National Identity Vs. International Intelligibility: A Preliminary Discourse on Singapore English
by Like the United States of America, Singapore is a multiracial, multilingual, and multicultural society. Like in the United States, English in Singapore is a political issue, but unlike in the United States, English in Singapore is one of its four official languages, but not its national language. In Singapore, there are two kinds of Englishes: the Standard Singapore English and the Colloquial Singapore English or Singapore English or Singlish.
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).
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