Singlish is
the Quick Facts about: English An Indo-European language belonging to the West Germanic
branch; the official language of Britain and the United States and most of the Commonwealth countriesEnglish-based Quick Facts about: creole A mother tongue that originates from contact between
two languagescreole spoken colloquially in Quick Facts about: Singapore A country in southeastern Asia
on the island of Singapore; achieved independence from Malaysia in 1965Singapore. Singlish formally takes after Quick Facts about: British English Quick Summary not
found for this subjectBritish English (in terms of spelling and Quick Facts about: abbreviation A shortened form of a word
or phraseabbreviations), although naming conventions are in a mix of American and British ones. For instance, local media have "sports pages" (sport
in British English) and "soccer coverage" (the use of the word "soccer" is not common in British media).
Overview
Singlish began life with the arrival of the British and the establishment of Quick
Facts about: English language An Indo-European language belonging to the West Germanic branch; the official language
of Britain and the United States and most of the Commonwealth countriesEnglish language schools in Singapore. Soon, Quick Facts about: English An Indo-European language
belonging to the West Germanic branch; the official language of Britain and the United States and most of the Commonwealth
countriesEnglish filtered out of schools and onto the streets, to be learned by non-English-speakers in a Quick
Facts about: pidgin An artificial language used for trade between speakers of different languagespidgin-like form for communication purposes. After some time, this new form of English, now loaded with substantial influences from
Quick Facts about: Indian English Quick Summary not found for this subjectIndian English, Quick Facts about: Baba A small cake leavened with yeastBaba Malay, and the southern varieties of Quick Facts about: Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan
languages spoken in China; regarded as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because
they share an ideographic writing systemChinese, began to be learned "natively" in its own right. Quick Facts about: Creolization Quick
Summary not found for this subjectCreolization occurred, and Singlish then became a fully-formed, stabilized, and independent English creole.
Singlish is best thought
of as a Quick Facts about: continuum A continuous nonspatial whole or extent or succession
in which no part or portion is distinct of distinguishable from adjacent partscontinuum. In Singlish's case, the continuum runs through the following varieties:
Quick Facts
about: Acrolect Quick Summary not found for this subjectAcrolectal: This is the most "high-class" form of speech, used by the well-educated in formal situations. Acrolectal Singaporean
English is basically identical to formal Quick Facts about: British English Quick
Summary not found for this subjectBritish English, except that a "toned-down" version of Singlish pronunciation is used. For example, speakers of acrolectal Singaporean English
attempt to restore the Quick Facts about: phoneme (linguistics) one of a small set
of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular languagephonemes /θ/ and /ð/ (as in thin and then).
Mesolectal: This is "middle-class" Singlish, and is
used in formal and semi-formal situations. At this level, features not found in other forms of English begin to emerge.
Quick Facts about: Basilect Quick Summary not found for this subjectBasilectal: This is "street" Singlish, and is used by everyone, educated or not, in informal settings. Here can be found all of
the unique Quick Facts about: phonological Quick Summary not found for this subjectphonological, lexical, and Quick Facts about: grammatical Quick Summary not found for this subjectgrammatical features of Singlish, which will be the subject of the rest of this article.
Quick
Facts about: Pidgin An artificial language used for trade between speakers of different languagesPidgin: This is the "pidgin" level of Singlish, which is probably a good representative of an earlier stage of Singlish, before
Quick Facts about: creolization Quick Summary not found for this subjectcreolization took place and solidified Singlish as a fully-formed creole. Like all Quick Facts about: pidgin An
artificial language used for trade between speakers of different languagespidgins, speakers at the pidgin level speak another language as a first language, and Singlish as a second language. However, since
many people today learn Singlish natively, the number of speakers at the "pidgin" level of Singlish is dwindling. (By definition,
a Quick Facts about: pidgin An artificial language used
for trade between speakers of different languagespidgin is not learned natively.)
When Singaporeans speak to each other, mixing of Singlish with other languages, such as
Quick Facts about: Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in China; regarded
as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because they share an ideographic writing
systemChinese dialects, Quick Facts about: Malay A member of a people inhabiting the northern Malay
Peninsula and Malaysia and parts of the western Malay ArchipelagoMalay, or Indian languages such as Quick Facts about: Tamil The Dravidian language spoken
since prehistoric times by the Tamil people in southern India and Sri LankaTamil occurs very frequently. In fact, a sentence can begin in Singlish, switch languages several times along the way, and end
up as another language. However, this can only occur if all participants of the conversation can already speak both Singlish
and the language(s) into which they are switching. This article will therefore talk only about "pure" Singlish—the kind
that may go on in a conversation between a Chinese, a Malay, and an Indian. Such speech will still contain Asian words, but
those will be considered Quick Facts about: loanword A word borrowed from another
language; e.g. `blitz' is a German word borrowed into modern Englishloanwords fully incorporated into Singlish, because everyone can understand them, regardless of what other Asian languages they may
speak.
Politics
Due to its origins, Singlish shares many similarities with Quick Facts about:
pidgin An artificial language used for trade between speakers of different languagespidgin varieties of English, and can easily give off the impression of "broken English" or "bad English" to a speaker of some other,
less divergent variety of English. In addition, the profusion of Singlish features, especially Quick
Facts about: loanword A word borrowed from another language; e.g. `blitz' is a German word borrowed into modern
Englishloanwords from Asian languages, Quick Facts about: mood Verb inflections that express how
the action or state is conceived by the speakermoodQuick Facts about: particles A body having finite mass and internal structure but
negligible dimensionsparticles, and Quick Facts about: topic-prominent Quick Summary not found for this subjecttopic-prominent structure, can easily make Singlish downright incomprehensible to a Brit or American. As a result, the Singaporean government
considers Singlish a handicap, and in the interest of promoting equality and better communication with the rest of the world
has launched the Quick Facts about: Speak Good English Movement Quick Summary not
found for this subjectSpeak Good English Movement to eradicate it, at least from formal usage. In recent years, the use of Singlish on television or radio is proliferating
as localised Singlish is more popular among the general public.
Most Singaporeans, on the other hand, think "bladi
Gahmen si peh kaypoh one, why always so bedek kacang horh". This sentence can be approximately broken down into:
"bladi Gahmen" - bloody Government "si peh" - very (from Quick Facts about: Hokkien Quick
Summary not found for this subjectHokkienQuick Facts about: Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan languages
spoken in China; regarded as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because they share
an ideographic writing systemChinese) "kaypoh" - busybody (from Hokkien) "one" - emphatic particle "why always so" - indication of harbored displeasure "bedek kacang" - lit. 'aiming at peanuts' (Malay); in this sentence, can probably be taken to mean 'meddlesome' or 'annoying' "horh?" - Chinese prompt for affirmation, somewhat like n'est-ce pas? of French.
Phonology
Singlish Quick Facts about: pronunciation The manner in which someone
utters a wordpronunciation, while built on a base of Quick Facts about: British English Quick Summary not found
for this subjectBritish English, is also heavily influenced by Chinese and Malay.
The phonology of Singlish:
Consonants
bilabial
labiodental
alveolar
postalveolar
palatal
velar
glottal
Quick Facts about: stops A gambling card game in which chips are placed on the
ace and king and queen and jack of separate suits (taken from a separate deck); a player plays the lowest card of a suit in
his hand and successively higher cards are played until the sequence stops; tstops
p b
t d
k g
affricates
tʃ dʒ
fricatives
f (v)
s (z)
ʃ (ʒ)
h
Quick Facts about: nasals An elongated rectangular bone that forms the bridge
of the nosenasals
m
n
ŋ
Quick Facts about: laterals A pass to a receiver upfield from the passerlaterals
l
approximants
w
r
j
(See Quick Facts about: International Phonetic
Alphabet Quick Summary not found for this subjectInternational Phonetic Alphabet for an in-depth guide to the symbols.)
In general:
The Quick Facts about: unvoiced Quick Summary not found for this subjectunvoicedQuick Facts about: stop A brief stay in the course of a journeystops and affricate—/p/, /t/, /k/, /tʃ/ chin—are sometimes unaspirated, especially at the basilectal level.
(Quick Facts about: Aspiration A will to succeedAspiration refers to a puff of air.) In other varieties of English, these Quick Facts about: phoneme (linguistics)
one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular languagephonemes are usually aspirated, especially at the beginning of a word. The general effect of this is that, the Singlish pronunciation
of pat, tin and come may sometimes seem closer to bat, din, and gum than other varieties
of English.
The Quick Facts about: voiced Quick Summary not found for this subjectvoiced fricatives—/v/, /z/, /ʒ/ vision—are unstable at the basilectal level, and may be substituted with
other Quick Facts about: phoneme (linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds
that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular languagephonemes, e.g. bery for very, gero for zero. (This is much rarer outside the basilectal level.) In syllable-final
positions they merge with their Quick Facts about: unvoiced Quick Summary not found
for this subjectunvoiced 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 pall = paw, roll
= row, tool = two, and for some, pearl = per.
[ʔ], the Quick Facts about: glottal stop A stop consonant articulated by releasing
pressure at the glottis; as in the sudden onset of a vowelglottal stop, is inserted at the beginning of all words starting with a vowel. (compare with Quick Facts
about: German A person of German nationalityGerman) 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 Singlish.
[ʔ] also replaces final consonants of Quick Facts about: syllable A unit of
spoken language larger than a phonemesyllables in regular-speed speech, especially Quick Facts about: stops A gambling card game
in which chips are placed on the ace and king and queen and jack of separate suits (taken from a separate deck); a player
plays the lowest card of a suit in his hand and successively higher cards are played until the sequence stops; tstops: 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.
Plosives are "geminate" (or double-length) if occurring in the middle of a word. Hence better /bɛt:ə/, enter /ɛnt:ə/.
In slower speech, final consonants are pronounced fully (though Quick Facts about: stop A
brief stay in the course of a journeystops are not released, like Quick Facts about: American English The English language
as used in the United StatesAmerican English -t and -d). However, Quick Facts about: voicing The act of adjusting an organ pipe
(or wind instrument) so that it conforms to the standards of tone and pitch and colorvoicing distinction—i.e. /p/ & /b/, /t/ & /d/, etc.—are usually not kept in final consonants. This affects fricatives
more than Quick Facts about: stop A brief stay in the course of a journeystops. As a result, peace = peas, let = led, and so forth.
Final consonant clusters simplify, especially fast speech. In general, Quick Facts about: stop A
brief stay in the course of a journeystops, especially /t/ and /d/, are lost if they come after another consonant : bent = Ben, act = ack,
nest = Ness.
Vowels
Quick Facts about: Monophthong Quick Summary not found for this
subjectMonophthongs
Quick Facts about: front The side that is seen or that goes firstfront
Quick Facts about: central A workplace that serves as a telecommunications facility
where lines from telephones can be connected together to permit communicationcentral
Quick Facts about: back The position of a player on a football team who is stationed
behind the line of scrimmageback
Quick Facts about: close The concluding part of any performanceclose
Quick Facts about: i The 9th letter of the Roman alphabeti
Quick Facts about: u The 21st letter of the Roman alphabetu
Quick Facts about: close-mid Quick Summary not found for this subjectclose-mid
Quick Facts about: e The 5th letter of the Roman alphabete
ə
Quick Facts about: o The 15th letter of the Roman alphabeto
Quick Facts about: open-mid Quick Summary not found for this subjectopen-mid
Quick Facts about: ɛ Quick Summary not found for this subjectɛ
Quick Facts about: ɔ Quick Summary not found for this subjectɔ
Quick Facts about: open Information that has become publicopen
Quick Facts about: ɑ Quick Summary not found for this subjectɑ
Diphthongs
ai
au
ɔi
iə
uə
The vowel system of Singlish can be directly derived by merging vowel Quick Facts about: phoneme (linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished
by the speakers of a particular languagephonemes in the British Quick Facts about: Received Pronunciation Quick Summary not found
for this subjectReceived Pronunciation vowel system. The following describes a typical system. Some speakers may further merge /e/ and /ɛ/; other speakers
make a distinction between /i/ and /ɪ/, /ɛ/ and /ɛə/, or /ɑ/ and /ʌ/.
At the acrolectal
level, there is some effort to "un-merge" the merged vowel Quick Facts about: phoneme (linguistics)
one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular languagephonemes, and to introduce elements from Quick Facts about: American English The English
language as used in the United StatesAmerican English, such as Quick Facts about: rhotic Quick Summary not found for this subjectrhotic vowels (pronouncing the "r" in bird, port, etc.)
Singlish Quick Facts about: phoneme (linguistics) one of a small set of speech
sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular languagephoneme
matches Quick Facts about: RP Quick Summary not found for this subjectRPQuick Facts about: phoneme (linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds that
are distinguished by the speakers of a particular languagephoneme(s)
as in
/i/
/i/
meet
/ɪ/
pit
/e/
/eɪ/
day
/ɛ/
/ɛ/
set
/æ/
map
/ɛə/
hair
/ɑ/
/ɑ/
car
pass
father
/ʌ/
bus
/ɔ/
/ɒ/
mock
/ɔ/
thought
court
/o/
/əʊ/
low
/u/
/u/
room
/ʊ/
put
/ə/ - see below
/ɜ/
bird
/ə/
idea
better
/ai/
/ai/
my
/au/
/au/
mouth
/ɔi/
/ɔi/
boy
/iə/
/iə/
here
/uə/
/uə/
tour
/ai jə/
/aiə/
fire
/au wə/
/auə/
power
Two words with idiosyncratic pronunciations:
flour /flɑ/
(expected: /flɑ wə/ = flower)
their /djɑ/ (expected: /dɛ/ = there)
Flour/flower
and their/there are therefore not homophones in Singlish.
In general, Singlish 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 Quick Facts about: diphthong A vowel sound that starts near the articulatory
position for one vowel and moves toward the position for anotherdiphthongs in RP. Note that the vowels of day and low are pronounced as Quick Facts about:
monophthong Quick Summary not found for this subjectmonophthongs—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, Singlish tends to restore the full vowel. This is
because Singlish de-emphasizes the role of stress (see section on Quick Facts about: prosody The
patterns of stress and intonation in a languageprosody below).
In loanwords from Hokkien that contain Quick Facts about: nasal An
elongated rectangular bone that forms the bridge of the nosenasalized vowels, the nasalization is often kept - one prominent example being the Quick Facts about:
mood Verb inflections that express how the action or state is conceived by the speakermoodQuick Facts about: particle A body having finite mass and internal structure but
negligible dimensionsparticlehor, pronounced as /hɔ~/—somewhat (but not quite) like the vowel in French dent.
Quick Facts about: Prosody The patterns of stress and intonation in a languageProsody
One of the most prominent and noticeable features of Singlish is its unique intonation pattern, which is quite unlike
Quick Facts about: British The people of Great BritainBritish or Quick Facts about: American English The English language as used in the United
StatesAmerican English. For example:
Singlish is Quick Facts about: syllable-timed Quick Summary not found for this subjectsyllable-timed compared to other varieties of English (which are mostly stress-timed). This in turn gives Singlish a very rhythmic and Quick Facts about: staccato Quick Summary not found for this subjectstaccato feel.
Pitch contours are more well-defined and distinct in Singlish than in other varieties of English. This makes Singlish sound
somewhat like Chinese, a tonal language.
I'm going to comment this part out because I haven't been able to confirm
it (not entirely, anyway) in any authoritative source. -- User:Ran|ran User talk:Ran|(talk)
The tone pattern of a given
Singlish sentence may be approximated with a series of steps. Taking the following sentences as an example:
(mesolectal)
SENTENCE:
How
come
you
so
kia-
su
one
ar?
Must
live
life
a
bit
more
re-
lac
lah.
(acrolectal)
SENTENCE:
If
you
ask
me
to
des-
cribe
my
rea-
so-
ning
then
I
can't
pro-
vide
fur-
ther
ex-
pla-
na-
tions.
1. There are some words with fixed tones that can be predicted from the outset.
1.1.
All loanwords from Quick Facts about: Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken
in China; regarded as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because they share an ideographic
writing systemChinese dialects are given their original tones: Kiasu, or "afraid to lose", must be pronounced with a mid-level tone on the first syllable and a high-level tone on
the second. Siao, or "crazy", must be pronounced with a falling tone. Pai-seh, or "embarrassed", must be pronounced with a rising tone on the first syllable and a low-level tone on the
second.
1.2. All Quick Facts about: grammatical particle Quick Summary not
found for this subjectgrammatical particles have one or more fixed tone patterns. These can be found further below in the section "Particles".
(mesolectal)
SENTENCE:
How
come
you
so
kia-
su
one
ar?
Must
live
life
a
bit
more
re-
lac
lah.
TONE:
33
55
24
11
(acrolectal)
SENTENCE:
If
you
ask
me
to
des-
cribe
my
rea-
so-
ning
then
I
can't
pro-
vide
fur-
ther
ex-
pla-
na-
tions.
TONE:
2. For the rest of the sentence, some syllables can also be marked reliably with
a high, a middle, or a low tone.
2.1. Put a high tone on the last Quick Facts about:
syllable A unit of spoken language larger than a phonemesyllable of all of the following words: All Quick Facts about: noun A word that can be used to refer to a person or place
or thingnouns (e.g. Quick Facts about: durian Tree of southeastern Asia having edible oval fruit
with a hard spiny rinddurian, economy, Singapore) All Quick Facts about: verb A word that serves as the predicate of a sentenceverbs, inflected or not (e.g. complain, complaining), unless it is followed by a pronoun All Quick Facts about: adjective A word that expresses an attribute of somethingadjectives, inflected or not (e.g. happy, happiest) All Quick Facts about: adverb A word that modifies something other than a nounadverbs (e.g. happily, also, away, often) Object Quick Facts about: pronoun A function word that is used in place of a noun
or noun phrasepronouns (e.g. me, him, them) Most other Quick Facts about: pronoun A function word that is used in place of a
noun or noun phrasepronouns (e.g. mine, this, somebody, no one) All Quick Facts about: preposition (linguistics) the placing of one linguistic element
before another (as placing a modifier before the word it modifies in a sentence or placing an affix before the base to which
it is attached)prepositions and Quick Facts about: conjunction The grammatical relation between linguistic
units (words or phrases or clauses) that are connected by a conjunctionconjunctions of more than one syllable (e.g. below, around, therefore, because, furthermore) and the word "then" The last syllable of every sentence WH-question words (e.g. who?, what?, how much?, how come?)
2.2. Put a medium tone wherever British or American English
has (or would have) a prosodic Quick Facts about: stress The relative prominence
of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)stress, including primary stresses (explanation) and secondary stresses (explanation). Don't put the medium tone if
there is already a high tone there.
2.3. Put a low tone on all of the following monosyllabic words. Don't put the tone
if there's already a medium tone there. Quick Facts about: Grammatical article Quick Summary not found for this subjectGrammatical articles (a, an, the) Monosyllabic Quick Facts about: preposition (linguistics) the placing of one linguistic
element before another (as placing a modifier before the word it modifies in a sentence or placing an affix before the base
to which it is attached)prepositions (e.g. in, on, to, at, from) Monosyllabic Quick Facts about: conjunction The grammatical relation between linguistic
units (words or phrases or clauses) that are connected by a conjunctionconjunctions (e.g. and, but, if) — but not "then" Subject Quick Facts about: pronoun A function word that is used in place of a noun
or noun phrasepronouns (e.g. I, he, they) Possessive Quick Facts about: adjective A word that expresses an attribute of somethingadjectives (e.g. my, his, their) Relative Quick Facts about: pronoun A function word that is used in place of a noun
or noun phrasepronouns (e.g. which..., that...) Forms of "to be", "to have", "can", "must", "will", "shall" "got" in the sense of "to exist", "to possess"
(mesolectal)
SENTENCE:
How
come
you
so
kia-
su
one
ar?
Must
live
life
a
bit
more
re-
lac
lah.
TONE:
H
H
L
H
33
55
H
24
L
H
H
H
H
H
11
(acrolectal)
SENTENCE:
If
you
ask
me
to
des-
cribe
my
rea-
so-
ning
then
I
can't
pro-
vide
fur-
ther
ex-
pla-
na-
tions.
TONE:
L
L
M
H
L
H
L
M
H
H
L
M
H
M
H
M
M
H
3. Fill in the rest of the tones.
3.1. Starting from the first medium tone in
each word, propagate low tones backwards until a word boundary is reached.
3.2. Starting from the first medium tone
in each word, propagate medium tones forwards until a high tone is reached.
3.3. Some disyllabic tones have no medium
tones. In this case, put a low tone on the first syllable.
3.4. For each medium tone that was passed over by Rule 7
above, put a high tone on the syllable just before.
(mesolectal)
SENTENCE:
How
come
you
so
kia-
su
one
ar?
Must
live
life
a
bit
more
re-
lac
lah.
TONE:
H
H
L
H
33
55
H
24
L
H
H
L
H
H
L
H
11
(acrolectal)
SENTENCE:
If
you
ask
me
to
des-
cribe
my
rea-
so-
ning
then
I
can't
pro-
vide
fur-
ther
ex-
pla-
na-
tions.
TONE:
L
L
M
H
L
L
H
L
M
M
H
H
L
M
L
H
M
H
M
H
M
H
4. Finally, the high, medium, and low tones are converted into actual tone values.
For the following, numbers refer to tone height with 5 being the highest. "Entering" means a syllable ending on a plosive.
4.1.
For syllables anywhere but at the end of a sentence, use the following actual tone values. High tones become: 51 if the syllable is entering 55 otherwise Low tones become 11. Medium tones become: 42 if the syllable is entering 44 if the syllable is just before a high tone 33 otherwise
4.2. Syllables at the end of a sentence (except Quick Facts about: grammatical
particle Quick Summary not found for this subjectgrammatical particles), which are high tone by default, use the following tone values. In a normal declarative sentence: 43 for non-entering tone (He's walking along the river.) 41 for entering (He's walking along the street.) In an emphatic declarative sentence: 342 for non-entering (He's walking along the river!) 551 for entering (He's walking along the street!) In a WH-question: 45 for non-entering (Why is he walking along the river?) 53 for entering (Why is he walking along the street?) In a yes/no-question: 45 for non-entering (Is he walking along the river?) 55 for entering (Is he walking along the street?)
(mesolectal)
SENTENCE:
How
come
you
so
kia-
su
one
ar?
Must
live
life
a
bit
more
re-
lac
lah.
TONE:
55
55
11
55
33
55
55
24
11
55
55
11
51
55
11
51
11
(acrolectal)
SENTENCE:
If
you
ask
me
to
des-
cribe
my
rea-
so-
ning
then
I
can't
pro-
vide
fur-
ther
ex-
pla-
na-
tions.
TONE:
11
11
44
55
11
11
51
11
33
44
55
55
11
33
11
51
44
55
33
55
44
43
Vocabulary
Singlish formally takes after Quick Facts about: British English Quick
Summary not found for this subjectBritish English (in terms of spelling and Quick Facts about: abbreviation A shortened form of a
word or phraseabbreviations), although naming conventions are in a mix of American and British ones (with American ones on the rise). For instance,
local media have "sports pages" (sport in British English) and "soccer coverage" (the use of the word "soccer" is not common
in British media). Singlish also uses many words borrowed from Quick Facts about: Hokkien Quick
Summary not found for this subjectHokkien, the dialect of more than 50% of the Chinese population in Singapore, and from Quick Facts
about: Malay A member of a people inhabiting the northern Malay Peninsula and Malaysia and parts of the western
Malay ArchipelagoMalay. In many cases, English words take on the meaning of their Chinese counterparts, resulting in a shift in meaning. This is
most obvious in such cases as "borrow"/"lend", which are functionally equivalent in Singlish and mapped to the same Mandarin
word, "借" (jiè), which can mean to lend or to borrow. ("Oi, siao-eh, borrow me your calculator, can?")
Examples:
ah - eh? huh? Ah Beng - uneducated Chinese man, butt of jokes aiyah! (Hokkien) or ayoh! - (Malay oh, no!) alamak! - surprise/shock (Malay) ang moh - white person, Caucasian (from ang moh kau meaning "red haired monkey", Hokkien) bodoh - ignorant (from the Malay word, meaning "stupid") boleh - can (Malay) COE (Certificate of Entitlement) - (very expensive) permit for car ownership CPF (Central Provident Fund) - government savings scheme chop - rubber stamp (from Malay cap) - "Immigration will chop your passport." chope - reserve - "Don't take this seat, I choped it already." gostan - go backward (Malay) (this actually originates from the nautical phrase "go astern") HDB (Housing Development Board) - public housing Quick Facts about: hawker centre Quick Summary not found
for this subjecthawker centre - outdoor Quick Facts about: food court Quick Summary
not found for this subjectfood court ISA - Internal Security Act kiah su - somebody who fears losing out (Hokkien) kana (kena) - be afflicted with Kopi - coffee (Hokkien) makan - eat (from Malay) mata - police (Malay) mati - die, be doomed (Malay) Mindef - Ministry of Defence MRT (Quick Facts about: Mass Rapid Transit An urban public transit system using underground
or elevated trainsMass Rapid Transit) Often pronounced as "M, MA, T" - metro system (another popular pronunciation is "mert") NS - National Service PAP - Quick Facts about: Peoples Action Party Quick Summary not found for this
subjectPeople's Action Party - Governing party since 1959. SAF - Singapore Armed Forces skali (pronounced SCAR-ly) - lest, what if "Skali no way to go out, then how?" (from Malay, sekali) shiok - cool! (Hokkien) sotong - lit. squid (Malay), fig. stupid (see also "blur") suaku - uninformed or backward (lit. Hokkien "mountain tortoise") ulu - rural, remote (Malay) wah! - wow! (Hokkien) yang gui zhi - foreign devil, an endearing term for "ang moh" (see above) (Mandarin - uncommon)
English words with different meanings in Singlish
arrow - pinpoint/pick on "Why he arrow me to do this?" blur - stupid choose - browse - "Choose, choose, choose, but never buy, is it?" cock - rubbish, nonsense - "Don't talk cock, lah!" follow - to come along - Can I follow? heartlander - person from working class HDB estate having here - "to eat inside the restaurant meaning the opposite of take-away" help, lah - please, do lend me a hand by desisting from whatever it is you are doing - "Help lah, stop hitting on my sister" keep - put away - "Please keep your notes" send - to take somebody to somewhere - "I'll send you to the airport." solid - excellent - "Solid sia, that movie." sabo - short for "sabotage", also meaning to betray or cause failure - "Because he sabo me, now boss mad at me!" spoil - to be damaged "This one, spoil." stay - to live (in a place) - "She's staying in Ang Mo Kio." shy (don't shy!) - come on! upgrade - to improve - "The service has been upgraded." what? - eh? huh? - "You never give me, what?" throw - to throw away "I throw it already" on, off - to turn on/off "I on the TV"
Other idioms include:
ice water - water with ice plain water - water (as oppposed to soft drinks, etc.) return back - give back toast bread - toast'
Grammar
The grammar of Singlish has been heavily influenced by other languages and dialects in the region, such as
Quick Facts about: Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in China; regarded
as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because they share an ideographic writing
systemChinese and Malay. As a result, Singlish has acquired some unique features, especially at the basilectal level. Note that all of
the features described below disappear at the acrolectal level, as people in formal situations tend to adjust their speech
towards accepted norms found in other varieties of English.
Topic prominent
Singlish is Quick Facts about: topic-prominent Quick Summary
not found for this subjecttopic-prominent, like Quick Facts about: Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in China;
regarded as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because they share an ideographic
writing systemChinese. This means that Singlish sentences are usually constructed by first putting down a topic (or a known reference of the conversation),
followed by a comment (or new information). The semantic relationship between topic and comment is not important:
This country weather very hot, one. (In this country, the weather is very hot.) That person there cannot trust. (That person there cannot be trusted.) Play soccer he very good also. (He's very good in playing soccer too.) Tomorrow no need bring camera. (You don't need to bring a camera tomorrow.)
The above constructions can be
translated analogously into Quick Facts about: Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan languages
spoken in China; regarded as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because they share
an ideographic writing systemChinese or Quick Facts about: Japanese A native or inhabitant of JapanJapanese, which are topic-prominent languages.
Nouns
Nouns are optionally marked for Quick Facts about: plurality (in an
election with more than 2 options) the number of votes for the candidate or party receiving the greatest number (but less
that half of the votes)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 Quick Facts about: article Nonfictional prose forming an independent part of a publicationarticles:
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 Quick Facts about: modifier A content word that qualifies the
meaning of a noun or verbmodifier that implies plurality, such as "several", "both".
To be
The Quick Facts about: copula An equating verb (such as `be' or `become')
that links the subject with the complement of a sentencecopula, which is the verb "to be" in most varieties of English, is treated somewhat differently in Singlish:
When occurring
with an adjective, "to be" tends to drop out, and is often replaced by an Quick Facts about:
adverb A word that modifies something other than a nounadverb, such as "very". This is strongly reminiscent of Quick Facts about: Chinese Any
of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in China; regarded as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible)
because they share an ideographic writing systemChinese usage:
This house very nice. That car not worth the money.
When occurring with "-ing" to form the continuous Quick
Facts about: aspect A distinct feature or element in a problemaspect, "to be" may similarly drop out, leaving the "-ing" form as the independent continuous form:
How come so late in the night you still playing music, ar? You looking for trouble, is it?
Slightly less common is the dropping out of "to be" when used as an equative
between two nouns, or as a locative:
This boy the class monitor. (=class president) His house in Ang Mo Kio.
In general, "to be" drops out more behind nouns and pronouns (except "I", "he", and "she"),
and much less behind a Quick Facts about: clause (grammar) an expression including
a subject and predicate but not constituting a complete sentenceclause (what I think is...) or a Quick Facts about: demonstrative A pronoun that points
out an intended referentdemonstrative (this is...).
The past tense
Past tense marking is optional in Singlish. Marking of the past tense occurs most consistently in strong
verbs (or irregular verbs), as well as verbs ending on -t and -d, such as:
I went to Orchard Road yesterday. He accepted in the end.
Due to consonant cluster simplification, the past tense is unmarked when it is part
of a complex Quick Facts about: consonant A speech sound that is not a vowelconsonant 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 Quick
Facts about: French The Romance language spoken in France and in countries colonized by FranceFrench 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. (mug = cram for exam. sian = bored/tired.)
Negation
Negation works in general like English, with not added after "to be", "to have", or Quick Facts about: modal Quick Summary not found for this subjectmodals, and don't before all other verbs. Contractions (can't, shouldn't) are used alongside their uncontracted forms.
However,
due to final cluster simplification, the -t drops out from negative forms. This effectively makes -n the negative marker on
Quick Facts about: modal Quick Summary not found for this subjectmodals:
I dun want.
An especially unique effect of this is that in the verb "can", its positive and negative forms are distinguished
only by Quick Facts about: vowel A speech sound made with the vocal tract openvowel:
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?
Repetition of verbs
Another feature strongly reminiscent of Quick
Facts about: Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in China; regarded as dialects of a single language
(even though they are mutually unintelligible) because they share an ideographic writing systemChinese, verbs are often repeated (e.g., TV personality Phua Chu Kang's "don't pray-pray!" pray = play.) In general verbs are repeated
to imply vividness, repetition, and a sense of "wandering around":
They talk talk so much, never do work one. I look and look, also cannot find. (here, look and look is pronounced very fast, in a continuous string.) So what I do was, I sit down and I think think think, until I get answer lor.
Particles
Quick Facts about: Particles A body having finite mass and internal
structure but negligible dimensionsParticles in Singlish are highly comparable to Quick Facts about: Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan
languages spoken in China; regarded as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because
they share an ideographic writing systemChinese. They are generally used to express Quick Facts about: grammatical mood Quick Summary
not found for this subjectgrammatical mood. For example:
Already
/ɔ11 rɛ33 di42/
Used to express
a change in state, and is analogous to Quick Facts about: Chinese Any
of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in China; regarded as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible)
because they share an ideographic writing systemChinese 了 (le): He throw it already - He threw it away (already) Aiya, I cannot wait any more, must go already.
Liao
/liɑu11/
Is similar
to already. Aiya, I cannot wait any more, must go liao.
Is it
/i11 sit24/ or /i11
zit24/
Used to form yes-no questions, generic like the Quick Facts about:
French The Romance language spoken in France and in countries colonized by FranceFrench 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!)
Meh
/mɛ55/
Also
used to form yes-no questions, but with a decidedly different tone: the speaker implies that he/she 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?)
Or not
/ɔ11 nɔt41/
In
a construction similar (but not identical) to Quick Facts about:
Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in China; regarded as dialects of a single language (even though
they are mutually unintelligible) because they share an ideographic writing systemChinese, or not is used to form a yes/no question. 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: This book you want or not? Can or not?
Ar
/ɑ24/
Inserted between topic and comment (often to give
a negative tone), or at the end of a question (for added brusqueness). This boy ar, always so naughty one! How come like that one, ar?
One
/wɑn42/ or /wɑn55/
The
word one is used to emphasize the Quick Facts about: predicate (logic) what
is predicated of the subject of a proposition; the second term in a proposition is predicated of the first term by means of
the copulapredicate 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
Quick Facts about: Chinese Any of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in China; regarded
as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because they share an ideographic writing
systemChinese. One used in this way does not correspond to any use of the word "one" in Quick
Facts about: British The people of Great BritainBritish or Quick Facts about: American English The English language as used in the United
StatesAmerican English: Walau! So stupid one! - He's so stupid! I do everything by habit one. - I always do everything by habit. He never go to school one. - He doesn't go to school (unlike other people).
Liddat (Like that)
/lai11
dɛt41/
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 Quick Facts about: British The people of Great BritainBritish or Quick Facts about: American English The English language as used in the United
StatesAmerican English: Why he acting liddat?
Lah
/lɑ55/ or /lɑ51/
The ubiquitous
word 'lah' is used at the end of a sentence, for emphasis. In Malay it is used to change a verb into a command or to soften
its tone, particularly when usage of the verb may seem impolite. To drink is minum, but 'Here, drink!' is minumlah.
Hence a Singaporean would say Drink, lah! Lah is often used with brusque, short, 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: Dun worry, he can one lah. Don't worry, he can [do it]. It's okay lah. It's alright.
This is not to be confused with 'la' (short for 'lad'), which is found
in the Quick Facts about: Scouse A stew of meat and vegetables and hardtack that
is eaten by sailorsScouse dialect spoken in Liverpool, England
What
/wɑt11/
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?)
Mah
/mɑ55/
Used to assert that
something is obvious and final, 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!
Lor
/lɔ55/
A
casual, 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!
Leh
/lɛ55/
Used to assert
a command, request, claim or complaint: Give me leh! How come you don't give me leh?
Hor
/hɔ~24/
Used to draw the listener's
attention and/or consent: Then hor, another person came out of the house. This shopping center also very nice hor.
Miscellaneous
"Got" is used to mean "has" or "have":
Got question? Do you have a question? Yesterday ar, East Coast Park got so many people one! This bus got air-con or not? Is there air-conditioning on this bus? Where got!? (Generic response to any accusation.)
"Can" is used extensively as both a question particle
and an answer particle. The negative is cannot.
Go home lah, can? Just go home, OK? (Responding to: Can I have a sweet, too?) Can! (Responding to: Can you come tomorrow?) Cannot.
The order of the verb and the subject in an indirect question is the
same as a direct question.
"Eh, you know where is he?" "Excuse me, do you know where he is?"
Quick Facts about: Caribbean English Quick Summary not found for this subjectCaribbean English Quick Facts about: Liberian English Quick Summary not found for this subjectLiberian English Quick Facts about: East Anglian Accent Quick Summary not found for this subjectEast Anglian Accent Quick Facts about: Hawaiian English Quick Summary not found for this subjectHawaiian English Quick Facts about: Boston accent phonology Quick Summary not found for this
subjectBoston accent phonology
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