Singlish

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Singlish

Spoken in

Singapore
speaker No information
(Note: in 2000, over 23% of the population used English as their main language. Singapore has around 5.6 million inhabitants.)
Linguistic
classification

English -based Creole language

  • Singlish
Official status
Official language in no

Singlish is a variant of the English language spoken in Singapore that is generally considered an English-based Creole language . Singlish is a suitcase word composed of SING aporian Eng LISH (Singaporean English). Singlish is a colloquial language used by large parts of the population of Singapore, its pronunciation and vocabulary being influenced by the languages ​​spoken in Singapore. In research, Singlish is also referred to as Colloquial Singapore English .

Singles have influences from both British and American English and the three other official languages Malay , Mandarin and Tamil . There are also borrowings from the Chinese dialect Hokkien and local dialects such as Bengali and Cantonese . The grammar and usage of some words and phrases are somewhat different from other varieties of English, and pronunciation is significantly influenced by Chinese and Malay . Direct communication between an English speaker and a Singlish speaker is sometimes difficult, but mostly possible.

Singlish is different from the more prestigious Singapore Standard English spoken in the media and government institutions, which is closer to variants of English such as American or British English . There is intense debate in Singapore about the use of the Singlish in everyday life and in educational institutions. Many Singaporeans, and the Singapore government in particular, consider Singlish to be a corrupt variant of English and it is not advisable to use it; on the other hand, Singlish is increasingly spreading as the first language among the population in Singapore and is also the subject of linguistic research.

history

In the British crown colony of Singapore (1867–1963), English was a minority language for a small elite and was only used in public offices. In addition to this standard version of English for offices and public functions also a colloquial variant as developed lingua franca was used a mixture of English and other languages, a common language to ensure the understanding between the different language communities in Singapore. This colloquial variant was also spoken in public English-speaking schools by students of different ethnicities, whereby they were more likely to communicate with it during breaks than in formal lessons. From this Singlish developed.

After independence from Great Britain in 1963 and the interim federation with Malaysia in 1965 , the government promoted English, also in order to develop the economy of the resource-poor country and to orientate it internationally. The number of English speakers grew compared to the other languages ​​and with it the number of single speakers in the private sector.

Quadrilingual warning notice in Singapore in the official languages English , Chinese , Tamil and Malay

Although Singlish is playing an increasing role as a slang language in Singapore society, it has no official recognition. The official languages ​​of Singapore are English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil .

Singlish is outlawed by the Singapore government as a pidgin or idiot language . In April 2000 she started the “Speak Good English Movement” (SGEM), which promotes the maintenance of grammatically clean English that would be understood by the general public and tourists. Regardless of this, Singlish is popular in everyday life and creates identity for many Singpurer. From the 1990s , it conquered music, film and television. It is also enjoying increasing external recognition, with 27 Singlish words already being added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2017 .

Singlish is very similar to Manglish , a variant of English in Malaysia that is also influenced by Malay and other Southeast Asian languages.

status

The status of the Singlish is part of a linguistic debate. In some publications Singlish is called a Creole language, in other publications English in Singapore is counted among the variants of English that are spoken as a second language and have undergone a process of indigenization, i.e. have taken on peculiarities of the native languages. In addition to English in Singapore, these languages ​​also include English in West and East Africa , India and the Philippines . The classification is not that easy because the relationship between Standard Singapore English and Singlish needs to be clarified.

One possible approach is to see Singlish on a continuum of Singaporean English with Singapore Standard English at one extreme and a more broken, rudimentary English, a basilect, at the other end . Singlish would be classified between Singapore Standard English and the Basilekt. In linguistics, these variants are called acrolect , mesolect and basilect, which in the case of English in Singapore would look like this:

  • Akrolekt: Singapore Standard English , the prestige variant of English; in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar relatively close to British and American English
  • Mesolect: Colloquial language for many English speakers in Singapore
  • Basilect: the least prestigious variant, strong deviations in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary from the standard, comparable to a Creole language

This is the approach advocated for Singapore by the linguists Platt and Weber, among others. This model has been criticized for a number of reasons. On the one hand, it is said that this model, which comes from research on Creole languages, can be transferred to English in Singapore. It also gives the impression that the use of Singlish depends on the ability, or rather the lack of ability, to speak “correct” standard English, which is not the case in general.

Another approach by Gupta sees the use of Singlish as a question of choice depending on the context: Singaporeans use Singlish as a slang in everyday situations, but are also able to switch to the level of standard English if the situation requires it ( called. code-switching ). In linguistics, this is also circumscribed using the term diglossia . The disadvantage of this approach is that it requires a strict distinction between standard Singapore and Singlish. In fact, however, both influence each other. Also, not all English speakers in Singapore use standard English or Singlish, depending on the context, but a not inconsiderable proportion of Singaporeans - like the government - completely rejects Singlish as a language.

Phonetics and Phonology

The pronunciation of Singlish is mainly characterized by the influence of the Malay and the South Chinese dialect Hokkien on English.

Consonants

If you look at the consonants, you can see a great similarity to British English, but there are differences that are typical for Singapore.

  labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasals m   n     ŋ  
Plosives /
Affricates
Unvoiced p   t   k  
Voiced b   d   ɡ  
Fricatives Unvoiced f (θ) s ʃ     H
Voiced v (ð) z ʒ      
Approximants     l r j w  

Characteristic of the Singlish is the replacement of the interdental sounds [θ] and [ð] in front of vowels in words like thin and then with [t] and [d], so that one hears pronunciations like tin and din . At the end of words, you find [f], so in Singlish we get [brɛf] for breath and [brif] for breathe . Likewise typical in Singlish is the tendency not to pronounce plosives when they appear at the end of a word and follow a consonant, so one rather hears the pronunciation [lɪm] instead of [lɪmp] for limp or [sɛn] instead of [sɛnt] for cent .

From German we know the glottal plosive [ʔ], which appears in words like official ([bɛʔamtə]). This glottal plosive can also be found in Singlish, either as a glottalization of a consonant at the end of a word, or a word ends with the glottal plosive:

tap : [tæp] in Received Pronunciation (RP) of British English, [tɛpˀ] in Singlish
hit : [hɪt] in RP, [hiʔ] in Singlish

Vowels

Singlish has the following vowels:

Simple vowels (monophonic tongs)

  Front Central Back
Closed i (ɪ)   u (ʊ)
Half closed e ə O
Half open ɛ ɔ
Open   a (ʌ)  

Diphthongs

ai ouch ɔi

The vowels i (ɪ) and u (ʊ) are remarkable here . Singlish makes no distinction between strained and relaxed vowels, so words like pull and pool and beat and bit , which are different in British English, have identical pronunciation in Singlish ( homophones ). Singlish also makes no difference between the vowels in pet and pat .

intonation

Standard British English pronunciation (Received Pronunciation, RP) uses an accent-counting speaking rhythm . Singlish is usually spoken in a syllable-counting rhythm, which gives an impression of a staccato or a machine-gun rhythm, a particularly prominent characteristic of the Singlish.

grammar

Singlish has some grammar quirks that differentiate it from British or American English, for example. Some aspects of verbs, articles, questions and negations are described here as examples. The use of reduplications and particles , as they are common in Chinese, is particularly noticeable .

Verbs and nouns

Singlish speakers often omit the suffix - s , which indicates the third person singular in the verb :

British: The teacher shouts a lot.
Singlish: The teacher shout a lot.

Another example is the omission of the definitive article the , which would be found in similar sentences in British English:

I don't have ticket.
She got car or not?

Sentence structure

In Singlish, as in German, a different part of the sentence than the subject can be placed at the beginning of the sentence, which is not possible in standard English. This is often interpreted in research as the possibility of topicalization :

To my sister sometime I speak English.

Furthermore, a Singlish speaker can omit the subject if it is clear from the context ( pro-drop language ):

Always late! (= 'You are always late!')
Must buy for him, otherwise he not happy. (= 'We must buy a present for him ...')

Questions and negations

In Singlish, W questions are often formed as follows:

You go home for what?

It is also possible to add the expression or not to indicate a yes / no question:

The food good or not?
You busy or not?

The question tag isn't it is commonly used as an equivalent for or at the end of sentences, regardless of which subject and verb were used before:

Singlish: He is going to buy a car, isn't it?
British English: He is going to buy a car, isn't he?
German: He's going to buy a car, right?

Reduplication

Another noticeable feature of the Singlish is the reduplication of syllables. In the following examples, the reduplication is used to express close connection and intimacy:

Where is your boy-boy? (Eng. 'Where is your boyfriend / son?')
We buddy-buddy. (Eng. 'We are close (male) friends.')

Particles

The particle la for reinforcement in a beverage advertisement

Singlish has a large number of particles such as lah , ma , wat or meh which, when attached to utterances, convey additional meanings, which is mainly due to the influence of Chinese. The particles ma , wat and lor, for example, indicate when something is obvious. A statement can be expressly emphasized with lah : Please lah come to the party (Eng. 'Please come to the party').

vocabulary

In Singlish you will find a number of loan words, mainly from Malay and Hokkien, such as koon (dt. 'Sleep'), makan (dt. 'Eat') or tolong (dt. 'Help'). Sinsehing refers to a doctor who practices traditional Chinese medicine . Some English words are also expanded in their meaning compared to British English, so take in Singlish also means 'eat' and 'drink'. Combinations that are borrowed from two languages ​​can also be found: lim kopi ( eng . 'Drink coffee') is a combination of the Hokkien word lim for 'drink' and the Malay word kopi for 'coffee'.

Language examples

  • Dis guy Singrish si beh zai sia (basilect) has the mesolect form Dis guy Singlish damm good eh and means something like This person's Singlish is very good (His / her Singlish is very good).
  • Gostan : From the times of the British colonies, the term “to go astern” (German: go aft) emerged: go to the back of the ship. Today you say Gostan to the taxi driver if you want him to turn back.
  • Shiok (for great! Or great!), Wah (expression of pure joy) and Killer Litter (falling objects, an annoying, sometimes fatal danger from nefarious citizens who simply take their rubbish, even crates of drinks and old refrigerators, out of the window or from the Throw balcony of their high-rise apartments) - are just three of 18 Singlish expressions that were even included in the Oxford English Dictionary for the first time.

literature

  • David Deterding: Singapore English . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2007, ISBN 978-0-7486-2545-1 .
  • Jakob RE Leimgruber: Singapore English: Structure, Variation, and Usage . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2013.
  • Ee Ling Low, Adam Brown: English in Singapore: An Introduction . McGraw-Hill, Singapore 2005.
  • Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Teresa Rebecca Yeo: Singlish on the Singapore Infopedia website , accessed March 22, 2018 (English)
  2. ^ A b David Yoong Soon Chye: Standard English and Singlish: The Clash of Language Values ​​in Contemporary Singapore , La Trobe University, accessed May 31, 2020.
  3. Alamak! Singlish - the language that unites and divides . In: The Malay Mail Online , August 9, 2016, accessed May 31, 2020.
  4. a b Zubaidah Jalilk: More than a funny gibberish . Märkische Oderzeitung from 17./18. March 2018, Journal p. 4.
  5. ^ Anthea Fraser Gupta: The Step-tongue: Children's English in Singapore . Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, UK, 1994, p. 35.
  6. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 260.
  7. a b c d Tessa Wong: Magazine: The rise of Singlish , BBC News, August 8, 2015, accessed May 31, 2020.
  8. Rani Rubdy: Creative destruction: Singapore English's Speak Good English movement . In: World Englishes , 20 (3), year 2001, pp. 341–355.
  9. a b All 27 Singlish Words That Made It Into The Oxford English Dictionary In: discoversg.com , December 5, 2017, accessed May 31, 2020.
  10. Peter Trudgill, Jean Hannah: International English . Routledge, Abingdon 2017, ISBN 978-1-138-23369-0 , pp. 128-129.
  11. ^ A b Lionel Wee: Singapore English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 265.
  12. ^ John Platt, Heidi Weber: English in Singapore and Malaysia: Status, Features, Functions. Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur 1980.
  13. ^ Anthea F. Gupta: The Step-Tongue: Children's English in Singapore . Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, 1994.
  14. Jakob RE Leimgruber: Singapore English: Structure, Variation, and Usage . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2013, p. 66.
  15. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , pp. 267-268.
  16. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 270.
  17. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 271.
  18. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , pp. 267-268.
  19. ^ Suzanna Bet Hashim, Adam Brown: The [e] and [æ] vowels in Singapore English . In: Adam Brown, David Deterding, Low Ee Ling (Eds.) The English Language in Singapore: Research on Pronunciation . Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics, Singapore 2000, pp. 84-92.
  20. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: phonology . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 273.
  21. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: morphology and syntax . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 594.
  22. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: morphology and syntax . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 596.
  23. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: morphology and syntax . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 598.
  24. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: morphology and syntax . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 599.
  25. a b Peter Trudgill, Jean Hannah: International English . Routledge, Abingdon 2017, ISBN 978-1-138-23369-0 , p. 141.
  26. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: morphology and syntax . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 601.
  27. ^ Lionel Wee: Singapore English: morphology and syntax . In: Rajend Mesthrie (Ed.): Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia . Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019638-2 , p. 604.
  28. Peter Trudgill, Jean Hannah: International English . Routledge, Abingdon 2017, ISBN 978-1-138-23369-0 , p. 142.
  29. Sociolects of Singaporean English (PDF)
  30. Sophie Mühlmann: The country that is ashamed of its own language. in Die Welt on June 6, 2016, accessed May 31, 2020.