Singlish

Colloquial Singaporean English, better known as Singlish, is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore. It is one of two English dialects spoken in Singapore, the other being the higher variety Standard Singapore English. Singlish is used in informal contexts, where SSE is used in formal settings. Singlish has attained a bad reputation on the basis of campaigns against its usage. The government claim that Singlish has a negative impact on the standard of SSE (see linguistic interference). Opponents of such campaigns claim that speakers of both dialects are adept at code-switching.

Some examples

• Ah Mu or Ah Bu - in Hokkien is the name for Mother.
• AngMoh - in local Singlish or Hokkien (literally with red hair) means a westerner.
• Bear fight - when babies fight each other on the bed with pillows and bolster.
• Chapalang - literally in Hokkien means people who had eaten their fill. This is abusively used to label certain people who are likely busybodies or gossipers. The normal greeting for all Hokkien people in Singapore or those compatriots in Taiwan and Mainland China always greet one another with "have you eaten your fill? " Chapa buay"? as one would say "Good Morning" in English. The old locals are a polite people and they always say "chapa buay?"
• Garmen - Singaporean slang for "government".
• Good-for-nothing - a rude way of telling someone. It is used as a catch phrase to try and draw someone's attention as in Singlish.
• lah - a word filler as in Singlish.
• wow-lah - same as wow-lau.

External links

• Wikipedia article