ENGLISH of SouthEast Asia

1. Brief History of English in Singapore and Malaysia

- Any historical discussion on Singapore, especially relating to the period before its
independence in 1965, is almost always linked to historical development in Malaysia.
This is inevitable as Singapore was one of the Straits Settlements in British Malaya
and, in 1963, it became a political component of the independent.

- Malaysia. Therefore, until its separation from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore and
Malaysia constituted a single political entity.

- The establishment of British settlements in Penang (1786) and Singapore (1819) and the
British take-over of Malacca in 1824 from the Dutch in Great Britain’s attempt to control
access to the Straits of Malacca, essential to its tea trade with China, mark the beginning of
the influx of immigrants and the development of large and diverse speech communities in
Malaya.

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2. Brief History of English in Singapore and
Malaysia
- Brunei was a British Protectorate from 1888 until 1984. Not surprisingly,
English became widely used, even though Brunei Malay (a dialect of Malay that
is substantially different from Standard Malay) continues to be the main
language that is spoken.

- In 1985, the Bilingual Education Policy was implemented, with Malay as the
medium of instruction for the first three years of primary school, and then
English becoming the medium of instruction for most subjects from the fourth
year of primary school on. In 1993, history switched from being English
medium to being Malay medium.

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 Lexical Malaysian English

The influences of the Malay language contribute to some of the most remarkable characteristics
of Malaysian English (henceforth ME) today as these features distinguish this variety of English
from, not only native varieties, but also other Asian varieties such as Philippine English, Hong
Kong English, Indian English and, to a lesser degree, Singapore English. “The overriding
influence of Malay” (Morais [2001: 35]) has been the focus of many inquiries into ME (see, in
particular, Lowenberg [1986 and 2000]). The presence of features borrowed from Malay as well
as the ancestral languages of the local Chinese and Indian communities is popularly interpreted
as the outcome of linguistic acculturation, a process “by which English is equipped to function
effectively in non-Western, multilingual speech communities” (Lowenberg [1986: 72]). Although
influential, these studies (Lowenberg [1984, 1986 and 1992]; and Baskaran [1988]) have
disregarded some of the more pertinent processes behind the phenomenon whereby borrowed
features are incorporated into ME.
Linguistic Feature : Phonology in
Singaporean English
-Diphthong /el/ can be pronounced as a
monophthong /e/.
•With regard to consonant sounds, the pairs
/p/ and /b/, /t/ and /d/, /k/ and/g/, /dz/, /f/
and /v/,/0/and /d/, /s/, /zi/ and /s/ may be
pronounced the same, especially when in
final position.
•The notorious dental fricatives are
pronounced /t/ and /d/ in initial position and
often /f/ and /v/ in final position.
• •At the level of the word, Singaporean
English may either give each syllable
equal stress
Linguistic Feature : Grammar in
Singaporean English
- Singapore English is the English
language spoken in Singapore, of which
there are two main forms, Standard
Singapore English and Singapore
Colloquial English (better known as
Singlish).
- Use infinitive verb phrases in contexts
where a gerund might be used.
Grammatical feature of these Englishes
concerns the marking of past tense forms
3. Brief History of English in Philippine
Philippine English has evolved tremendously from where it began decades ago. Some decades before
English was officially introduced, if not arguably forced, to the Philippines, the nation had been subject
to Spanish rule and thus Spanish was the language of power and influence. However, in 1898, when the
Spanish gave the United States control of the nation, the English language, although initially disfavored,
became widely used in a matter of years. This was catalyzed by the coming of American teachers called
"Thomasites" (Bolton & Bautista, 2004). Before gaining independence, language policy makers had
already started discussing formation of a common language for the Philippines that today is known as
Filipino. Filipino became the national language, and English was given the status of an official language
of the Philippines; English is the dominant superstrate language, as it is perceived by many as a symbol
of status and power, replacing Spanish as the dominant superstate language. With the English language
highly embedded in Philippine society, it was only a matter of time before the language was indigenized
to the point that it became differentiated from English varieties found in the United States, United
Kingdom, or elsewhere. This, along with the formal introduction of the World Englishes (WE) framework
to English language scholars in the Philippines by renowned linguist Braj B. Kachru, which occurred at
a conference in Manila, opened the floodgates to research on this new emerging English, which has since
been branded as Philippine English.

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 Lingustic Feature in Philippine English
PHONOLOGY
* Philippine English (PE) is
almost always recognizable.
We can identify the first
language of PE speakers from
their accent.
* Filipinos learned English
from Filipinos and the seeds of
what we now call Philippine
English began
LEXICAL
GRAMMAR
* The vocabulary of Philippine
* The past perfect is often used
English derives from a range of
where others might use a
phenomena including semantic and
present perfect or past simple:
part of-speech shift, loan
"Have some pupils tell they
translations, coinages and creative
class what they had observed
innovations, compounds and hybrids
* PE use of the present
* The adoption of certain brand
continuous to refer to habitual
names to refer to the articles in
actions as in the sentence 'he is
general is one example of semantic
going to school regularly
shift.
For example pampers' refers to
disposable nappies in general and
colgate' to toothpaste.’
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 thanks!
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