Singlish? Or just Singaporeans?

Have one ever wonder, in this country just one degree north of the equator, what qualifies to be a true blue Singaporean?  Is it more of the physical appearance or the way we behave? Many had concluded with a vast majority of Singaporeans wear t-shirts with Bermudas (which lead many to conclude it being the national uniform).  However, in such terrible hot and humid weather, it seemed like the only logical option. One could not expect us to wear winter clothing right?

In addition to plain old fashion sense, what actually puts Singaporeans apart from other Asians? One would think Singaporeans appears to be well educated, elegant, and neat. But wait till one listens to us. Because we Singaporeans speaks in a unique manner. We’ve not a singular accent. Unlike our regional counterparts, we do not imitate either the American accent or English accent. Instead, we speak in a clearly, though at times too fast. It is easy to differentiate between our accent to that of the Hong Kong accent or Japanese accent. Reason being to that English is our official language and is being used to teach mathematics, science and even mandarin! Thus, this resonate for the missing accent.

The simplest way to identify a Singaporean by their speech? The emphasis on certain words, such as the –th. Or the poor sentence structure in their conversations. Singlish? The leh, lah. Think that’s what singlish is all about? Nope. But rather, the immensely popular usage of verbs and adjectives before a noun. An example shall be free gift. A gift is something which is complimentary. Thus the word, free, is kind of redundant. Another example might be ‘to-something’. Like ‘I want to eat’. I want to eat. It might be simple English, but sounds weird, and unique right? Uniquely Singapore. And the usage of ‘can anot’ (or some uses can or cannot?) Just like if one is able to do something. It’s either a yes or a no. the same goes for the ‘can or cannot’, with ‘can anot’ simplify everything.

Before I end off, let’s share a poem, with pure singlish (which I’ve in my e-mail)

You write like that in exam you sure siao (crazy),

Teacher mark your paper sure Kee Siao (go crazy)

This type of standard can pass anot (can…anot) , you ask yourself

Wait, you confirm kenna (attain) last in class one.

Singlish terms are in BOLD.

Just in the poem, there lies numerous Singlish terminology which the average Singaporeans use for the nth times in a single day. Singlish, is actually a beautiful language, but is so often critised. Be it an identity, it truly is Uniquely Singapore.