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Singlish
EntityQ939451· pop 26· linked from 236 articles

Also known as Colloquial Singaporean English

thumb|Exaggerated Singlish on an advertising board outside a cafe in Pulau Ubin

Key facts

Language.name
Singlish
Language.states
Singapore
Language.region
Southeast Asia
Language.familycolor
Creole
Language.fam2
English creole
Language.script
Latin
Language.glotto
sing1272
Language.glottorefname
Singlish
Language.ietf
cpe-SG
Language.notice
IPA

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Show 3 more facts
Commons category
Singlish
native label
Singlish
Sources (4)

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~63 min read

Article

46 sections
Contents
  • Creole continuum
  • Example
  • Origin and development
  • Usage in society
  • Phonology
  • Variation
  • Consonants
  • Vowels
  • Tone
  • Prosody
  • Grammar
  • Topic prominence
  • Nouns
  • Copula
  • Past tense
  • Aspect
  • Negation
  • Interrogative
  • Reduplication
  • Discourse particles
  • Singlish phrases
  • ''Wah Lau/Walao''
  • ''Kena''
  • ''Tio''
  • ''One''
  • ''Then''
  • ''Oi''
  • ''Lah''
  • ''Wat''
  • ''Mah''
  • ''Lor''
  • ''Leh''
  • ''Hor''
  • ''Ar''
  • ''Hah''
  • ''Meh''
  • ''Siah''
  • ''Siao''
  • Summary
  • Miscellaneous
  • Vocabulary
  • See also
  • Notes and references
  • Sources cited
  • Further reading
  • External links

thumb|Exaggerated Singlish on an advertising board outside a cafe in Pulau Ubin

Singlish (a portmanteau of Singapore and English), formally known as Colloquial Singaporean English, is an English-based creole language originating in Singapore. Singlish arose out of a situation of prolonged language contact between speakers of different languages in Singapore, including English, Malay, Cantonese, Hokkien (especially the Singaporean Hokkien variety), Mandarin (especially Singaporean Mandarin), Teochew, and Tamil. Singlish is spoken alongside Standard Singapore English in a diglossic manner, and represents the colloquial register of English used between locals. As such, Singlish is sometimes not regarded as a separate language from English in Singapore, but rather, a sub-variety of it, forming a lectal continuum with the standard language. Despite this, it is still linguistically an independent creole language. The term Singlish was first recorded in the early 1970s. Singlish has similar roots and is highly mutually intelligible with the Manglish spoken in Peninsular Malaysia.

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