What is Singlish?

Singlish, sometimes known in the academic community as Singapore Colloquial English, is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore. Although there is no way to know who among these are Singlish speakers, but most do speak Singlish. Singlish is commonly regarded with low prestige in Singapore. For this reason, more basilectal forms of Singlish are not generally used in formal communication.

The vocabulary of Singlish consists of words originating from English, Malay, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi and to a lesser extent various other European, Indic and Sinitic languages, while Singlish syntax resembles southern varieties of Chinese. Also, elements of American and Australian slang have come through from imported television series and films. In the last two decades, an increasing amount of Mandarin words have found their way into Singlish because Mandarin Chinese is taught to most Singaporean Chinese students in school. Japanese words are becoming more common as young Singaporeans become exposed to Japanese culture, particularly through Anime.

Singlish shares many similarities with Manglish, the creole of neighbouring Malaysia. However, the social context of English in Singapore, where it is the most dominant official language, and the medium of all education, is rather different from the social contexts in Malaysia and Brunei, where Malay is dominant.

The Singaporean government currently discourages the use of Singlish in favour of Standard English, citing the need for Singaporeans to be able to effectively communicate with the other English users in the world. The government created the Speak Good English Movement to emphasise the point.

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Video by Razong.