Singapore English, according to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, is a dialect of the English language with Creole-like characteristics spoken colloquially in Singapore. Also called Singlish, it formally takes after the British English in spelling and in abbreviations, although naming convention are mixtures of the British English and the American English. According to Dr. Debra Ziegeler, Singapore English is a variety with second language origins but now spoken as a first language by the present generation, is a dialect of considerable importance in the South-East Asian region, in particular in the areas of trade, commerce, and education. Of course, Professor Ziegeler underscored the existence of the Malaysian English and the Philippine English.

As regards to Englishes of the Inner Circle, English as a Native Language, vs. Englishes of the Outer Circle, English as a Second Language, vs. Englishes of the Expanding Circles, English as a Foreign Language, Prof. Braj Kachru of the University of Illinois places Singapore English in the Outer Circle along with India, China, Kenya, Zamba, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Bangladesh, and the Philippines (Pakir, Yoneaka).

In this circle, according to Anne Pakir in “Review of Language, Society, and Education in Singapore,” English is continually expanding, serving wider and deeper function, and used increasingly for international communication. Though it offers additional rules and conventions in the bilingual and multilingual repertoire, writers and speakers comfortably use it like their mother tongues. In addition, traditional literary and language canons are no longer dominant, though still relevant, because it has become rooted and indigenized.

According to Kachru, a new variety of English come into existence when it is institutionalized and granted legal and official status. On the other hand, Prof. Anthea Fraser Gupta of the University of Leeds said that Singapore English is indeed a new variety because it is not deficient but different, is imperfectly learned and its features are its errors, and is a dialect of English best understood in its own terms, which means that, it must be analyzed in its own system considering its similarities with the British English and the American English.

BACKGROUND

Singapore is a country with complicated history of colonization, modernization, and hybrid ethnic and national identities (Schroeder). It is comprised of one main island and fifty adjacent islands off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It became an independent state in 1965 and its constitution was drafted in 1959, adopted in 1963, and amended in 1965. It is a densely populated country with most of its peoples concentrated in the south central portion where the main seaport and the financial and commercial district are located (English Only Foundation).

Singaporeans are primarily composed of three races: Malays, Indians, and Chinese, which are assumed natural ethnic groups that would continue to inhabit Singapore in the indefinite future. With the ideology of “unity through diversity,” Singapore is represented by the co-existence of its four official languages: Tamil, Malay, English, and Mandarin. Malay is the national language while English is the language of business, education, administration, communication, international relations, among others. Other minority languages included Indian dialects, such as Hindi, Telugu, Bengali, Punjabi, and Malayalam; and Chinese dialects, such as Hakka, Hokkien, Foochow, Teochew, Cantonese, and Hainanese (English Only Foundation).

Regarding the issue of national identity, Singaporean government officials rejected the “melting pot” ideology and propagated the social, cultural, political, and educational framework of

multilingualism and multiculturalism allowing ethnic communities to preserve their cultural heritage through religion, language, and other cultural elements (The Management of Multilingual and Multicultural Communities in Singapore) and to participate in military service, public housing, electoral politics, public education, and ceremonies of citizenship (English Only Foundation).

In her article “Singapore Colloquial English,” Professor Gupta said that the history of Singapore English began when Sir Stamford Raffles colonized Singapore in 1819 for the East India Company with the intention of building a modern seaport for the British Empire. Singapore, at that time, Professor Gupta said, was already a crossroad of commerce from India to East Asia, not to mention the strong Thai and Indian rule and influence in the Malay Peninsula that had a series of Malay sultanate, which were largely Muslim, but with distinctive customs and traditions that reflected centuries of cooperation with other countries.

Over the Nineteenth Century, Gupta added, the East India Company extended its influence in the Malay Peninsula and the Indian Sub-continent, including the Philippines, until the British colonial government took over Singapore and other countries. Singapore, with Penang and Mallaca, was ruled from Calcutta, the capital of British India, and later from London, the capital of England. During the pre-colonial period, the Malays were the largest ethnic group, but because the British encouraged immigration, Singapore’s population grew massively. While most immigrants came from other British colonies like India and Ceylon and from nearby countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, the largest group of immigrants came from southern China. Today, according to the English Only Foundation, Inc., Singaporeans are approximately 76.4 percent Chinese, 14.9 percent Malays, 6.4 percent Indians, and 2.3 percent Jews, Arabs, Japanese, and Europeans.

According to Professor Gupta, Singapore English has its origin in schools of colonial Singapore. In the Nineteenth Century, few children went to school and even fewer were educated in English. Singapore’s lingua franca then was a pidginize variety of the Malay language called Bazaar Malay or Pasar Melayu, which older Singaporeans are still using. The peoples who spoke English and sent their children to schools that used English as language of instruction were Eurasians, Europeans, some Jews, Indians, and Ceylonese, and some Chinese who spoke a variety of the Malay language called Baba Malay, which was influenced by Bazaar Malay and Hokkien Chinese. It is interesting to mention that all of these children would have learned Bazaar Malay or Pasar Melayu that explains why most loan words in Singapore English are from the Malay language. During that time, the largest group of English language teachers was Eurasians while others came from India and Ceylon. European teachers came from Britain, France, Ireland, Belgium, and the United States. Consequently, children were exposed to native and non-native varieties of English.

In the early Twentieth Century, English became the most popular language of instruction. By 1950s, almost all children went to school and majority of them were educated in English. By 1980s, English became the primary language of instruction and Singapore English grew rapidly out of the English spoken in playgrounds of children of various linguistic origins and eventually became spoken along other languages (Gupta).

Before long, Singapore English filtered out of schools and onto streets to be learned by non-English speakers in a pidgin-like form of oral communication. After some time, this new variety of English, now loaded with substantial influences from Baba Malay, Indian English, and southern varieties of Chinese, began to learned “natively” in its own right. Creolization occurred and Singapore English became stabilized, fully formed, and independent English Creole-like dialect (Wikipedia Encyclopedia).

Today, being Singaporean means being fluent in English, a language that serves as neutral language of communication for Malays, Indians, and Chinese. Schools, government offices, and international corporations used English as language of instruction and communication. Tamil, Malay, English, or Mandarin may be used in Courts and in the Parliament, but proceedings are recorded in English alone. A typical Singaporean is bilingual, if not multilingual, speaking English and his mother tongue, the language of his ethnic origin and cultural heritage, which may be Malay, Tamil, or Chinese or any of the six Indian dialects (English Only Foundation).

Through the years, Singaporeans developed their own form of spoken and written English. Singapore English differs from British English and American English in quality, rhythm, intonation, word order, vowel length, and stress patterns. It has taken some features of the Chinese language and has some distinctive particles like á, lé, lah, among others (English Only Foundation).

Like other dialects and languages, Singapore English is best thought of as a continuum. In Singapore English’s case, the continuum runs through the following sub-varieties:

Acrolectal Singapore English: The “high-class” Singapore English used by educated in formal situations. It is basically identical to Standard British English except for its “toned-down” version of pronunciation.

Mesolectal Singapore English: The “middle-class” Singapore English used by educated in formal and in semi-formal situations. At this level, lexical, grammatical, and phonological features not found in other varieties of English begin to emerge.

Basilectal Singapore English: The “street” Singapore English used by everyone, educated or not, in informal situations. Unique lexical, grammatical, and phonological features are found, but not in other varieties.

Pidgin Singapore English: The “pidgin” level is a representative of the early stage of Singapore English, which is before Creolization, codification or solidification as a Creole-like dialect. Like all pidgins, Singaporeans speak another language as their first language and speaks Singapore English as their second language. However, since many Singaporeans learn Singapore English natively, the number of speakers at the “pidgin” level is already dwindling. (This is of course, by definition, a pidgin is not learned natively.)

PHONOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS

VOWELS

The vowel system of Singapore English can be directly derived by merging vowel phonemes in the British Received Pronunciation vowel system. Some speakers may further merge /e/ and /ɛ/; other speakers make a distinction between /i/ and /ɪ/, /ɑ/ and /ʌ/, /ɛ/ or /ɛə/.

At the acrolectal level, there is some effort to “un-merge” the merged vowel phonemes, and to introduce elements from American English, such as rhotic vowels, pronouncing the r in bird, port, among others.

The two words with idiosyncratic pronunciations are flour /flɑ/ and flower /flɑ wə/ and their /djɑ/ and there /dɛ/. Flour/flower and their/there are therefore not homophones in Singapore English.

In general, Singapore English vowels are tenser and “purer”-there are no lax vowels (which RP has in pit, put, and so forth), and even the diphthongs are pronounced with less “glide” than the diphthongs in RP. Note that the vowels of day and low are pronounced as monophthongs-i.e. vowels with no glide.

In addition, where other varieties of English have an unstressed /ə/, reduced from another vowel, such as in accept, example, and so on, Singapore English tends to restore the full vowel. This is because Singapore English de-emphasizes the role of stress

In loanwords from Hokkien that contain nasalized vowels, the nasalization is often kept – one prominent example being the mood particle hor, pronounced as /hɔ~/-somewhat (but not quite) like the vowel in French dent.

CONSONANTS

Singapore English pronunciation, while built on a base of British English, is also heavily influenced by Malay and Chinese. According to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, the following are the general characteristics of the consonant system of Singapore English.

The unvoiced stops and affricate-/t/, /p/, /k/, /tʃ/ chin-are sometimes unaspirated especially at the basilectal level. In other varieties of English, these phonemes are usually aspirated especially at the beginning of a word. The general effect of this is that, Singapore English pronunciation of tin, pat, and come may sometimes seem closer to din, bat, and gum than other varieties of English.

The voiced fricatives-/v/, /z/, /ʒ/ vision-are unstable at the basilectal level, and may be substituted with other phonemes, e.g. bery for very, gero for zero. In syllable-final positions they merge with their unvoiced counterparts-see point 6 below.

The dental fricatives-/θ/ thin and /ð/ then-merge into /t/ and /d/, but the distinction is restored in acrolectal speech.

The distinction between /l/ and /r/ is not stable at the basilectal level, as evinced by TV personality Phua Chu Kang’s oft-repeated refrain to “Use your blain!”

/l/ is lost after /ɔ/, /o/, /u/, and for some basilectal speakers, /ə/. Hence, roll is row, pall is paw, tool is two, and for some, pearl is per.

[ʔ], the glottal stop, is inserted at the beginning of all words starting with a vowel. As a result, final consonants do not run onto the next word. For example, “run out of energy” would be “run-nout-tof-venergy” in most dialects of English, but “run “out “of “energy” in Singapore English.

[ʔ] also replaces final consonants of syllables in regular-speed speech, especially stops: Goodwood Park becomes Gu”-wu’ Pa’. The plural -s in particular is almost always omitted, since Chinese does not distinguish between single and plural nouns.

In slower speech, final consonants are pronounced fully (though stops are not released, like American English -t and -d). However, voicing distinction-that is /b/ and /p/, /t/ and /d/, among others-are usually not kept in final consonants. This affects fricatives more than stops. As a result, peace is peas, let is led, and so forth.

Final consonant clusters simplify, especially fast speech. In general, stops, especially /t/ and /d/, are lost if they come after another consonant: act is ack, bent is Ben, and nest is Ness.

INTONATION PATTERNS

One of the most noticeable and prominent and features of Singapore English is its unique intonation pattern, which is quite unlike British or American English. For example:

Singapore English is syllable-timed compared to other varieties of English, which are mostly stress-timed. This in turn gives Singapore English a staccato and very rhythmic feel.

Pitch contours are more distinct and well-defined in Singapore English than in other varieties of English. This makes Singapore English sound somewhat like Chinese, a tonal language. For example, words ending on a stop consonant, like pet and map, often have a sharp fall in pitch, whereas other words, like say or time, often have a high, flat tone that would seem unusual for most other varieties of English.

As a corollary to the previous point, the final syllable of each phrase is elongated and given a higher pitch: Lis-sen! You can hear the du-rian drop-ping!

In most varieties of English, changing the tone of a word cannot alter its basic meaning. For example, tan is tan no matter what pitch it is in.

In all varieties of Chinese, changing the tone of a word can change it into another word. For example, tán means discuss, but tàn means carbon.

Singapore English is somewhat between the above two situations. In Singapore English there are, in general, no words that differ solely on the basis of tone, except for improvised loanwords that sometimes occur in conversations between people who also speak a tonal language. On the other hand, established loanwords from tonal languages, as well as mood particles, must be pronounced with a specific tone pattern. For example:

Kiasu, which means afraid to lose, must be pronounced with a mid-level tone on the first syllable and a high-level tone on the second.

Pai-seh, which means embarrassed, must be pronounced with a rising tone on the first syllable and a low-level tone on the second.

Siao, which means crazy, must be pronounced with a falling tone.

What, when used as a sentence-final mood particle expressing assertiveness, must be pronounced with a low-level tone.

This does not apply originally to English words or to loan words from non-tonal languages like Malay or Tamil.

SEMANTIC INNOVATIONS

Singapore English is primarily influenced by British English and increasingly influenced by American English. It uses loan words borrowed from Malay and from Hokkien, the dialect of more than 50 percent Chinese in Singapore.

The following list is excerpted from the Ah Beng’s Guide to Singlish, which is available online at

A

Again? Say Again? — I beg your pardon.

Ah Beng – a no-nonsense simpleton stereotype that usually wears anything with bright-neon-colors like car, hair, phone, among others. Available only in Singapore. See also Ah Lian, Obiang, and Phua Chu Kang Pte. Ltd.

Ah Kow — Ah Beng’s protege.

Ah Lian — Ah Beng’s girl friend, most likely not an SPG.

Air — see Ayer.

Airflown – has been imported quickly and is therefore fresh. This word is very common in Singaporean Restaurant and Supermarket.

Alamak – Surprised. Alamak! What are you doing here-lah?

Ang Moh — The literal meaning of this Chinese phrase is red hair. It is used to refer any white foreigner.

Also — tends to occur in one of two positions. It may occur to qualify the subject. I also don’t know. It may occur at the end of the sentence to qualify some other element in the sentence. He sells cars also.

Ayer — Water.

Ayio! — exclamation sound.

B

Bahtaks — Horas! This is not the ethnic who live around Lake Toba in North Sumatera, but buttocks.

BGR — Boy Girl Relationship.

Blarder — Brother.

Blank — see blur.

Blur — confused. It is used ad not a verb, but an adjective.

Bodoh — stupid.

Buaya — related to chewing-up, swallowing the opposition.

C

CBD — Central Beesneess District, a very clean and protected area that includes Orchard Road.

Chin-chye — do not worry about the details. Chin-chye lah!

Chop — official stamp.

CMPB — Central Manpower Base.

Confirmed — approved.

D

Deir — their.

Dey — they.

Dun — do not. I dun noe

F

Friend — can be used as a verb. I won’t friend you any more.

G

GEB — General Equipment Base

Goblock — Stupid

Got — Have you got a pen? — Got, lah!

H

Handicap — can mean a person who is handicapped: a blind or a crippled

Hawker — people who sell food at government built hawker centres.

HDB — (Hedg-De-Be) acronym of Housing and Devalopment Board, a place where most Singaporeans stay at night.

Helicopter – soldier, Chinese-educated

I

IC — In Charge

J

Jeero — Zero

K

Kaypoh – a busybody, a nosy parker.

Kena — catched into trouble.

Kiasu — (pronounced Key-a-soo). Goes to sometimes extreme lengths to make sure that they do not miss our on something.

L

-lah — a very common hang loose suffix. Easy lah! Chin-Chye lah!

Lelong — Sale or auction.

Lobang – opening, opportunity, especially where jobs are concerned. The literal meaning in Malay is hole.

Lost — see blur.

M

Mat Saleh — It is used to refer any white foreigner.

Mata — Police.

Mee Bandung — A type of noodle dish, not related with Bandung at all. Well, like in Bandung itself, there is a noodle dish called Bakso Malang.

N

Nasi Padang — A mixed Malay meal, not related with Padang at all.

Nett – final price, no bargain.

noe — know. I noe this guy.

NS — National Service.

NUS – (pronounced “news,” “noose,” or “en new es”) acronym of National University of Singapore

O

Obiang – a predecessor of Ah Beng (from the 1980s).

P

Phua Chu Kang Pte. Ltd. — an Ah Beng’s TV sitcom at TCS Channel 5. Not so easy to understand, if you do not know Singapore.

(don’t) play-play — be serious, do not fool around (also don’t pray-pray).

PT — Physical Training

PTI — Physical Training Instructure

ppl — people.

R

RPL — Ramp Powered Launch

S

SAF — Singapore Armed Force

schooling — education

Slippers — Bathroom sandals

slow-slow! — be slow!

Squat-toilet — the real toilet

Sotong — blur person.

SPG — Sarong Party Girl, somehow related to Mat Saleh

T

This – Yet, an overused word. Starting this story with: “There was this Ah Beng …”

U

Ulu — very remote. Bukit Gombak is so ulu, lah!

V

void deck – the ground floor of an HDB that is either a shop or an apartment

W

Where got? — That is impossible. Where got meaning?

Wo jiw jing-jing — I will then be quite

Z

Zar boh — Woman.

GRAMMATICAL INNOVATION

The grammar of Singapore English has been heavily influenced by other dialects and languages in the region, such as Malay, Indian, and Chinese. As a result, Singapore English has acquired some very unique features, especially at the basilectal level.

NEGATION

Negation works in general like English, with not added after “to be,” “to have,” or modals, and do not before all other verbs. Contractions (can’t, shouldn’t) are used alongside their uncontracted forms.

However, because of final cluster simplification, the -t drops out from negative forms. This effectively makes -n the negative marker on modals:

I dun want.

An especially unique effect of this is that in the verb “can”, its positive and negative forms are distinguished only by vowel:

I can /kɛn/ do this lah.

I can’t /kɑn/ do this lah.

Also, never is used as a negative past tense marker and does not have to carry the English meaning. In this construction, the negated verb is never put into the past-tense form:

How come today you never (didn’t) hand in homework?

How come he never (didn’t) pay?

NOUNS

Nouns are optionally marked for plurality. In general, a noun that is used to refer to a general category is not marked for the plural, and does not take any articles:

He can play piano.

I like to read storybook.

Your computer got virus one, is it? (Is it that your computer has viruses?)

It is more common to mark the plural in the presence of a modifier that implies plurality, such as “both” and “several”.

PARTICLES

Particles in Singapore English are highly comparable to Chinese. They are generally used to express grammatical mood. :

ALREADY

Already is used to express a change in state, and is analogous to Chinese le:

He throw it already.

Aiya, I cannot wait any more, must go already.

AR

Ar, with a rising tone, is inserted between topic and comment often to give a negative tone, or at the end of a question for added brusqueness.

How come like that one, ar?

This boy ar, always so naughty one!

CAN

Can is used extensively as a question particle and an answer particle. The negative is cannot.

Go home lah, can? Just go home, Okey?

(Responding to: Can I have a sweet, too?) Can!

(Responding to: Can you come tomorrow?) Cannot.

HOR

Hor, with a rising nasalized tone, is used to draw the listener’s consent or attention or both:

This shopping center also very nice hor.

Then hor, another person came out of the house.

GOT

Got is used to mean there is or there are:

Got question? Do you have a question?

Where got!? (Generic response to any accusation.)

Yesterday ar, East Coast Park got so many people one!

This bus got air-con or not? Is there air-conditioning on this bus?

IS IT

Is it is used to form yes-no questions, generic like the French n’est-ce pas?, regardless of the actual verb in the sentence. Is it implies that the speaker has inferred from some other evidence that the answer is Yes, but needs it confirmed:

They never study, is it? (No wonder they fail!)

You don’t like that, is it? (No wonder you had that face!)

LAH

Lah, with a high-flat or low-falling tone, is used at the end of a sentence for emphasis. In Malay it is used to make a verb into a command. To drink is minuman, but drink! is minumlah. Hence a Singaporean would say

Drink, lah!

Lah is often used with short, brusque, negative responses:

Dun have, lah! (Brusque response to “Lend me some money, can?”)

You dun know one, lah! (Brusque response to someone fumbling with an explanation.)

Lah is also used for reassurance:

It’s okay lah.

Dun worry, he can one lah. Don’t worry, he can [do it].

This is not to be confused with la, short for lad, which is found in the Scouse dialect spoken in Liverpool, England

LEH

Leh, with a high-flat tone, is used to assert a claim, request, command, or complaint:

Give me leh!

How come you don’t give me leh?

LIAO

Liao, with a low falling tone, is similar to already

• Aiya, I cannot wait any more, must go liao.

LIDDAT

Lidlat, which mean like that, is used to emphasize descriptions by adding vividness and continuousness:

He so stupid liddat. – He’s pretty stupid, you know.

He acting like a little kid liddat. – He’s really acting like a little kid, see?

Like that can also be used as in British English or American English:

Why he acting liddat?

LOR

Lor, with a high-flat tone, is a casual word and sometimes joking way to assert upon the listener either direct observations or obvious inferences. This may also seem condescending if over-used:

If you don’t do the work, then you die-die lor!

MAH

Mah, with a high-flat tone, is used to assert that something is final and obvious, and is usually used only with statements that are already patently true. This may seem condescending to the listener:

But he very good at sports, that’s why can play soccer mah!

MEH

Meh, with high-flat tone, is also used to form yes-no questions, but with a decidedly different tone. The speaker implies that he had expected the answer to the question to be no, but has been surprised by new evidence that points the other way:

They never study meh? (I thought they do?)

You don’t like that meh? (I thought you do?)

ONE

One, with a falling or high-flat tone, is used to emphasize the predicate of the sentence by implying that it is in a continuous, habitual state. It can be compared to a similar use of de in southern Chinese. One, used in this way, does not correspond to any use of the word one in British English or American English:

Walau! So stupid one! – He’s so stupid!

He never go to school one. – He doesn’t go to school (unlike other people).

I do everything by habit one. – I always do everything by habit, unlike someone else, or unlike the listener’s expectations.

OR NOT

In a construction similar, but not identical, to Chinese, or not is used to form yes-no questions. Unlike is it or meh, or not carries no connotations of either yes or no. Or not cannot be used with sentences already in the negative:

Can or not?

This book you want or not?

WHAT

What, with a low-flat tone, is used to remind or contradict the listener, often in order to explain some other point the speaker has:

But he very good at sports what, that’s why can play soccer so well. (In response to How come he can play soccer? or I thought he can’t play soccer one?)

PAST TENSE

Past tense marking is optional in Singapore English. Marking of the past tense occurs most consistently in irregular verbs and verbs ending in -t and -d, such as:

He accepted in the end.

I went to Orchard Road yesterday.

Due to consonant cluster simplification, past tense is unmarked when it is part of a complex consonant cluster:

He talk for so long, never stop, not even when I ask him.

The past tense tends to be unmarked if the verb in question goes on for an extended period, rather than as an isolated event (compare French imperfect):

When I was young, ar, I go to school every day.

When he was in school, he always get good marks one.

Last night I mug so much, so sian already. (Sian is bored or tired. Mug is cram for an examination.)

REPETITION OF VERBS

Another feature strongly reminiscent of Chinese, verbs are often repeated. For example: TV personality Phua Chu Kang’s “don’t pray-pray!” Pray means play.

In general verbs are repeated to imply repetition, vividness, and a sense of “wandering around”:

They talk talk so much, never do work one.

So what I do was, I sit down and I think think think, until I get answer lor.

I look and look, also cannot find. (here, look and look is pronounced very fast, in a continuous string.)

TO BE

The copula, which is the verb “to be” in most varieties of English, is treated somewhat differently in Singapore English.

When occurring with an adjective, “to be” tends to drop out, and is often replaced by an adverb, such as “very”. This is strongly reminiscent of Chinese usage:

This house very nice.

That car not worth the money.

When occurring with “-ing” to form the continuous aspect, “to be” may similarly drop out, leaving the “-ing” form as the independent continuous form:

You looking for trouble, is it?

How come so late in the night you still playing music, ar?

Slightly less common is the dropping out of “to be” when used as an equative between two nouns, or as a locative:

His house in Ang Mo Kio.

This boy the class monitor. (class president)

In general, “to be” drops out more behind nouns and pronouns (except “I”, “he”, and “she”), and much less behind a clause (what I think is…) or a demonstrative (this is…).

TOPIC PROMINENT

Like Chinese, Singapore English is topic-prominent language, which means that Singapore English sentences are usually constructed by first putting down a topic, a known reference of the conversation, followed by a comment, new information. The semantic relationship between the topic and the comment is not important:

This country got very little land, one.

That person there cannot trust. That person there cannot be trusted.

Singapore English also can. In response to, Let’s talk in Singapore English lah.

This question so easy one, also cannot do! This question is so easy, why can’t you do it?

The sentence constructions above can be translated analogously into Chinese or Japanese, which are topic-prominent languages.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

Peter Tan Kok Wan in “Make English Our Own” published by The Straits Time Interactive on November 10, 1998 said that the term “Singlish” is problematic because it has negative connotations and it can mean different things to different peoples. Wan suggested that Singaporeans drop Singlish and adopt Singapore English like British English, American English, Australian English, among others.

On the other hand, Jonathan Schoeder, a Fulbright scholar in English literature who worked as a research assistant with several professors and who read writings and critical works in Singaporean literature at the National University of Singapore said that: “Although English has been the language of instruction in Singapore for nearly thirty years because the institution of English as a national language is a fairly recent phenomenon, people’s English away from the classroom is not very pure.”

Analyzing various works by Singaporean poets and writers, Schoeder discovered “how these works negotiate the tremendous difficulty of establishing a style and a voice where no written equivalent existed before.” Specifically, Schoeder found out that the inability of Singaporeans to create national identity may be characterized with the concept of amnesia, which is parallel to the process of destruction and reconstruction of Singapore and its body of literature that has struggled through times of colonization, modernization, and hybrid cultural identities bridging the East and the West.

PEDAGOGICAL ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

Unlike Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Cambodia where English is a foreign language, English in Singapore, like Malaysia, the Philippines, and Brunei Darussalam, is a second language, and significantly, is associated strongly with its colonial past (Ho).

In Singapore, children learn English from a very early age, even before attending primary school. At the primary school stage, children learn and utilize English and their mother tongues. English is the language of instruction for all academic subjects, except their mother tongue and moral education, in all schools, colleges, and universities (Ho).

In 1991, Singapore introduced a revised English curriculum that represents a breakaway from the old structural prescriptive curriculum implemented primarily in teaching and in learning English grammar. The revised curriculum allows teachers to use different teaching strategies, approaches, and methodologies to meet the needs of their pupils and students and encourages a more holistic or integrated view of language that emphasize the integration of the four language skills-reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The philosophy of the revised curriculum may be represented in a number of key words: fluency, accuracy, integration, interaction, and contextualization (Ho).

It is important to mention that the implementation of the revised curriculum was preceded by the Reading and English Acquisition Project where new strategies, approaches, and methodologies in teaching and in learning the language were tried and tested in primary schools. Later, when the curriculum was revised, some of these strategies, approaches, and methodologies were used in school-based in-service training for teachers. This sequence of project development, project evaluation, school-based in-service training, and revised curriculum implementation is an important feature of language curriculum planning and development in the country (Ho).

Results of the International Evaluation of Education Achievement project on reading literacy conducted in 31 countries in 1991 shows that Singaporean pupils and student’s level of achievement of literacy in English is compared with those of Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States where English is their native language (Ho).

SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

In 1942, after the Fall of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, Wang Gungwu, and Lim Thean Soo understood the necessity of making a Malayan eloquence and the necessity to articulate an ideology that would unite and embrace different ethnic minorities into one nation, one destiny. Consequently, they chose to articulate their ideologies in English, though it was the colonial master’s tongue, because it does not carry racial connotation like other ethnic languages, at least not in the socio-political context of the Singapore (Cheong).

For Lee Kuan Yew, English crosses pluralistic boundaries and remains one of the least ambiguous legacies of the British Empire (Cheong). Knowing that Singapore English is a “bad English” or a “broken English” or a “low prestige dialect” (Richardson), he emphasized that “if Singapore is to continue as a successful international center for trade and finance, English, the international language, should be learned at schools (The Language: Singaporean English).”

Decades later, Lee Kuan Yew affirmed the role of the English language in the modernization of Singapore in the October 16, 1999 issue of Singapore, Inc. He said that it was accidental that the British left behind the legacy of the English language and that they decided to stay with the English language though Malaysia decided to return to their mother tongue. This decision has turned out to be an immense advantage for building the nation, its own brand name, and its professional disciplines, such as law, engineering, accountancy, among others (The Management of Multilingual and Multicultural Communities in Singapore).

The dominant role of the English language in rearing educated leaders through various educational projects and programs led to the foundation of a linguistically empowered society that wields on social, political, and economic stability. Failure to learn and to master the English language in school and the prevalent use of Singapore English had led to a “neutered pidgin” language variety. Though Singapore English is a witty, colorful, inventive, charming, and a mildly romantic language, Singaporean government officials argue that “neutered pidgin” retards progress as it is a form of linguistic inbreeding.

In an article published in Singaporean daily newspapers on April 29, 2000, a copy of which I retrieved on the Internet, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong urged Singaporeans to speak Standard English and to give up the popular but corrupted Singapore English. Prime Minister Goh argued that “If we speak corrupted form of English that is not understood by others, we will lose our key competitive advantage. My concern is that if we continue to speak Singapore English, it will over time, become Singapore’s common language” (PM Goh calls on citizens to do away with Singlish).

Singapore English, Goh explained, used Chinese syntax and literal translation of Chinese phrases that resulted in sentences that are “truncated and ungrammatical and often incomprehensible especially to foreigners.” Goh said that he was impressed with the “elegant English” of his Zimbabwean golf caddy, who, after a game asked him: “Would you have some balls to spare me?” and that Goh gave him his entire used and unused golf ball. “In Singapore English,” Goh said “it would be “Got old balls give me can or not?”” (PM Goh calls on citizens to do away with Singlish).

In 2002, Singaporean government officials unintentionally made cinematic history when they slapped Talking Cock: The Movie with an NC-17 rating, meaning children under 17-years-old cannot watch it, because of awful grammar and not because of sex, violence, or profanity. In “Letter from Singapore: A War of Words Over Singlish” published by Time Magazine on July 29, 2002, a copy of which, again, I retrieved in the Internet, one Singaporean argued that despite the wicked title, the movie is nothing but an inoffensive slapstick comedy chronicling the lives of ordinary Singaporeans. Government officials also banned the 15-second television advertisement endorsing and promoting the movie because of excessive use of Singapore English.

For Singaporeans, Singapore English is a witty, colorful, inventive, charming, and a mildly romantic language, and though Goh said that “Poor English reflects badly on us and makes us seem less intelligent or competent,” others argued that Singapore English is crude because it is rooted in the country’s unglamorous past. They asserted that Singapore is a nation built from the sweat of uncultured immigrants who “bust their assess in the boisterous port” and that Singapore English grew out of the hardships of their ancestors and is an important component in the unique melting pot that is Singapore, a city where skyscrapers outclass lowly boats, a city where locals peddle steaming pig intestines beside restaurants that serves delectable cuisine.

In the interest of promoting equality and better communication with the rest of the world (Wikipedia Encyclopedia) and the desire to achieve a balance between national identity and international intelligibility, Singaporean government officials launched the Speak Good English Movement to promote Standard Singaporean English and to eradicate Singapore English or Colloquial Singapore English, at least from formal situations (Wikipedia Encyclopedia and National University of Singapore). However, linguists and sociologists debate whether English must be used as a paradigm of homogeneity for national identity or international intelligibility (The Management of Multilingual and Multicultural Communities in Singapore)? In conclusion, Prof. David Cystal pointed out that the need for national identity and international intelligibility often pulls people and countries in opposing directions. The former motivated the promotion of an ethnic culture and language while the latter motivates the learning of English as a second and international language necessary for international trade and understanding.

To speak Singlish or not to speak Singlish? That is the question, and Singaporeans must answer.