Singapore English, according to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, is a dialect of the English language with Creole-like characteristics spoken colloquially in Singapore. Also called Singlish, it formally takes after the British English in spelling and in abbreviations, although naming convention are mixtures of the British English and the American English. According to Dr. Debra Ziegeler, Singapore English is a variety with second language origins but now spoken as a first language by the present generation, is a dialect of considerable importance in the South-East Asian region, in particular in the areas of trade, commerce, and education. Of course, Professor Ziegeler underscored the existence of the Malaysian English and the Philippine English.
As regards to Englishes of the Inner Circle, English as a Native Language, vs. Englishes of the Outer Circle, English as a Second Language, vs. Englishes of the Expanding Circles, English as a Foreign Language, Prof. Braj Kachru of the University of Illinois places Singapore English in the Outer Circle along with India, China, Kenya, Zamba, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Bangladesh, and the Philippines (Pakir, Yoneaka).
In this circle, according to Anne Pakir in “Review of Language, Society, and Education in Singapore,” English is continually expanding, serving wider and deeper function, and used increasingly for international communication. Though it offers additional rules and conventions in the bilingual and multilingual repertoire, writers and speakers comfortably use it like their mother tongues. In addition, traditional literary and language canons are no longer dominant, though still relevant, because it has become rooted and indigenized.
According to Kachru, a new variety of English come into existence when it is institutionalized and granted legal and official status. On the other hand, Prof. Anthea Fraser Gupta of the University of Leeds said that Singapore English is indeed a new variety because it is not deficient but different, is imperfectly learned and its features are its errors, and is a dialect of English best understood in its own terms, which means that, it must be analyzed in its own system considering its similarities with the British English and the American English.
BACKGROUND
Singapore is a country with complicated history of colonization, modernization, and hybrid ethnic and national identities (Schroeder). It is comprised of one main island and fifty adjacent islands off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It became an independent state in 1965 and its constitution was drafted in 1959, adopted in 1963, and amended in 1965. It is a densely populated country with most of its peoples concentrated in the south central portion where the main seaport and the financial and commercial district are located (English Only Foundation).
Singaporeans are primarily composed of three races: Malays, Indians, and Chinese, which are assumed natural ethnic groups that would continue to inhabit Singapore in the indefinite future. With the ideology of “unity through diversity,” Singapore is represented by the co-existence of its four official languages: Tamil, Malay, English, and Mandarin. Malay is the national language while English is the language of business, education, administration, communication, international relations, among others. Other minority languages included Indian dialects, such as Hindi, Telugu, Bengali, Punjabi, and Malayalam; and Chinese dialects, such as Hakka, Hokkien, Foochow, Teochew, Cantonese, and Hainanese (English Only Foundation).
Regarding the issue of national identity, Singaporean government officials rejected the “melting pot” ideology and propagated the social, cultural, political, and educational framework of
multilingualism and multiculturalism allowing ethnic communities to preserve their cultural heritage through religion, language, and other cultural elements (The Management of Multilingual and Multicultural Communities in Singapore) and to participate in military service, public housing, electoral politics, public education, and ceremonies of citizenship (English Only Foundation).
In her article “Singapore Colloquial English,” Professor Gupta said that the history of Singapore English began when Sir Stamford Raffles colonized Singapore in 1819 for the East India Company with the intention of building a modern seaport for the British Empire. Singapore, at that time, Professor Gupta said, was already a crossroad of commerce from India to East Asia, not to mention the strong Thai and Indian rule and influence in the Malay Peninsula that had a series of Malay sultanate, which were largely Muslim, but with distinctive customs and traditions that reflected centuries of cooperation with other countries.
Over the Nineteenth Century, Gupta added, the East India Company extended its influence in the Malay Peninsula and the Indian Sub-continent, including the Philippines, until the British colonial government took over Singapore and other countries. Singapore, with Penang and Mallaca, was ruled from Calcutta, the capital of British India, and later from London, the capital of England. During the pre-colonial period, the Malays were the largest ethnic group, but because the British encouraged immigration, Singapore's population grew massively. While most immigrants came from other British colonies like India and Ceylon and from nearby countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, the largest group of immigrants came from southern China. Today, according to the English Only Foundation, Inc., Singaporeans are approximately 76.4 percent Chinese, 14.9 percent Malays, 6.4 percent Indians, and 2.3 percent Jews, Arabs, Japanese, and Europeans.
