Do you know “Shinglish”?

Hello, I’m Tatsuya.

Yesterday, I posted an article about Shinglish in Japanese.

Today, I will introduce same things in English.

Please browse シンガポール英語って知ってる？マニアックな英語”Shinglish”if you haven’t done yet.

1. Outline

Singlish is one of the English spoken in Singapore.

Singlish has a strong accent. Especially, Singlish is English which Singaporean speaks in their daily lives.

In Singapore, national language is Malay, official language English (British English) Chinese, Tamil.

But, only each ethnic groups can speak each languages, so English is used in daily lives to communicate with another ethnic groups.

English is also used in parliamentary debate and the sentence which the government issue, but English is not natinal language.

2. Features

・put the suffix “lah” “leh” ub a sentence to emphasis

・put the suffix “meh” in interrogative sentence

・put the suffix “right?” instead of “don’t you?” “didn’t he?” in tag question

・omit a subject and Be verb

・Instead of the past tense, a change of state can be expressed by adding “already” or “liao” to the end of the sentence

A suffix is very important for Shinglish.

・a word is pronounced shortly

・final consonant is extremely weak, or not pronounced

・“th” and “t” are pronounced the same

⇒substantially silent

・repeat a word to emphasis

Many people say “can”. This word is very convenient, because they are able to use “can” in various situation.

・Postfix “ma” “me” in an interrogative sentence
You already buy ma?
⇒Have you brought it already?

・The expression of omitted English sentences

Singlish ignores English grammar. There are many shortened expression.

They are very simple. There are only words which explain minimum information.

3. History

Singlish first emerged when Singapore gained independence 50 years ago, and decided that English should be common language for all its different races.

Standard Singapore English began to evolve among the working classes who learned English without schooling.

English was the language of administration, which the British used. After Singapore’s independence in 1965, and successive “Speak Mandarin” campaigns, a subtle language among the post-1965 generation became more and more evident as Malay idiomatic expression were, and continued to be displaced by words borrowed from Chinese spoken varieties such as Hokkien.

Hokkien is a Southern Min language originating from the Minnan region in the south-eastern part of Fujian Province in Southeastern China, and spoken widely there.

It is also spoken widely in Taiwan and by the Chinese diaspora in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippinesand other parts of Southeast Asia, and by other overseas Chinese all over the world. It is the mainstream form of Southern Min.

4. Finally

Thank you for reading. I will post various English all over the world.

I want you to learn these English other than British English and American English.

Call it a day.