Task 1

Introduction

Malaysia, a country located in the South East Asia, is one of the many countries
previously colonized by the British government. This means that the English language
was once the primary medium of communication in the country, however in 1957
when Malaya gained her independence things have since changed. English became a
second language of being the official medium, and more emphasis has then been
placed upon the Malay language and the other languages of the other races in
Malaysia so they speak many language. English serves as a common for all this
different people For example, if ware born in Malay, would study Malay and
English ,if were born Chinese would study Cantonese and Hokkien and if ware born
Tamil,would study Tamil and English. In Malaysia they can not live with only one
language.

Firstly, Creole – “a mother tongue formed from the contact of a European language
with a local language (especially African languages spoken by slaves in the West
Indies)” (Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2004) – is a pidgin language. The
Manglish in Malaysia is a pidgin of sorts. Unlike pidgin, which is a blend of a
European language and a native language of the relevant country, Manglish is made
up largely (about 70% ) of English words, interspersed with elements from at least
three of the main languages of the country.

Over time, exposure to various cultures and dialects resulted in a more locally adapted
form of English known as Malaysian English. This refers to the proper and
appropriate way of speech and writing, thus taught in schools and used in newspapers,
official writings and business dealings.Malaysia is as everyone already knows a
multiracial, multi-lingual, multi-custom and multi-cultural country and one can
always tell which community a person belongs to from the way he or she speaks.

“gostan” (reverse a vehicle), “abuden” (duh/obviously), “siasui”

(humiliating/embarrassing), “cincai” (casually or simply doing things),
“fuyoh”(exclamation of amazement) and “aiyah”(expression of exasperation,
equivalent to “Oh no!”) Alamak, ayoyo, adoi, apa nama, apa ni, alah, alahai etc, and
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suffixes mah, kan, one, and the perennial and lovable lah are now almost always
heard in Manglish. (from -Good Essay Writing: Manglish (Malglish/Mangled
English)

Secondly the vocabulary of Manglish consists of words originating from English,

Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil, Malayalam” – (from Wikipedia ).

Malaysian English is gradually forming its own vocabulary, these words comefrom a variety of
influences. Typically, for words or phrases that are based onother English words, the Malaysian
English speaker may be unaware that theword or phrase is not present in British or American
English. There are various other words that are added to the end of the sentence, below
are some of the example when those end words are added to ‘can and do

mah: Can mah? – Is it possible (to do something)?

ah: Can ah? – (informal) Is it possible?

meh: Can meh? – Is that even possible? (skeptical)

lah: Can lah! – It is possible!

leh: Can leh.. – I think it is possible (slightly unsure)

ba: Can ba.. – (in this case, it means similar to -leh)

lor: Can lor. – I am quite sure it can be done.

liao: Can liao! – It has been done/achieved!

Got meh? – Is that true?

Got lah! – Yes, it is true!

( from -A Truly Unique Malaysian Language )

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As most Malaysians are adept at switching from Manglish to Malaysian English,but are
sometimes unclear as to the differences between Malaysian Standard -British English, awareness of
these differences would prevent misunderstandings when dealing with people from English-speaking
backgrounds. While the vocabulary may be largely English, the grammar is not, and
sentence construction in Manglish almost seems to be without structure. It is not easy to
state the main grammatical differences in a logical manner.

You got anything to do? : Do you have anything to do?

Why like that one? : Why is it done in that way?

(pointing the door) can ar? : Excuse me, but do you think it would be possible for me
to enter through this door?

Don’t want la… : I’d prefer not to do that, if you don’t mind.

Shut up lah! : Excuse me, but could you please lower your voice, I’m trying to
concentrate over here.

Yesterday ar, East Coast Park got so many people! – There were so many people at East
Coast Park yesterday

(From Wikipedia)

In Manglish, also find that most of them do not pay attention to grammar and the most
common mistakes are: not differentiating between present tense and past tense, singular
and plural, and spelling errors.Stemming from the various languages spoken by the
diverse population of Malaysia, many Malaysians have developed an unofficial
language known as Manglish. It is a unique blend of slang and various words pulled
from different vernaculars, which can result in a single sentence that sometimes
contains three or more languages! Here are some of the most popular slang words.

Yum Cha (or Yam Cha) -Cantonese language -, literally meaning ‘drink tea’
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Belanja is a Malay word - someone is settling your bill for you

Tapau (Cantonese) and ‘bungkus’ (Malay) -when ordering take-away from a

restaurant.

Celaka u -Would you mind not disturbing me

Finally Malaysia is a well diverse country with the Malaysians speaking many
different dialects. So, English is a second language in this country. If compared to the
British, the one main language spoken there is English. Here, in Malaysia, the English
spoken here is mixed with many different dialects spoken by the different ethnics in
Malaysia.Standard English also differs from Malaysian English in terms of grammar.
There are many Manglish grammatical structures taken from Chinese dialects and
many claim that the structure is also borrowed from the malay language.

Conclusion

The use of Manglish helps us communicate quickly and locally, instead of forming
complete sentences. Also, it is a common language that binds us Malaysians
together. It is noted that some expatriates working and living in Malaysia has picked
up on Manglish and seem to want to blend in by using Manglish.

Word 1046

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