The Vowel and Consonants Phonetic of Australian English

Morphology Bahasa Inggris 1

Syntax Bahasa Inggris

Morphology Bahasa Inggris 2

Singapore English (Singlish)

SINGLISH

Singlish is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore. The term Singlish is a blend of Singaporean slang and English and was first recorded in 1973. As English is one of Singapore's official languages, Singlish is regarded as having low prestige.The Singaporean government and some Singaporeans alike heavily discourage the use of Singlish in favour of Standard English.

Syntactical characteristics of Singlish are.

1 Grammar

• Verbal Inflextion
  In Singlish, the verbs usually appear in an uninflected form where the singular present tense and past tense are not morphologically marked. This is due to influences from Chinese and Malay which do not have morphologically marked tense and agreement features (Platt and Weber, 1980; Alsagoff, 1998; 2001).
  For instance:

1. Singlish                                                               He drink milk.
    Chinese                                                              Ta he niunai                      
    Standard English                                             He drinks milk.
   
   
   
   

1. Singlish                                                               She go to market
   Malay                                                                  Dia pergi ke pasar
                                                                                  She go to market
   Standard English                                             She is going to the market.
   
   
   Put to the fact that this is the most common error committed by both the Chinese and Malay people shows that their learning of English is heavily influenced by their respective mother tongues.
   
   

• PLURAL MARKING
  Another significant syntactic influence of Chinese and Malay is plural marking. Researchers note that most nouns in Singlish can be used both as count and non-count in Chinese and Malay (Alsagoff, 1998; Ho and Alsagoff, 1998; Ziegeler, 2003). Alsagoff gives the following examples (1998, p. 231):

1. Singlish                                               She bought four car.
   Chinese                                              Ta mai le   si liang  che
                                                                He/she  buy  four  CLASSIFIER   cat
   
   
   Malay                                                Dia mempunyai empat ekor kucing                                                                                                       He/she   own   four CLASSIFIER cat
   Standard English                               She bought four cars
   In the case of Chinese, Tay explains these difficulties "may be attributed to the fact that in Chinese, nouns do not change their form according to whether they are singular or plural, verbs do not change their form according to tens

• PASSIVES
  Chinese and Malay people have difficulty in the use of passives. In English, a passive sentence is constructed by putting the patient into the subject position and moving the agent to a post-verbal position preceded by the preposition "by". The structure of a Malay passive is quite similar to that in English, with "oleh" preceding the agent. Yeo and Deterding (2003, p. 82) give the following example:

1. Malay                                                  Kereta itu akan dibeli oleh Rangga dua bulan lagi.
                                                                  That will bought by Rangga  next month.
                                                                  The car will be bought by Rangga next month.

                        However, this is not the case in Mandarin where passive sentences are rarely used.

1. Chinese                                              Xia ge yue Che-zi hui bei Rangga xian-sheng mai.
                                                                Next month car will by Rangga Mr buy.
                                                               The car will be bought by Mr Rangga next month.
   
   

• ARTICLES
  in Malay and Chinese to the English definite and indefinite articles
  àSinglish (Omission)                           Java language is my dominant language.
  
  
      Standard English                                The Java language is my dominant language.
  
  
  àSinglish (Addition)                            I used to write in casual language until I underwent a formal training.
  
  
    Standard English                                 I used to write in casual language language until I underwent formal training.

• OBJECT-PREPOSING
  In Singapore tend to prepose the object so that the sentence has an Object-Subject-Verb word order. This is influenced by Chinese which is a topic-prominent language in which the topic determines a sentence structure (Schachter and Rutherford, 1979; Alsagoff, 1998; Deterding, 2000; Li and Thompson, 1981; Shi, 2000; Tan, 1999). Tan (2003) and Poedjosoedarmo (2000) also note that Malay is a topic-prominent language and this influences the English used in Singapore. Below is an example to show the influence of Chinese on Singlish:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Singlish                        Certain medicine we don't stock in our dispensary.
  Chinese                       You xie yao wo men bu   shou zai wo men de yau fang li.              Certain     medicine  we                don't stock in  our           dispensary
  Standard English      We don't stock certain medicine in our dispensary.
  
  
• ADVERBS
  This disparity is due to the different sentence structures of Chinese and Malay as compared to that of English. For Chinese but not Malay, the adverb must always occur before the verb (Li and Thompson 1981, p. 22). Both English and Malay allow adverbials of time and place to occur in initial or final position but Chinese mostly requires them to occur before the verb (Li and Thompson, 1981, 22). Yeo and Deterding note that Malay students tend to use more post-verbal use of adverbials of place than their Chinese classmates (2003, p. 80).
  àFor Instance:
  Singlish                                         She this noon arrived.
  Standard English                       She arrived this noon.
  Chinese                                        Ta jin-tian zhōng wǔ dao-le.  
  He today noon arrive
  Malay                                            Dia tiba siang ini
  He  arrive noon this
  
  
• NOUNS
  Nouns are optionally marked for plurality. Articles are also optional.
  For instance:

1. He can play violin.
2. I like to read novel.
   
   

• TO BE
  In most varieties of English, is treated somewhat differently in Singlish:

1. When occurring . with an adjective or adjective phrase, the verb "to be" tends to be omitted E.g. I damn mischieveos.
2. Sometimes, an adverb such as "very" occurs, and this is reminiscent of Chinese usage of the word "很" (hěn) or "好" (hǎo). E.g Dis car very nice
3. It is also common for the verb "to be" to be omitted before the present participle of the verb. E.g. How come you so late still playing music, ah?
4. Slightly less common is the dropping out of "to be" when used as an equative between two nouns, or as a locative. E.g. Dis boy the class monitor. (= a subset of the disciplinary system; a monitor is empowered to enforce discipline by being an informant in the absence of the teacher or superior authority figure but his/her authority is restricted to the class; this is unlike a prefect whose authority is house-wide or even school-wide)
   
   

• VERBS OF SAYING
  That verbs of saying in Singlish have the following serial verb structure, which is also found in Chinese (2000, p. 193): Verb + (Noun Phrase) + say. For instance:
  Singlish                        we argue say, 'I came in before eleven.'
  Standard English      we argued that we came in well before eleven.
  
  
  That this pattern is influenced by Chinese is pointed out by Li and Thompson (1981), Xu and Langendoen (1985). Take the following examples:
  Chinese                                                       Ta gaosu wo  shuo ni tout eng.

He/she tell me say you headache

Standard English                      He/she told me that you had a headache.

• TOPIC PROMINENCE
  This means that Singlish sentences often begin with a topic (or a known reference of the conversation), followed by a comment (or new information). Compared to other varieties of English, the semantic relationship between topic and comment is not important; moreover, nouns, verbs, adverbs, and even entire subject-verb-object phrases can all serve as the topic:

1. Dis city weather very cool one                 
    The weather is very cool in this city.
2. Tomorrow don't need bring raincoat.
    You don't need to bring a raincoat tomorrow.
3. He play volleyball also very good one leh.
    He's very good at playing volleyball too.
   
   
   This results in constructions that appear to be missing a subject to a speaker of most other varieties of English, and so called PRO-drop utterances may be regarded as a diagnostic feature of Singapore Colloquial English (or 'Singlish').[71] For example:

1. No good lah. – This isn't good.
2. Cannot anyhow go like dat one leh. – You/it can't just go like that.
3. I like football, dat's why I every weekend go play. – I play football every weekend because I like it.
   
   

• PAST TENSE
  Past tense marking is optional in Singlish. Marking of the past tense occurs most often in irregular verbs, as well as verbs where the past tense suffix is pronounced -ed. The past tense is more likely to be marked if the verb describes an isolated event (it is a punctual verb), and it tends to be unmarked if the verb in question represents an action that goes on for an extended period:

1. When I young ah, I go school every day except Sunday .
2. When she was in high school, she always go school from Monday until Saturday
   
   

• Change of state
  Instead of the past tense, a change of state can be expressed by adding already or liao (/liâu/). For instance:

1. I draw liao. (I have already drawn it away.)
2. I sleep liao. (I ate or I have slept.)

• Negation
  in general English, with not added after "to be", "to have", or modals, and don't before all other verbs. Contractions (can't, shouldn't) are used alongside their uncontracted forms.

1. Another effect of this is that in the verb "can", its positive and negative forms are distinguished only by the vowel:
   àKeep it up! you can /kɛn/ do lah.
   àThis one can't /kan/ do lah.
2. Also, never is used as a negative past tense marker, and does not have to carry the English meaning. In this construction, the negated verb is never put into the past-tense form:
   àHow come today you never (=didn't) hand in homework?
   àHow come Ann never (=didn't) pay just now?
   
   

• Interrogative
  In addition to the usualway of forming yes-no questions, Singlish uses two more constructions.

1. In a construction similar (but not identical) to Chinese A-not-A, or not is appended to the end of sentences to form yes/no questions. Or not cannot be used with sentences already in the negative
   àCan or not ? (Is this possible / permissible?)
   àYou want this bag or not? (Do you want this bag?)
2. The phrase is it, appended to the end of sentences, forms yes-no questions.
   à Alamak, you guys never read hot news about goverment is it? (No wonder you aren't up to date!)
   à You always play the game and never study, is it? (No wonder you failed!)

• WH INTERROGATIVE CONSTRUCTION
  In Singlish, the interrogative pronoun which is the wh- pronoun can remain in situ due to influence from Chinese (Alsagoff, 1998; Gupta, 1994; Tay, 1978). For instance:
  Singlish                                         He give what?
  Chinese                                        Ta  gei shen-me?
  He/she  take what?
  Standard English                       What did she give?

• CONNECTIVES
  A common error is the use of "because" and "therefore" in the same sentence. This is due to the fact that Chinese tends to mark two clauses in a sentence with a connector: yin-wei …suo-yi ('because … therefore') (Deterding, p. 206). For instance:
  àSinglish                                    Because I woke up late, therefore I was late.
  àStandard English                  I was late because I woke up late. OR I woke up late therefore I was late.
  
  
  Chinese                                        Yinwei  wo  qi wanle, suoyi wo chidaole
  Because I woke up late, therefore I late

• REDUPLICATION
  Khairiah (1985) observes that a number of reduplicated words in Singlish are derived from Chinese and Malay, such as:
  àFrom Malay
  "agak-agak" (estimate)
  "jalan-jalan" (walk)
  àFrom Chinese
  "kapo kapo" (busybody),
  "pang pang" (fat)
  "bei bei" (recite/memorise)
  àFrom English
  “ting ting ting” (thought, thought and thought)
  “walk walk see see” (shopping/sightseeing)
  “boy boy” (son)
  “fren-fren” (close friends)
  “buddy-buddy”
  “big-big” (larger item)
  “long-long” (never happen)
  
  
• FUNCTIONAL PARTICLES
  Singaporeans are heavy users of pragmatic particles. These are words borrowed from mostly Southern Chinese dialects, notably Hokkien. They serve different, practical purposes. The most common ones are “ah” (to indicate uncertainty), “lah” (to make an assertion or statement), “hah” or “mah” (to ask questions), Singlish speakers may end their sentences with “what” to contradict their conversation partners.

1. Her dress too big (being assertive)
2. Take this away, hah? (asking a question)
   
   

• VERB GROUPS WITH NO SUBJECTS
  Singaporeans do not express the subjects of sentences when others can infer them. This habit stems, in large part, from the use of shortened Mandarin sentences.

1. “(You) Go to mall,” from the Chinese sentence, “qu shangchang”
2.  “(I)Still got headache”, from the Chinese phrase, “haidhi hen kun”
   
   

• Conditional Clauses without a Subordinating Conjunction
  You will find that a Singlish speaker often eliminates conjunctions such as “if” or “when” in sentences. These would be necessary when speaking Standard English. The missing words are in parenthesis. Some instances of these are:

1. You sit there, then where I sit? (if)
2. Shout again, I go (if)
   
   

• MISSING VERBS
  Singlish users remove the verb “to be” from sentences. This language habit is another derived from contracted Chinese phrases. The missing verbs are in parenthesis. For instance:

1. “Today, I going running (am)”, translated from the Chinese sentence “jintian wo yao paobu”
2. “Your headset there (is)”, translated from the Chinese sentence “Ni de erji zai nali“
   
   

• Singlish phrase

1. Wah Lau / Walao
   Wah lau ([wɑːlɔː]) is derived from a Hokkien or Teochew phrase that means "my     father". It is used as an interjection or exclamation at the beginning of a sentence, and it usually has a negative connotation. E.g. “Wahl au! I want to go to Anco next day, please give me dough”
2. Kena
   It is derived from a Malay word that means "to encounter or to come into physical contact",[91] and is only used with objects that have a negative effect or connotation. Verbs after kena may appear in the infinitive form (i.e. without tense) or as a past participle.
   àkena hantam: be hit by something, such as a ball, or to be beaten up (hantam is another Malay word)
   àkena sabo: become a victim of sabotage or a practical joke
   àkena fucked: get set up, or to receive a punishment
   àkena whack: be beaten badly, in games or in physical fights
   àkena ban/silence: one of the newer uses of kena, it means to be banned/silenced    in a computer game. The "silence" is only used when silenced from talking in chat by GMs (Game Masters), not having the "silence" effect that stops you from doing spells.
3. Tio
   ([tiːoʊ]) can be used interchangeably with kena in many scenarios. While kena is often used in negative situations, tio can be used in both positive and negative situations.
   àHe tio cancer. (He was diagnosed with cancer.)
   àHe tio jackpot. (He struck the jackpot.)
   àHe tio lottery. (He struck lottery.)
4. One
   The word one is used to emphasise the predicate of the sentence by implying that it is unique and characteristic. One used in this way does not correspond to any use of the word "one" in British, American English, or Australian English. It can be compared to the British usage of 'eh'. It might also be analysed as a relative pronoun, though it occurs at the end of the relative clause instead of the beginning (as in Standard English).
   à Is like that one. – It is how it is.
   à I do everything by habit one. – I always do everything by habit.
   àHe never go school one. – He doesn't go to school (unlike other people).
5. Then
   The word then is often pronounced or written as den /dɛn/. When used, it represents different meanings in different contexts. In this section, the word is referred to as den.
   àI'm bushed, den I'm going to sleep.
6. Lah
   sometimes spelled as la and rarely spelled as larh, luh or lurh, is used at the end of a sentence
   à Dun worry, he can one lah. – Don't worry, he will be capable of doing it
7. Wat
   The particle wat (/wàt/), also spelled what, is used to remind or contradict the listener
   àwat are you doing?
8. Mah
   is used to assert that something is obvious and final and is usually used only with statements that are already patently true
   àThis one also can work one mah!
9. Leh
   is used to soften a command, request, claim, or complaint that may be brusque otherwise:
   àGimme leh. – Please, just give it to me.
10. Meh
    is used to form questions expressing surprise or scepticism
    à Really meh? – Is that really so?
11. Oi
    is commonly used in Singlish, as in other English varieties, to draw attention or to express surprise or indignation. Some examples of the usage of Oi include:
    àOi, you forgot to give me my pencil!
    àOi! Hear me can!
12. Lor
    is a casual, sometimes jocular way to assert upon the listener either direct observations or obvious inferences
    àYa lor. – ! Used when agreeing with someone
13. Hor
    Is used to ask for the listener's attention and consent/support/agreement. It is usually pronounced with a low tone.
    àOh yah hor! – Oh, yes! (realising something)
    àLike that can hor? – So can it be done that way?
14. Ar
    Also spelled arh or ah, is inserted between topic and comment.It often, but not always, gives a negative tone:
    àThis boy ah, always so rude one! – This boy is so rude!
15. Siah
    Also spelled sia or siah, is used to express envy or emphasis.
    à "Kau ade problem ke ape, sial?" – Do you have a problem or what?
16. Siao
    Siao is a common word in Singlish. Literally, it means crazy.
    àYou siao ah? – * Are you crazy? (With sarcasm)
    àSiao Ang moh ! - * Crazy (western/caucasian) foreigner

                2 Vocabulary

Singlish formally takes after British English (in terms of spelling and abbreviations), although naming conventions are in a mix of American and British ones (with American ones on the rise). Singlish also uses many words borrowed from Hokkien, and from Malay

                3 Pronounciation

Singlish pronunciation, while built on a base of British English, is heavily influenced by Native Malay, Hokkien and Cantonese.  There are variations within Singlish, both geographically and ethnically. Chinese, Native Malays, Indians, Eurasians, and other ethnic groups in Singapore all have distinct accents, and the accentedness depends on factors such as formality of the context and language dominance of the speaker.  All of these communities were formed by the earliest immigrants to Singapore and thus have been British subjects for three or more generations. Thus, they have received no other "native education" than solely British colonial education. Especially for those born before 1965, all the education received has been direct English rather than British influences. Many of the East Coast communities were descendants or in other ways, privileged to be granted British colonial education similar to those in Britain. As such the acrolectal standard of English does not diverge substantially from the acrolectal standard in Britain at this time, though (as in other colonial outposts) it always tended to be somewhat "out of date" compared with contemporary speech patterns in Britain.

Sumber:

Tan, C. (2005). English or Singlish? The syntactic influences of Chinese and Malay on the learning of English in Singapore. Journal of Language and Learning, 3(1), 156-179.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_English