Languages in Singapore
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There are a multitude of languages spoken in Singapore that reflects its multi-racial society. The Singapore government recognises four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. The national language is Malay, while English is mainly used as the business and working language. The colloquial patois spoken on the streets is a creole called Singlish amongst the locals, but is also known amongst academics in linguistics as Singapore Colloquial English.
Bilingualism
The government of Singapore has actively promoted the use of English as a unifying language between the three major races in the country. As a result, English is taught in schools, and also used to teach all academic subjects in primary schools. Students are also required to take a Mother Tongue class, where they are either taught Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Tamil or Hindi. The so-called mother tongue is also used to teach a moral education class.
A student's assigned Mother Tongue is the language assigned as ones native tongue based primarily on race. This language is taught in schools. For example, all Chinese Singaporeans are taught Mandarin Chinese even though they may speak other dialects like Hokkien, Teochew or Cantonese at home.
As a result, most Singaporeans have at least conversational ability and basic literacy in a minimum of two languages, while many more are conversant in three or more languages, English, their assigned Mother Tongue, and the language that is used at home.
| Language most frequently spoken at home (%) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Language | 1990 | 2000 |
| English | 18.8 | 23.0 |
| Mandarin | 23.7 | 35.0 |
| Chinese Dialects | 39.6 | 23.8 |
| Malay | 14.3 | 14.1 |
| Tamil | 2.9 | 3.2 |
Use of Mandarin Amongst Chinese Singaporeans
The Government of Singapore has been promoting the use of Mandarin among the Chinese population with its Speak Mandarin Campaign. The use of Chinese dialects, like Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hainanese and Hakka, has been declining over the last two decades, although they are still used, particularly by the older generation of the Chinese population.Singlish
Singlish, a portmanteau of the words Singaporean and English, is the English-based creole spoken colloquially in Singapore.
Although it is a dialect of English, Singlish may be difficult to understand for a speaker of another dialect of English, such as British English or American English. The main difficulties in understanding are Singlish's unique slang and syntax, which are more pronounced in informal speech.
Singlish originated with the arrival of the British and the establishment of English language schools in Singapore. Soon, English filtered out of schools and onto the streets, to be picked up by non-English-speakers in a pidgin-like form for communication purposes. After some time, this new form of English, now loaded with substantial influences from Indian English, Baba Malay, and the southern varieties of Chinese, became the language of the streets and began to be learned "natively" in its own right. Creolization occurred, and Singlish then became a fully-formed, stabilized, and independent English creole.
Singlish shares substantial linguistic similarities with Malaysian English (Manglish) in Malaysia, although distinctions can be made, particularly in vocabulary. One noticeable difference is that "don't know" in Singlish is "donno", whereas in Manglish, "don't know" is used, although neither is confined entirely to one country or the other.
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About 60% of Singapore's Indian population speaks Tamil as their native language. Other Indian languages include Malayalam and Hindi.There are around 5,000 Peranakans living on the island, and they still use the Hokkien-influenced Malay dialect called Baba Malay.
See also
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