Anyone know much about Singlish? I stumbled across this (doing a search on tang yuan).
sgforums.com/?action=thread_ … 906&page=0
They’re really mixing up English, Chinese and net slang here.
Brian
I don’t know a lot, only that there was some kind of controversy over whether Singlish should be recognised as a legit ‘dialect’ of English or not. I think the answer was ‘not’ due to the inverted grammar.
A friend of a friend at uni was from Singapore, and she spoke with that typical Singapore lilt and vocabulary. I remember asking my friend privately what her native language actually was, and he replied ‘English’. Oops 
My cousin (native tongue Swiss German, grew up bilingual with English and Swiss German) is fluent in Singlish. He mostly uses it to amuse friends. But once in a while I caught him unintentionally changing to Singlish when he talked to Singaporeans.
Bri: I can get you in touch with him if you want 
Iris
Have a look at:
The site explains:
[quote]TALK COCK/TALK COCK SING SONG
To speak rubbish or nonsense. Probably originates from the English phrase
Well, I’m from Singapore myself, and I guess I could comment a little on this. The government has put quite a lot of effort to ensure that the populace does learn to communicate in proper English.
Singlish is pretty much a mix of english vocabulary with Chinese + Chinese Dialects + Malay + some tamil. Mostly adheres to the Chinese grammatical structure.
I would be interested to know whether linguists consider Singlish to be a dialect of English or a pidgin or creole. I suspect it might be the latter, but perhaps it is debateable (and controversial).
For a good dose of Singlish, I recommend the movie Xiaohai bu ben, translated into English as Kids are not Stupid or I Not Stupid. See IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307681/.
It makes merciless fun of the dialect, as well as overbearing mothers, overpaid expats, and the Singapore government.
Oh, the one by Jack Neo. I’m surprised one of our movies actually got that far.
On the creole/pidgin thing, if it were either it would be a pidgin. It wouldn’t be a creole until it becomes the mother tongue of decent number of people, if I’m not mistaken.
Singapore English was given a lot of emphasis under the Linguistics course at the local university, separate from the pidgin/creole sections. I don’t remember whether Singlish was singled out as a dialect or not though.
However, a search at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_English counts Singlish as a ‘major English dialect’, but also mentions that the Singapore government believes it to be a pidgin and is trying to eradicate it. I don’t think they’re too successful at this time.
If asked, Singaporeans will say they speak English even though it may not sound like the Queen’s English. Some may never notice a difference.
Re: the friend who reverts to Singlish when speaking to Singaporeans - it’s probably an in-group thing.
Yes, but Wikipedia is community-compiled, and thus not necessarily right.
I don’t understand Singlish. I don’t like it. :bouncy:
Singlish is evil. It makes me physically cringe.
It makes me wanna twist my arms around my neck and strangle myself. :bouncy:
I thought ‘pidgin’ and ‘creole’ were different words for same concept - pidgin is English based and creole is French based
I thought ‘pidgin’ and ‘creole’ were different words for same concept - pidgin is English based and creole is French based
Anyway ‘jalan’ is malaysian (bahasa) and ‘lu’ is Chinese - I guess you use local words wherever you are.
No. A pidgin is an intermediary language of convenience created by mixing together two (generally mutally incomprehensible) languages, to try and come to a middle ground which allows the two sides to communicate. A creole is a pidgin that has taken root in a community and become the mother tongue for the generation(s) following on from the original pidgin speakers.
Of all the varieties of English I like Singlish best. Wish I could speak it!
Going back to your other post, isn’t Singlish the mother tongue for many Singaporeans? Or does that become debateable if ‘standard English’ is taught as well or something?