Singlish is the English-based creole or patois spoken colloquially in Singapore. English is one of Singapore's official languages, along with Malay (which is also the National Language), Mandarin, and Tamil.[1] Although English is the lexifier language, Singlish has its unique slang and syntax, which are more pronounced in informal speech. It is usually a mixture of English, Hokkien, Cantonese, Malay, and Tamil, and sometimes other Chinese languages like Teochew, Hainanese, Hakka, Hockchew, and Mandarin. For example, pek chek means to be annoyed or frustrated, and originates from Singaporean Hokkien 迫促 (POJ: pek-chhek).[2] It is used in casual contexts between Singaporeans, but is avoided in formal events when certain Singlish phrases may be considered unedifying. Singapore English can be broken into two subcategories. Standard Singapore English (SSE) and Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) or Singlish as many locals call it. The relationship between SSE and Singlish is viewed as a diglossia, in which SSE is restricted to be used in situations of formality where Singlish/CSE is used in most other circumstances.[3]
Some of the most popular Singlish terms have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) since 2000, including wah, sabo, lepak, shiok and hawker centre.[4] On 11 February 2015, kiasu was chosen as OED's Word of the Day.[5]
- ^ Leimgruber, Jakob R. E. (2011). "Singapore English". Language and Linguistics Compass. 5 (1): 47–62. doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2010.00262.x. ISSN 1749-818X.
- ^ Harbeck, James. "The language the government tried to suppress". Retrieved 2018-11-05.
- ^ Leimgruber, Jakob R. E. (2011). "Singapore English". Language and Linguistics Compass. 5 (1): 47–62. doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2010.00262.x. ISSN 1749-818X.
- ^ New Singapore English words - OED Archived 2016-09-18 at the Wayback Machine, March 2016
- ^ Singapore terms join Oxford English Dictionary - BBC, 12 May 2016
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