Singlish

Colloquial Singaporean English, better known as Singlish, is an English-based creole

language[1][2][3] spoken in Singapore.
While English is one of Singapore's official languages, Singlish is commonly regarded as
having low prestige.[4] The Singaporean government and some Singaporeans alike heavily
discourage the use of Singlish in favour of Standard English. The government has created
an annual Speak Good English Movement to emphasise the point. Singlish is also heavily
discouraged in the mass media and in schools.[5] However, such official discouragement
and routine censorship is actually countered by other presentations in mainstream media,
including routine usage by ordinary people in street interviews broadcast on TV and radio
on a daily basis, as well as occasional usage in newspapers.[6]
The vocabulary of Singlish consists of words originating
from English, Malay, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Tamil and to a lesser extent various
other European, Indic and Sinitic languages. Also, elements of American and Australian
slang have come through from imported television series and films.[7]

Overview and history[edit]

Singapore English derives its roots from 146 years (1819–1965) of British colonial rule over
Singapore. Prior to 1967 the standard form of English in Singapore had always been British
English and Received Pronunciation. After Singapore declared independence in 1965, English
in Singapore began to take a life of its own, leading to the development of modern-
day Standard Singapore English. Standard Singapore English began to take root and Singlish
began to evolve among the working classes who learned English without formal
schooling.[citation needed]
Singlish originated with the arrival of the British and the establishment of English
language schools in Singapore.[8] Soon, English filtered out of schools and onto the streets,
to be picked up by non-English-speakers in a pidgin-like form for communication purposes.
After some time, this new form of English, now loaded with substantial influences
from Indian English, Baba, native Malay, and the southern varieties of Chinese, became the
language of the streets and began to be learned as a first language in its own
right.[9] Creolizationoccurred, and Singlish is now a fully formed, stabilised, and independent
English-based creole language.[citation needed]
Singlish shares many linguistic similarities with Manglish of Malaysia, although a few
distinctions can be made, particularly in vocabulary. Manglish generally now receives more
Malay influence and Singlish more Chinese (Mandarin, Hokkien, etc.) influence. Initially,
Singlish and Manglish were essentially the same dialect evolving from the British
Malayaeconomy, born in the trading ports of Singapore, Malacca and Penang [10] when
Singapore and peninsular Malaysia were for many purposes a de facto single entity.
In Singapore, English was the language of administration, which the British used, with the
assistance of English-educated Straits-born Chinese, to control the administration in
Malaya and governance of trading routes such as the British East Indies spice routes with
China, Japan, Europe and America in those ports and colonies of Singapore, Malacca
and Penang through the colonial governing seat in Singapore.
In British Malaya, English was the language of the British administration, whilst Malay was
spoken as the lingua franca of the streets, as the British did not wish to antagonise the
native Malays.
In British Singapore, however, as the seat of the colonial government and international
commerce, English was both the language of administration and the lingua franca.[citation needed]
In Malaya, the Chinese varieties themselves also contained many loan-words from Malay,
and more Chinese loan-words from the Hokkien, rather than the Cantonese. For example,
Hokkien-influenced pa sat instead of the Cantonese-influenced baa saak in Singapore
(from Malay pasar meaning 'market'), loti (from Malay roti meaning 'bread'), Hokkien gu
li and jam bban (from Malay guli meaning 'marble', and Malay 'jamban' meaning toilet).
After Singapore's independence in 1965, and successive "Speak Mandarin" campaigns,[11] a
subtle language shift among the post-1965 generation became more and more evident as
Malay idiomatic expressions were, and continued to be, displaced by idioms borrowed from
Chinese spoken varieties, such as Hokkien.[citation needed]

Sociolect continuum[edit]
The English language in Singapore is a sociolect continuum.[12] The continuum runs through
the following varieties:
Acrolectal: Acrolectal Singaporean English exhibits an absence of or a much smaller
degree of Singlish pronunciation features than do Mesolectal, Basilectal, and pidgin
variants of Singlish.[citation needed]
Mesolectal: This is the most commonly spoken form of Singlish. It is a mix between Standard
English and Singlish. At this level, a number of features not found in other forms of English
begin to emerge.[citation needed]
Basilectal: This is the most colloquial form of speech.[13] Here, one can find all of the
unique phonological, lexical, and grammatical features of Singlish. Many of these features
can be attributed to Asian languages such as Chinese, Malay, or Indian languages such
as Tamil, though some cannot. Both the basilect and mesolect are referred to as "Singlish".
Pidgin: This is the "pidgin" level of Singlish, which is probably a good representative of an
earlier stage of Singlish, before creolisation took place and solidified Singlish as a fully
formed creole. As with all pidgins, speakers at the pidgin level speak another language as a
first language, and Singlish as a second language. However, since a substantial number of
people today learn Singlish natively, the number of speakers at the "pidgin" level of Singlish
is dwindling.[14] This is because by definition, a pidgin is not learned natively.
The coexistence of basilectal Singlish and acrolectal Standard Singapore English can also be
analysed as a diglossia, which is a split between a "high" formal language and a "low"
informal language.
The Sociolect Continuum of Singaporean English
Each of the following means the same thing, but the basilectal and mesolectal versions
incorporate some colloquial additions for illustrative purposes.
Basilect Acrolect
("Singlish") Mesolect ("Standard")
"Dis guy Singrish "Dis guy Singlish "This person's
si beh damn good eh." Singlish
zai sia." is very good."

Since many Singaporeans can speak English at multiple points along the sociolect
spectrum, code-switching can occur very frequently between the acrolect (Standard
Singapore English) and the mesolect (common Singlish). In addition, as many Singaporeans
are also speakers of Chinese, Malay, or Indian languages such as Tamil, code-switching
between English and other languages also occurs dynamically.[citation needed]
For example, a local Singaporean might speak in a Singlish consisting of English, Hokkien,
Malay and Indian loan-words, when chatting with their friends.[citation needed]
Vocabulary[edit]
Main article: Singlish vocabulary

Singlish formally takes after British English (in terms of spelling and abbreviations), although
naming conventions are in a mix of American and British ones (with American ones on the
rise). For instance, local media have "sports pages" (sport in British English) and "soccer
coverage" (the use of the word "soccer" is not common in British media), though the word
"football" is also taken to be synonymous with "soccer" in Singapore.
Singlish also uses many words borrowed from Hokkien, and from Malay. The most well-
known instance of a borrowing from Hokkien is 'kiasu', which means "frightened of losing
out", and is used to indicate behaviour such as queueing overnight to obtain something;
and the most common borrowing from Malay is 'makan', meaning "to eat".[93]
In many cases, English words take on the meaning of their Chinese counterparts, resulting
in a shift in meaning. This is most obvious in such cases as "borrow"/"lend", which are
functionally equivalent in Singlish and mapped to the same Hokkien word, "借" (chio),
which can mean to lend or to borrow. ("Oi (also used as oy, although Singaporeans spell it
as oi), can borrow me your calculator?"); and 'send' can be used to mean "accompany
someone", as in "Let me send you to the airport", possibly under the influence of the
Hokkien word "送" (sang).[94] However, the Malay '(meng)hantar' can also be used to mean
both "send a letter" and "take children to school",[95] so perhaps both Malay and Chinese
have combined to influence the usage of 'send' in Singapore.