalent in his p oetry than in
his ordinary speech it cannot be said that it is only a poetic device.
We can see more examples of non-standard English in his poem Dis poetry .
Dis poetry by Benjamin Zephaniah
Dis poetry is like a riddim dat drops
De tongue fires a riddim dat shoots li ke shots
Dis poetry is designed fe rantin
Dance hall style, big mouth chanting,
Dis poetry nar put yu to sleep
Preaching follow me
Like yu is blind sheep,
Dis poetry is not Party Political

3
Not designed fe dose who are critical.
Dis poetry is wid me when I gu to me bed
It gets into me dreadlocks
It lingers around me head
Dis poetry goes wid me as I pedal me bike
IÕve tried Shakespeare, respect due dere
But did is de stuff I like.

Dis poetry is not afraid of going ina book
Still dis poetry need ears fe hear an eyes fe hav a look
Dis poetry is Verbal Riddim, no big words involved
An if I hav a problem de riddim gets it solved,
IÕve tried to be more romantic, it does nu good for m e
So I tek a Reggae Riddim an build me poetry,
I could try be more personal
But youÕve heard it all before,
Pages of written words not needed
Brain has many words in store […]

Bibliografie:
Poruciuc, A., A concise history of the English language , Casa Editoriala Demiurg , Iași, 2004
https://wikipedia.org /
https://gupea.ub.gu.se/
www.poemhunter.com

4