SINGAPORE ENGLISH

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | Date: 1998

SINGAPORE ENGLISHInformally Singlish. The English language as used in Singapore, where it is co-official with Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. The English of Singapore serves as a means of uniting the country, an international medium, and a LINGUA FRANCA. In 1947, 31.6% of students in the colony were in English-medium schools; from 1987, English has been the sole medium of primary, secondary, and tertiary education in the republic. It is the main language of business and commerce, internally and externally, and has an influence extending well beyond the boundaries of the state. Educated Straits-born Chinese (locally known as the Baba Chinese) have traditionally used Baba Malay rather than a Chinese dialect, and currently tend to favour English over both Chinese and other languages. There are at least two forms of Singapore English: the standard variety, based on educated BrE spoken with an RP accent (used in textbooks and by the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation), and a colloquial variety whose forms range from a ‘low’ BASILECT strongly influenced by Chinese and Malay to a ‘high’ ACROLECT that blends with the standard.

Pronunciation

(1) English in Singapore is non-RHOTIC and generally syllable-timed. It places more or less equal stress on all syllables, usually with the final syllable of a tone unit somewhat lengthened. (2) Its intonation, often described as ‘SINGSONG’, has many short tone groups; there is no contrastive stress. (3) Final consonants are often unreleased, resulting in glottal stops, as in /hɪ?/ for hit and /stɛ?/ for step. (4) Final consonant clusters are generally reduced to one spoken consonant, such as ‘juss’ for just and ‘toll’ for told. Often a Singaporean will say, for example, ‘slep’ or ‘sle?’, but write slept. Compare grammar point 1, below, on omission of -s and -ed. (5) The vowels in such words as take, so, and dare are often monophthongs: /tɛ?/, /so/, /dɛ/.

Grammar

(1) There is a tendency to omit the following: articles (You have pen or not?; He went to office yesterday); the plural inflection -s (I got three sister and two brother); the present-tense inflection -s (This radio sound good; My mum, she come from China many year ago); the past-tense inflection -ed/-t (‘ask’ for asked, ‘slep’ for slept; He live there for ‘He lived there’); and the be before adjectives used predicatively (This coffee house cheap). (2) Already is used as a marker of completive aspect: Eight years she work here already She's been working here for eight years. (3) Use to occurs as a marker of habitual aspect: My mother, she use to go to the market My mother goes to the market. (4) Would is used for future events rather than will/shall or the present tense: We hope this would meet your requirements We hope this meets/will meet your requirements. (5) Direct and indirect objects are highlighted by being preposed: This book we don't have; Me you don't give it to. (6) The invariant tags is it?; and isn't it? are common: You check out today, is it?; They come here often, isn't it? (7) There is a preference for also over too and as well: But we are supposed to learn Chinese also. (8) There are various informal ways of checking that someone agrees or disagrees, or can or cannot do something. Yes or not? Like it or not? Can or not? Enough or not? Got or not? (9) Chinese particles, such as lah and aa, are a common means of conveying emphasis and emotion, in effect replacing the intonational features of mainstream English: for example, lah as a token of informal intimacy (Can you come tonight?–Can lah/Cannot lah); aa in yes–no questions (You wait me, aa? Will you wait for me?; I come tonight, aa? Should I come tonight?; You think I scared of you, aa?).

Vocabulary

(1) Words borrowed from regional languages: (Malay) makan food, as in Let's have some makan; (Hokkien Chinese) ang pow a gift of money, traditionally in a red packet (the meaning of the Hokkien words). (2) Non-English interjections include: ay yaah! suggesting exasperation; ay yōr! suggesting pain, wonder, or both; ay yēr! indicating a reaction to something unpleasant and perhaps unexpected; che! expressing irritation or regret. (3) Words of English with adapted meanings: send in the sense of ‘take’ (I will send you home); open meaning ‘put on’ (Open the light); take suggesting ‘eat, drink, like’ (Do you take hot food? Do you like spicy food?); off and on as verbs (to off/on the light); off as a noun, for time off (We had our offs changed to Thursdays). (4) Reduplicating of a word so as to intensify or emphasize a point: I like hot-hot curries; Do you speak English?—Broken-broken. (5) Formal and informal registers are less marked off from one another than in BrE, with the result that the highly colloquial and highly formal may co-occur: her deceased hubby rather than her dead husband. See CHINA, MALAYSIAN ENGLISH, PHILIPPINE ENGLISH.


© Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language 1998, originally published by Oxford University Press 1998.