Getting over the Singaporean accent!!!!

[edder]

its all about the AH-RER and replacing "S" with "Z". you digz?

 

[ac]

The problem with the use of singlish is tied to the history of the nation. Most significantly the population is so emasculated by our continued rigidity that the evolution of singlish continues only through it's use as a joke language. Get someone to really speak everything in singlish, and you're likely to think the person is a retard. Get someone else in another country to do their colloquial english, and it's a different story. It's all down to how long this country has evolved.

There's also no real comparison with other patois of other countries. They mix the english language with their one single language, while in singapore, there is no one common language, like bengalese with english, jamaican with english. What we get is a mix from another language, like malay/chinese, and english, in the context of singpaore. It's more chinglish, malayglish, or indianlish, which together makes singlish. But, thanks to our speak english campaigns in the 70s 80s, which pushed the populace to adopt english as the main language, we get literal mandarin to english grammatical transliterations like "open" the light.

There's also a fragmentation of singlish along racial lines. Some words will not feature in chinese singlish / malay/ indian/ eurasian. etc.

a: eh you poondeh, why you off my amp?
b: Dei your time up liao mah ...what.
a: i was going to execute my super stroke 10 finger guitar tapping run.
b: zhun bo?
c: but a, you pcc too much riao, sure not kena one.
a: kena your head ah!

------

As Singapore sets itself up for a second wave of foreigners and immigrants, you can bet there'll be further evolution of singlish, maybe further fragmentation. You can see some of that in places like hardwarezone's edmw, where the members take a more chinese slant to the whole written singlish thing, together with a ( like it or not ), the japanese kawaii fixation.

 

[Gracia]

together with a ( like it or not ), the japanese kawaii fixation.

What with the amount of 'Sapanese' we have in Singapore, it might just happen.

*shudders*

 

[ac]

Singanese !

Sometimes, it's really sad when kids start aping fashions and when you ask them where it all comes from, like all that spikey hair, they have zero clue.

 

[snuffleupagus]

a: eh you poondeh, why you off my amp?

That about sums it up for me. Hilarious.

 

[Colarndo]

The 1st season of PCK Pte Ltd was the best as Singlish was openly used. After that the show wasn't as shiok to watch.

 

[therealslim]

"open" the light.

a: eh you poondeh, why you off my amp?
b: Dei your time up liao mah ...what.
a: i was going to execute my super stroke 10 finger guitar tapping run.
b: zhun bo?
c: but a, you pcc too much riao, sure not kena one.
a: kena your head ah!

Dude, seriously. You made my day. I laughed so hard that i shit all over my legs.
I haven't heard these terms for God knows how long! OMG! I just wanna grab my small table singapore flag and sing some DICK lee Singapore songs!

omg, i get so homesick when i hear singapore vulgarities. Wahahahaa!
Vulgarities were our main Army language, not english.

Such a different humour, US and singapore. But just reading "eh you poondeh, why you off my amp?" cracks me up so much harder!

 

[ac]

yah it's lagi more funny when you actually see it all happening.

!!!

 

[Ized]

trying speaking to an ang moh, or say get such a friend. you'll realise you'll initially speak in a very ang moh-ish accent then slowly you'll only use better english not with the accent.

I think this is very natural for Asians when we communicate with english people.. reason being that we will feel that they won't understand us if we speak in our natural way.. it's the same for me when i speak to a chinese, i'll use very accented chinese pronunciations. Then after a while, you'll slowly switch back to a normal singaporean way of speaking.

but ah. i'm still very proud that hor, singapore got this kinda wierd accent lor.. i'm mean ah..where else you'll hear ppl speak like us? I think maybe some malaysians lah.. haha..

I don't. I have friends whom I often hang out with from England and Sweden, and several of my uncles are also ang moh (Aussie and English). I'll just speak to them in my normal tone of voice and diction like how i would speak to most.

I guess that i'm pretty conscious about the way i speak, and i don't believe in adapting my accent or tone just to suit others. A good example of this would be Lee Kuan Yew. He speaks excellent English but you don't see him adapting his accent or "slang" when he speaks to Americans or foreign delegates.

As for Singlish? haha. I guess well, as Singaporeans......its cool lor. I believe it'll one day be as culturally defining as American slang and lingo. just that American slang/lingo has been around for a long time.