Renowned British YouTuber Olly Richards recently lauded Singapore English (or Singlish) for its striking efficiency, emphasizing its ability to convey messages using minimal sounds.
Olly Richards, in a video titled “11 difficult English accents you won’t understand,” delved into the realm of Singapore English, highlighting its incredible efficiency. He astutely compared a verbose English response to a succinct Singlish reply.
For instance, where one might say, “Yes, of course! That shouldn’t be a problem in the slightest. In fact, I’d be more than happy to do it,” a Singaporean would artfully condense it to a single word: “Can.”
This simplicity and brevity are what make Singlish truly exceptional.
The Evolution of Singlish
Singlish is not merely a recent trend but has been a linguistic phenomenon since the 1970s. Its roots trace back to Singapore’s multicultural heritage, where diverse ethnic groups coexist.
This unique blend of cultures and languages has contributed to the development of Singlish’s distinct grammatical structure. The intonation and sentence structure of Singlish are influenced by various local dialects of Chinese, Malay and Indian origin, creating a tapestry of linguistic diversity.
Embracing Singlish as Identity
In a world where language often evolves under the weight of globalization, Singaporeans proudly embrace Singlish as an authentic facet of their identity.
While standard Singapore English is taught in schools, Singlish holds a special place in the hearts of Singaporeans.
Netizens’ comments
- I’m from Indonesia 🇮🇩 , so I’m very familiar with Singlish 🇸🇬 and their sister Manglish 🇲🇾. Influences don’t only come from Chinese dialects (Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, etc) but also from Malay and Indian dialects (mainly Tamil). But as former British colonies, both Singapore and Malaysia have a high proficiency in English (especially the former) and they have no difficulty adjusting to your English level. It’s just that they prefer to speak Singlish and Manglish as they sound more natural and less pretentious
- I worked in Singapore for a year. I really liked all the variations of English there, influenced by the styles of all the different cultures that were present, and the hyper-brevity was awesome. I worked with a lot of Filipinos there as well and they had a huge language mashup too.
- I love Singaporean English! I knew that one. My late wife and I lived there for a year. After six months, my daughter came to visit. “Dad! You talk like them!” My wife and I were so proud!