Speaking Singlish helps ease the pressure of being taken too seriously. I feel Singlish has the power to make ppl feel more relaxed and appear more amiable.
Yup, it's the same as Manglish (Malaysian English). We might sounded quite similar to other countries, but among Malaysians and Singaporeans we will clearly identify each other whether you are a Malaysian or Singaporean with just one self-local daily speaking 'English' sentence LOL Singlish and Manglish are so different, wow. So many classic Singlish phrases I don't really understand since I'm a Malaysian LMAO
Honestly, SInglish bonds us. Went to Europe and was conversing in SInglish and another group of people came over and spoke singlish too. We chatted with each other and realised what we all lived roughly around the same neighborhood
I was in a London museum and started talking to my friend in Singlish. Bcuz it's a museum, got to speak softly. Surprisingly, got one ang moh came to interrupt to ask if we are from Singapore. The ang moh then started sharing he has been to Singapore several time blah blah.....it's a good feeling to be recognise immediately hahaha
Singlish is probably the only identity we recognise one another, no matter where we go I remember when i was studying overseas, it just bring me home when i hear singlish, close the gap of us and know your fellow man, cause singlish is so unique pple don’t understand you, so that’s why some just can’t understand us! Time for gossip!! 🥳😂
Kudos to CNA for pulling this documentary about our national language together. As a Singaporean, I have to say this is power la - brings back such nostalgia yet still so educational at the same time. The sad thing is our current generation has been wired to reject this authentic part of us as citizens, and this will stay until we wake up our idea lor. I just hope Singaporeans from our 100th birthday and beyond would have fully embraced who we are as a culture and identity, and learn never to be ashamed of Singlish.
When my family and I were holidaying in Adelaide a few years ago, a cashier at a supermarket was asking if we are Singaporeans upon hearing us talking in Singlish. He had fond memories when he was here for a period of time. SINGLISH POWER SIA!
I'm not Singaporean but I think Singlish is so rich and full of culture, a melting pot of all the languages spoken in the peninsula. Literally is the United Nations of languages!!! And for that, it's beautiful!
Being a Teochew, Cantonese, Betawi Malay, Baba Malay, and English speaker from Indonesia, Singlish came naturally to me. The explanation of it as originating from Bazaar Malay was unexpected (but makes sense), and perhaps would explain why I as a Betawi Malay speaker (a kind of Bazaar Malay spoken in and around Jakarta) picked up on Singlish without effort. But it would have been nice to go deeper into the relationship between Bazaar Malay and Singlish to better explain the transition from one creole to another. Also correction, 11:54 Bazaar Malay is not merely Malay with smatterings of Chinese vernacular. That is more like Baba Malay (plus grammar and other aspects also being Chinese influenced). Bazaar Malay is Malay spoken by or between non-Malays, often in a market setting. This means that Bazaar Malay is not a single entity, but can refer to any regional Malay creoles, such as Betawi (Jakarta) Malay, Manado Malay, Dili Malay, etc. Bazaar Malay in Jakarta and Singapore happen to have a lot of Chinese influence, but not in Manado or Dili, which have more Dutch, Minahasan, Portuguese, and Tetum influences. Reflecting the different groups of people in those regions that used (Bazaar) Malay as a lingua franca.
Everything has its background and history, that’s why language is so important. No matter what culture, region, or ethnicity, we need to respect. Great documentary
I absolutely love this documentary! CNA Insider steady la! As a Singaporean, I am so proud of our Singlish! It's literally who we are as a nation, and culture. I love how it's a way to cut across class so that everybody can feel included and be able to easily understand each other.
Umm there seems to be a misunderstanding about the origin of "Abuden" at 30:29 Abuden does not come from "Ah but then" It is a mix of hokkien and english ( Abo ) means "If not?" from Hokkien ( den ) means "Then" from English . But when saying it fast, it sometimes sounds like ( Abuden ) instead of ( Aboden ) . So when someone ask a blindly obvious statement, you reply them ( abuden/aboden ), meaning " If not? Then? " . Example : Person A : " I go shopping for fish at fish market this morning " Person B : " What you buy? " Person A : " Fish lah!! Abuden? Buy House is it? " . Person A is implying : " If not fish, then? Buy house?"
As a kid born in 1995, I still remember how the government was actively dissuading the public to use Singlish and that is “not accepted” in Singapore as it will “have significant impact on how the younger generation learn and speak standard English, along with the detrimental effect on how the global world view Singaporeans”. It then sparked a nationwide debate and discussion on how Singaporeans truly felt about Singlish and Singlish eventually became part of a Singaporean Identity.
Well, as Indonesian (Javanese man), I can easily understand the usage of "lah" as a Singlish particle since it's soooo similar with our usage of "lah". Bahasa Indonesia uses "lah" almost in every sentence. And I strongly believe that the the function is 99% similar.
There’s no such thing as ‘bahasa Indonesia’. It’s Malay. Singlish, despite not being understood by others, is still called Singaporean English. No such thing as bahasa Indonesia. The name is Malay but the Indons stole the language and call it bahasa Indonesia.
I once was seated at a table in Perth, having a meal with my Canadian, aussia and Kenyan housemates. Speaking neutral English and all, evryone could understand everyone perfectly well... then in walked a fellow Singaporean friend who joined us and I unknowingly lapsed into a convo with her all in Singlish (aye where u come back from ah? Got buy the maggi mee? Bo leh no sale etc etc...). 1min later, my 3 foreign friends told us they've got no idea what language we were speaking and they caught 0% of what we said. We replied 'English'... and their jaws dropped. So did ours of course. Whao! Mind blown...
Exactly, when we are overly absorbed into this self righteousness due to our current wealth status. We have completely forgotten the core reason why we chose English for trade and commerce with the rest of the world. Deviating too much is silly towards our own pocket. Not forgetting we are a mere 7 million dots out of the billions. We dun control the weather.
@@leslieho8377 huh? Le gong simi? Ppl tok apple orange, u tok featherduster harpic toilet cleaner. Ppl trying to tell u we Singaporeans (and malaysians) are able to code switch unconsciously (and pretty flawlessly may I add), and are proud of it, and there u are going on about being self absorbed & overlooking our touchstone of success. Btw u can possess a good command of English language and speak singlish fluently. Your English can be rotten AF and also speak singlish perfectly. You can possess accented English and still speak singlish like any local can.
This is by far one of, if not, the best and most enjoyable and intellectual episode from CNA Insider! Let's preserve our unique identity! Everything was so tastefully put together. Context, humor, theory, music, interactive mode, etc. :D
Really like Singlish. It is a Singapore's identity. If I could master, it should be a convenient language. It seem like a causal form of speaking, in which the English lacks. What a beautiful language. It makes people feel closer together.
i think it was great that english was learnt as a nation and learnt it well so that singapore can leap from third to first world....now we can relax and enjoy singlish...so that is just the fruits of success...
On the day I arrived in Singapore from Japan, the first sentence I heard on the street was "cannot lah bro" hahahahha like it took me years to learn English & it was a such difficult language for Japanese tongues..but that all pales in comparison to Singlish hahaha
Great episode! Really enjoyed this - it’s truly the language which bonds Singaporeans and something which we should all be proud of! Something which adds to our cultural identity!
Long post warning!! First of all, I'd like to commend CNA for making this documentary and bringing to the forefront other topics such as race and class etc. I think they're doing an admirable job in allowing the nation to have the debates that are needed, some of which they might not even know about. On to the topic at hand, Singlish. Frankly, I remember as a child, that my parents and grandparents always separated English and Singlish. Something which I think is very good for modern day people as it allows us to recognise that Singlish in itself is a unique language - in this case a creole - that has its own value, its own structure, grammar and phrases and allows us to appreciate it. English is, in many ways, besides the vocabulary completely different. Even something as simple as how it's spoken. Singlish is syllable-timed meaning that each syllable takes approximately the same amount of time to be pronounced whereas English is stress-timed meaning that unstressed syllables are shortened to maintain the rhythm of the language. It's why English speakers speaking Singlish sound very strange to the native Singlish speaker. Thus it brings me to the issue at hand. Since we in Singapore have never been taught the difference between the two languages, we tend to think of them as a single language i.e. English. As such, this leads native Singlish speakers use their native grammar i.e. a more Chinese type grammar without the use of plurals (which are not needed in Singlish) as they have never been taught differently. The solution is simple. To teach the languages separately or at least acknowledge them as such, therefore leading to the situation known as diglossia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diglossia). Therefore, if need be, the average Singaporean would be quite at home in the courts of London or New York and equally at home in the hawker centres of Toa Payoh or Ang Mo Kio. Some people may ask, well why even have two forms of the language or why do we need it? Frankly, because it's absolutely appalling how many people make the simplest grammatical errors in official documents. Errors that make the document borderline unreadable or muddle up the language such that the intent of the document is pretty much lost. If you don't believe me, go look at almost any document written in the army for its people. Or listen to any of the songs. If you tell me that's English, well then you and I have fairly different concepts of the language. Anyway, I'm about halfway through the video and I'll probably have more to add. Eventually. The point, if it is not clear, is that Singaporeans should embrace both languages and be proud of Singlish as a separate unique language and, if need be, learn English as a separate language for communication purposes and be proud to learn that language too. Just don't muddle the two up.
Wow I’m fascinated to learn that Singlish is syllable-timed while English is stress-timed. I’m totally behind keeping the languages separate - in fact it was pointed out in this video that they ARE different languages entirely. The more people recognise this the better. Then we can move on from defending one or the other, to declaring that most Singaporeans speak 3 languages - English, their mother tongue, and Singlish - and work on improving our fluency in all 3 languages. And yes, ungrammatical writing is a pain to read!
yes! And I feel more Singaporeans should recognise how Singlish is its own separate (equally legitimate) language which is distinct from Standard SG English, so we are often much more bi/tri+ -lingual than we realise!
English evolved and blended with every other language since its like the universal language so its not surprising theres a variety of how it is used by countries. In Philippines theres Tag-Lish, In US theres English US and a lot so no wonder SingLish is unique on its own.
Singlish is an evolution of our Singapore identity that arises naturally from our multiculturalism, culture and a reflection of our way of life, lah. It gives a sense of belonging.
I think Singlish is becoming more acceptable, because the younger generations are now fully proficient in English (more or less) and hence we are more secure in our linguistic identity. With Mandarin, on the other hand... we're getting eaten alive by Ah Tiongs.
Except when they write, they can't write grammatically. Not a good situation when the audience is potentially international. I see grammar errors even on Sinkapore government websites.
Singlish to me = home. Just like we are all grown up now and can afford to eat good food at restaurants, but it still can't beat a simple dish prepared by my mom. I went to china to work for a few months and I was home sick even though I can speak mandarin very well and have no issue with communications. I felt horrible staying there until a neighbour moved in who is also a Singaporean. We started speaking Singlish and suddenly my home sick is gone and i felt so much better until I came back to Singapore - our home, our kampong.
Singlish has the majority similar to Malaysian style of language as well. All those word are either direct or mixture from Chinese, Malay, Indian and some dialect in form of Cantonese, Mandarin and Hokkien.
Singlish is a form of english mixed with local terms, malay, cantonese, hokkien etc. It is actually no different from people in new york and london who speak differently from other parts of the country. They also has local terms or mixed with other languages depending on population mix. Singaporeans must have self confident. Our command of language is pretty good. Don't be confused with the aunties and uncles who speak broken english as some of them have not even received education in the language. We are already 57 years old. Be confident, hold up your head and speak like new Yorkers and londoners.
Truely agreed. (When I type truely, the editor flags it as a mistake. But shouldn't it be truely, not truly?) If the native English speakers are allowed to change their language, why aren't other users of English? When the whole world modifies English, the natives will one day accept variants of English.
@@eugenec7130 To me, it is also an identity issue, we are, in the way, afraid of other people dont understand us, our language is not measured up, we feel inferior etc. I heard SG people apologize to westerners for his/her spoken english even though they didnt quite use Singlish. New yorkers and Londoners dont do it. You have to learn to understand them not the other way round. Dont know U ask, I will explain.
Great timing to release this two-parter on the eve of National Day! The etymology, the songs, the books were all new to me and I'm local!! Singlish is used differently by different Singaporeans. I use it with Standard English (SE) while others use it to replace SE.
Even Jamaican like bob Marley has their own version.We are not English. English is a colonial language.Singlish became our indentity where everybody understand each other regardless of status and age.Hope we all continue to communicate in singlish socially.
Thank you very much CNA for having this program of how our every Singlish came about. It was very interesting to know so much about the origin of it. I find our Singlish very very unique and as we have conversation with friends, it sound very friendly too. I have a foreign friend once asked how to speak in Singlish😀 she liked it very much. I told my friend, if you stay here long, you will naturally pick up😊 Singlish
Missed opportunity to explain to non-natives and maybe even locals. Kancheong/Gancheong is Cantonese for 'nervous' or 'anxious'. The word itself is enough to convey meaning, adding 'spider' give it an idiomatic flavour. I tend to associate spider or bugs in general as being jumpy and sensitive to movements near them, didn't know it has to do with firearm's nozzle.
I’m a Hokkien speaker Taiwanese and stayed in Malaysia for 7 years , it isn’t takes long time for me to speak Singlish ( very rojak ) so happy I could speak like a local wor ❤
Why we talk like that? Because Mr. Lee forced us to be bilinqual and we had no choice but to speak DIY English. But it is too late to go back in time to learn English the proper way, from native speakers. So, we are stuck, and will speak Engish the annoying way for an eternity. Thank you, Mr. Lee.
It’s horrifying to know there are Singaporeans out there who think of Singlish as a National Hero. I don’t speak English well. But I make an effort not to have Singlish terms slip into my choice of words when speaking.
It is sad to hear that Hokkien and Cantonese are misinterpreted as "Mandarin dialects." Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese are all Chinese dialects. Standard Mandarin dialect is called 普通話 (translated as common dialect or common language), derived from Mandarin (官話). Internationally and linguistically speaking, Mandarin (官話), Hokkien (閩南話), Cantonese (粵語) are all different Han Chinese languages but with same writing system. Also, Hokkien (閩南話) is not good to be said as 福建話 (Fujian dialect/language) because there are other Min dialects/languages phonetically separate and not mutually intelligible like 福州話 (閩東/閩府), 莆仙話, 建甌話 (閩北), 永安話. Please do understand the difference and avoid using "Mandarin dialects" to miscategorize. Instead, you can say politically correct "Chinese dialects" or linguistically speaking "Chinese languages."
The linguist made a small mistake, those languages like Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka are Chinese or Sinitic dialects/languages, but are definitely not Mandarin dialects.
Cantonese is older than mandarin. Mandarin are spoken by Qing people whereas cantonese are spoken by Han chinese. Mandarin is not original language of chinese han.
When I lived in Singapore, I found it very strange that there is this ubiquitous particle lah, considering that in colloquial French we have a particle là which is used to add emphasis, or to insist (or as a mere speaking habit, or to buy time)... "mais oui, ce livre, là !" "souviens toi, le type là..." and so on All the stranger considering that French had (to the best of my knowledge) zero influence on Singapore's languages... Seems like 'lah/là' had parallel lives! I think it's great to let develop one's own colloquial version of the language, as long as the 'standard' (international) version is taught in school. Same here in France, as long as proper French is taught in school, no big deal to use colloquial French in our daily lives. But important to be able to revert to a more standard French if we meet people from abroad or non native speakers.
i'm pursing an english degree right now & i had a recent assignment about whether singlish & standard english can "harmoniously coexistent". this made me think about it 😂
To survive in a society, language is definitely the very first tool, even while ordering food from a hawker. So yes definitely Singlish is important but also normal English for official business.
Singlish is fun. Mixture of Malay, Chinese dialects and English. Pigeon English in Papua Nu Guini, Creol French in Carribbean and Indian Islands, Afrikaans in South Africa are also very unique and mind boggling.
I love it, it sounds really cool! I'm from New Zealand. The "lah" at the end of sentences reminds me of "aye" that we often use at the end of ours. "Aye" for us means something like "isn't it?
Well, in support of LKY's original policy, the fact that we now can switch seamlessly from proper English to Singlish also stems from the fact that a good foundation in proper English was established. Had he not done so, it IS true that internationally it would have been pretty hard to do business in the early years, especially when you're a kampong country with no natural resources or money. Without that intervention, I doubt we'd be able to do that amazing switcheroo nowadays.
Actually, there is a Cantonese Comprehensive grammatical breakdown of end of phrase utterance/expressions using words "lah", "lor", etc. Lah comes with a begging tone and a more persuasive undertone. Where as Lor is more negative and often comes after a phrase you didn't want to say such as an insincere apology. It would "Sorry Lor". All of this was mainly influenced by Cantonese as that was the language mainly spoken by Guangzhou which is where ports were. Majority of immigrants that went to other countries like Malaysia, Singapore, etc were Cantonese. Mandarin speaking immigrants weren't as common prior to 1980/90. Those that were mandarin speaking immigrants most likely were refugees escaoing famine and poverty back in the day. The Mandarin speaking immigrants now are generally far wealthier.
Obviously you are not Singaporean. Coz if you are, you'd know the majority of us are hokkien. Malaysian Chinese may be more cantonese. But this is about Singapore. And that is why we don't identify with the Jiahu kias.
@@mikethm1974 Singlish has spill over from Malaysian Manglish to begin with. It's silly to think all aspects of Singlish only began with Singapore. "La" is very Cantonese but common in several southern dialects.
@@christinayamamura136 betul bu kalau di bahasa indonesia akhiran lah berfungsi menegaskan misalnya, buatlah, ayolah, majulah dsb juga berfungsi memperhalus, misalnya sudilah, tolonglah, dsb selain lah, akhiran lainnya adalah kah, tah, pun jika melihat karya pujangga jaman dahulu sih akhiran tersebut sudah digunakan cmiiw
@@alhkcblack9617 Malaysian Chinese are so delusional. :) PS. Watch some taiwanese language shows and then come back tell me whether hokkien or cantonese has more "la" at the end of sentences. We hokkien folks can't help it that the cantonese love to copy from us. :)
Indonesian also speak "LAH" in their daily conversation, to emphasize the wordings~ but it spoken very subtle unlike Singaporean who makes it very stand out n fun to hear
@11:02 The Malays were inhabitants that's right. But the British did not come before the Chinese. The Chinese came first from China coastal areas as merchants. It was illegal during imperial China to leave without state permission. So these adventurous Chinese can't return so they settle in the straits, married locals, speak Malay become peranakans. Then thousands of years later, British came. Chinese came before the British! Don't get the facts wrong.
I'm very proud of our singlish ,but sidenote I've been watching a lot or video clips of Singapore from 80s to recent years , and I notice our accents changed a lot . For the young adults in the 80s they spoke with a distinguished British laced accent . Then I noticed that the 90s kids and teenagers our accents became what we deem as singlish (think pck) this generation ( my generation 30-45 year olds) we don't speak either English or mother tongue well. We speak fast and don't pay attention to pronunciation , you can understand me can liao , like we don't make a spoken distinction between close and closed The younger gen z and the currently kindergarten to pri school kids speak better English with a American accent (these gen they curl their Rs and end the words properly ).
I think they might have to abandon those nuances soon enough. Singapore is quite a noisy country. Singlish is specifically developed to be heard and understood even in a noisy canteen or hawker centre.
purely an assumption here: for young adults in the 80s, they were taught english the british way. not quite sure about 90s & 00s kids because i'm gen z HAHA. for the current youngsters and kids, although english is still taught british-style (pronunciation + spelling), we consume more american media. i feel like it created this confusion for us, i learnt from a cartoon that "color" is spelt like this. i use the word in an essay & get marked for misspelling. i pronounced "literally" the american way in secondary school & my teacher corrected me. these are just some anecdotes of mine...
I have to say -lah is definitely, linguistic-wise, used in Malay. As a a particle, it has two main/simple functions. We don't have to look too hard. Just look at the title of the national anthem. It's grammatical.
Admit it. Singlish originally came and brought from Manglish when Singapore was still in Malaysia and hadn't got independence yet then. Then only it diversified into more Singlish vocabularies.
Hokkien and Cantonese are not dialects of Mandarin. They are specific languages distinct from Mandarin within the Chinese language family. Check your linguistic facts!
It was fun when I was working in an office in Orchard Road. The conversations in the office made me laughs so much 😂 Each time I asked:"Can I do this document this way?" (For example). And the answer is always:"Can...can...lah!" 😂 I used to tease my coleagues, by dancing " Can Can", you know the show in Moulan Rouge - Paris. Raised my skirt a little bit, and danced the Can-Can....I was sad that no one laughed at all 😢😮.
Singlish in Singapore is like how the Blacks speak in America. It is powerful and expressive, people make films and music with it, it is backed by a rich history, but it will mostly be reserved for the streets. The power of these languages lie in its flexibility and brevity such that 'lah' can mean so many different things depending on the context. But this is also dangerous when used in a formal or professional setting because it is prone to misinterpretation. Queen's English is designed to be cumbersome because it is precise and deliberate, which is what you need when conquering the world. I imagine the Queen is going to confuse the heck out of her admirals if she said, "Eh, just put your ships in Singapore lah, they won't mind wan..." This sounds like she bargaining as opposed to exerting her power. lol.
As a Hongkonger, Cantonese is our mother tongue. We also translate Cantonese word by word in English like 'go die you'(go to hell)' or 'laugh die me (i'm laughing to death)' or 'add oil'. We feel closer and have more fun while talking with friends in that way.
Singlish seems more logical to the native speakers of Asia from India to China. I was in Singapore for 6 months in 1998 when Phua Chu Kang was very popular / notorious. It took me about just 3 minutes to understand Singlish and speaking passable Singlish with in 3 days..
Although I can speak near perfect English. I like to speak Singlish especially with people from my home country coz I feel more connected with them. It's like you're home.
I do not condemn anybody who speaks Singlish, Manglish, or any broken English. This is because as a learner and user of English, I know bloody well that English is the messiest and stupidest language in the world. There is actually a lot of rubbish in English, for example tenses, singular/ plural, gender, etc. We do not need to include all details in our sentences. If there is any need, just mention the time an action happens, the number of objects and state whether male or female in the sentences. We do not need to change the words just because we want to include details in every sentence. For example, eat - ate, mouse - mice, cock - hen. The native English speakers are so proud of their language that they never think of making it easier and more practical for its users.
I recalled in the 1970s there is a junior college debate on TV. National Junior College vs Raffles Institution. I think the topic was whether, we should speak Queen's English. I remembered one of the judges even complimented a debater from National Junior College for his "Queen's English". People can recognize Queen's English because of a couple of shows like Crown's Court drama series and also The New Avengers starring the infamous Joanna Lumley. Incidentally, RI won that debate. RJC had not started yet. Since you are a media corp, you can check from archives from SBC for the debate series. If you can dig it out of archive worth watching again.
singlish itu kek bahasa gaulnya Jakarta dimana orang dari daerah apapun bisa gonta ganti pake kata betawi belanda cina jawa sunda jaksel padang arab. Tua muda juga udah terbiasa sih jiga nambah ragam budaya
We are Indonesian also using Lah it can be as ending words, or starting (but only in Indonesian words or sentence. Like “jangan gitu lah”... “Lah koi gitu” and it can be expressed of angry, happy and questioned 😆😁
My personal opinion, no matter how good is your Singlish or English, as long as you can use English in formal applications and Singlish in conversation, why not.
Lah is a Hokien word which Singaporeans use in speaking English. Singlish is Hokkien spoken using the English vocabulary which is why Singlish sounds so Chinese. But if you ask what is the national language of Singapore, I have not heard of any correct answers so far. The reason is: Singaporeans do not want to be called Chinese and yet their accent in speaking English is so blatantly discerned by the second person or listener. I want to start an advocacy to make Hokkien as the national language of Singapore. I speak Hokkien fluently but I am an illiterate Hokkien speaker.
As someone born and raised in S. Korea, I've been to Singapore eight years ago as a field trip from a foreign language high school, but never heard of those THICK Singlish. Singaporean people use their English "based on British English", and fortunately, at least, people I met in Singapore understood my English (American English is used in schools); however, those real-life Singlish words and phrases in this video are totally "unintelligible" to me... 😂
