Why ‘Singlish’ is actually Chinglish
'Singlish' It is an amalgam of words from various languages. Yes. But what is ignored is that most of the non-Chinese words in the language was included in the past - 70s, 80s, and not the present. The Singlish of today has a greater Chinese-English mix than Malay-indian-Chinese mix. The Singlish that is supposed to be evidence of a fusion between cultures is actually an accommodation of Chinese styles of thought and speech even though it contains words from different languages. This can be seen clearly in the transliteration of mandarin-to-singlish terms. Here’s an example - ‘where got?’, meaning, ‘who said so’, or serves as a denial. It is actually a direct transliteration of the mandarin, ‘na li you’, or ‘where have’. Or, ‘how come like this/that’ is a direct translation of ‘wei she me zhe yang’. Whilst it is said in English, or ‘Singlish’, and used by all ‘Singlish’ proponents and practioners, it is actually a transliteration of Manda...