6 replies to this topic

[General_Zhaoyun]

Just like Singlish which is mixed, Singapore's colloqual mandarin is fast moving to become a new version of creole (i.e. a language mixed with many other languages) in Singapore. This new creole is known as "Anglo-Chinese" or "Sindarin" (新加坡英文式华语） spoken colloqually in Singapore.

Alot of native English speakers from England /America are not able to understand Singlish. Similarly, the native Chinese speakers from China/Taiwan will not be able to understand Singdarin. It has becomed another new dialect of Sngapore, in addition to Singlish.

It seems that Singlish and Singdarin are quite commonly spoken in Singapore because many Singapore family usually has a 'mixed' language environment (for instance, mum might speak to the kid in english, while dad might speak in chinese, the result is a mix colloqual tongue). That lead to kids tending to combine and mix two languages together (English and Mandarin).

Although Singapore government is trying to foster speak good english and good mandarin, even mandarin now has a creole, which will make it more difficult to speak proper Mandarin.

Example of a Singdarin (Anglo-chinese)

"Ni de office zai na ni?" (Where is your office?).

"Raffles Place. Hen kao jing MRT station." (Very near MRT station.).

"You've been working there duo jiu le?" (How long have you been working there?).

"Bu tai jiu. Six months. Wo siang look for another job.
Maybe ming nian when I complete wo de accounting ourse."
(Not very long … I'm thinking of looking for another job. Maybe next year when I complete my accounting course.).

"Na wo jiu wish ni good luck." (In that case, I wish you good luck.)

Singdarin also has quite large number of dialect/hokkien terms mixed into the language, besides English
Some of the Singdarin grammar is quite funny. They are influenced by English grammar with lots of English words.

For original source: http://www.todayonli...cles/251968.asp

What do you think?

[Bao Pu]

... What do you think?

I think it's neat. But I think it needs more Malay

[kaiselin]

Interesting evolution of the languages. I imagine it will not be long before it becomes the norm.... Say 50 to 100 years But perhaps less then that.

[General_Zhaoyun]

I wrote the wikipedia article on Singdarin one year ago.

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singdarin

But I think, the best example is to see a video. Below illustrates the best example of colloquial Mandarin (Singdarin) spoken in Singapore.

[bloodmerchant]

It may be quite obvious but, somehow I feel that Singaporean English and Singaporean Mandarin is heavily influenced by Hokkien.

[xng]

But I think, the best example is to see a video. Below illustrates the best example of colloquial Mandarin (Singdarin) spoken in Singapore.

That's the way that the average singaporean chinese speaks. However, those mediacorp actors/actresses can and do speak purer mandarin.


I do find the comments in the video very hilarious. One of the things that I agree is that Singaporean government don't allow any 'mother tongue language' ie. hokkien to be shown on TV. This situation is unlike Malaysia where the original audio are not dubbed and are shown in the original Mandarin, Cantonese or Taiwanese Hokkien languages.

Edited by xng, 25 March 2010 - 08:10 PM.

[baibushe]

I don't know a lot about Singdarin, but from the examples, I feel like it is mostly code switching between English and Mandarin in the process of turning into a mixed language rather than a true creole. I don't know the structure of Singdarin, so I can't say for sure, but a creole would involve, I think, almost all the vocabulary taken from one language with input from other sources for the grammar and some vocabulary. Are the grammatical "borrowings" from English commonly used by everyone in a "standardized" manner, or do different people substitute English grammar at different times? As the majority of speakers, I'm assuming, are decently fluent in English and Mandarin, Singdarin seems at the moment to be extensive code switching.