ELL P2SA SINGLISH

ELL P2SA SINGLISH NOTES ● What is it? ○ John Platt (1975): a creoloid ○ Kachru (1982): Outer Circle English ○ McArthur (1987): New English ○ Schneider (2007): post-colonial English in the endonormative stabilisation stage ○ Platt & Weber (1980): Singlish is a basilect, spoken by SG ’eans w minimal formal education, while SSE is an acrolect spoken by SG’eans with tertiary education ○ Gupta (1992): use of Eng in SG is a diglossia ■ Singlish is the native ‘low form’ ■ SSE is the non-native ‘high form’ ■ They are contextually mutually exclusive ● Standard SG English: a localised version of Standard English, which doesn ’t exhibit major differences from other versions of SE around the globe ● Colloquial Singapore English (CSE): is the vernacular. ** diglossic r/ship ● (Pakir, 1991) Many Singaporeans can switch between the varieties according to the situation ● (Alsagoff, 2007) by indirectly associating Singlish with low proficiency, it mar ks Singlish as the ‘non-desired’ variety, thereby lending itself to prescriptivism ○ Also Alsagoff, Cultural Orientation Model [COM]: a model that sees the variation of English in SG as a product of two conflicting cultural needs, namely localisation and globalisation. ○ SG’eans see the need to be part of the global community for survival, but at the same time do not wish to lose their cultural identity ● Speak Good English Movement ○ “Speak to be Understood” ○ Refer to case studies glossary for more details ● Kiasu (Hokkien) ○ Used in the press in 1990s with italics ○ By 2000, used in the leading newspaper without italics ○ Kiasuism- a singaporean concept ● Jiak kantang ○ Jiak (Hokkien) Kantang (Malay)

○ Means eat potato. Is a cultural expression as an adjectival phrase used to describe Asian who admire Western culture and have adopted aspects of it, thus betraying Asian heritage, tradition and roots. ● Discourse particles ○ Ah: tentative marker or continuation marker ○ Hah: question marker ○ Hor: to garner support for a proposition ○ Lah: mood marker ○ Leh: tentative suggestion or request ○ Mah: info is obvious ○ What: marks obviousness and contradiction ○ Meh: skepticism ○ Ya: weak emphasis ● SG50 National Day celebs ○ Tote bags given out to households included Singlish phrases like ‘ chope’, ‘relak la’, ‘this is an ATAS bag’, ‘shiok’ ● SARS outbreak, 2000s ○ Local sitcom character Phua Chu Kang sang the SAR-vival song ● Pioneer Generation Package ○ Commercials are shown interspersed with Hokkien and Mandarin so senior citizens can comprehend the benefits they are entitled to ● McDonalds advertisements ○ Shiok shiok satay ○ Rendang sedap angus beef burger ● ‘Singlish to English’ language courses offered by the British Council ○ Teaches people to how to switch between the two and be able to appropriately do so ● 2005, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew: “Because of our bilingual policy, today the lingua franca is English, or Singlish..” ● Use of alveolar dental fricatives (th) as in ‘three’ or ‘thank’ are increasingly replaced by ‘t’ sound as it is relatively easier to pronounce, particularly so bc Outer Circle speakers in SG speak mother tongues in other languages that largely don’t have the ‘th’ (theta symbol) sound ● Use of English to describe post colonial experience, e.g. Alvin Pang, Boey Kim Cheng, Catherine Lim