Singapore English

Not to be confused with Singlish.

Singapore English (SgE, SE, en-SG) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Singapore. In Singapore, English is spoken in two main forms: Singaporean Standard English, which is indistinguishable grammatically from British English, and Singaporean Colloquial English, which is better known as Singlish.

Singapore English
Native to	Singapore
Region	Asia
Ethnicity	Singaporeans
Native speakers	Approx. 4 million (2020)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Ingvaeonic Anglo-Frisian Anglic English British English Malaysian English Singapore English
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Germanic Proto-West Germanic Proto-English Old English Middle English Early Modern English Modern English
Writing system	Latin (English alphabet) Unified English Braille
Official status
Official language in	Singapore
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
IETF	en-SG

Singapore is a cosmopolitan society. For example, in 2015, among Singaporeans of Chinese descent, over a third spoke English as their main language at home while almost half spoke Mandarin and the rest spoke various varieties of Chinese such as Hokkien. Most Singaporeans of Indian descent speak either English or a South Asian language. Many Malay Singaporeans use Malay as the lingua franca among the ethnic groups of the Malay world, while Eurasians and mixed-race Singaporeans are usually monolingual in English.

English is the medium of communication among students from primary school to university in Singapore. Many families use two or three languages on a regular basis, and English is often one of them. The level of fluency in English among residents in Singapore also varies greatly from person to person, depending on their educational background, but English in general is nevertheless understood, spoken and written as the main language throughout the country.

Classification of Singapore English

Singapore English can be classified into Singapore Standard English (SSE) and Singapore Colloquial English (Singlish). The language consists of three sociolects; Acrolect, Mesolect, and Basilect. Both Acrolect and Mesolect are regarded as Standard Singapore English, while Basilect is considered as Singlish.

• Acrolect; there is no substantial difference from Standard British English (SBE), though there may be some features of pronunciation that indicate the speaker is Singaporean, such as use of a full vowel in unstressed syllables and a relatively monophthongal realisation of the FACE vowel.
• Mesolect; it has some features distinct from SBE
  1. Question tenses in an indirect form; e.g. "May I ask where is the toilet?"
  2. Indefinite article deletion (copula absence); e.g. "May I apply for car licence?" (Instead of saying "a" car licence)
  3. Lack of marking in verb forms (Regularisation); e.g. "He always go to the shopping centre."
• Basilect (Singlish);
  1. Generalised "is it" question tag; e.g. "You coming today, Is it?"
  2. Consistent copula deletion; e.g. "My handwriting no good, lah."
  3. Use of particles like ah; lah, e.g. "Wait ah; Hurry lah, I need to go now!"

Singaporeans vary their language according to social situations (Pakir 1991) and attitudes that they want to convey (Poedjosoedarmo 1993). Better educated Singaporeans with a "higher" standard of English tend to speak "Standard" Singapore English (the acrolect), whereas those who are less-educated or whose first language is not English tend to speak Singlish (the basilect). Gupta (1994) said that most Singaporean speakers systematically alternate between colloquial and formal language depending on the formality of the situation.

Standard Singapore English

Standard Singapore English is the standard form of English used in Singapore. It generally resembles British English and is often used in more formal settings such as the workplace or when communicating with people of higher authority such as teachers, bosses and government officials. Singapore English acts as the "bridge" among different ethnic groups in Singapore. Standard Singapore English retains British spelling and grammar.

History

The British established a trading post on the island of Singapore in 1819, and the population grew rapidly thereafter, attracting many immigrants from Chinese provinces and from India. The roots of Standard Singapore English derive from nearly a century and a half of British control. Its local character seems to have developed early in the English-medium schools of the 19th and early-20th centuries, where the teachers often came from India and Ceylon, as well as from various parts of Europe and from the United States of America. By 1900 Eurasians and other locals were employed as teachers. Apart from a period of Japanese occupation (1942–1945), Singapore remained a British colony until 1963, when it joined the Malaysian federation, but this proved a short-lived alliance, largely due to ethnic rivalries. Since its expulsion from the Federation in 1965, Singapore has operated as an independent city-state. English served as the administrative language of the British colonial government, and when Singapore gained self-government in 1959 and independence in 1965, the Singaporean government decided to keep English as the main language to maximise economic prosperity. The use of English as the nation's first language serves to bridge the gap between the diverse ethnic groups in Singapore; English operates as the lingua franca of the nation. The use of English as a global language for commerce, technology and science has also helped to expedite Singapore's development and integration into the global economy. Public schools use English as the main language of instruction, although students are also required to receive part of their instruction in their mother tongue; placement in such courses is based on ethnicity and not without controversy. The standard Singaporean accent used to be officially RP. However, in recent decades, a standard Singaporean accent, quite independent of any external standard, including RP, started to emerge. A 2003 study by the National Institute of Education in Singapore suggests that a standard Singaporean pronunciation is emerging and is on the cusp of being standardised. Singaporean accents can be said to be largely non-rhotic.

In 2023, opposition leader Pritam Singh advocated for English proficiency testing for immigrants seeking Singaporean citizenship. Polling data of native-born Singaporeans show broad support for the proposal.

Singapore's Speak Good English Movement

The wide use of Singlish led the government to launch the Speak Good English Movement in Singapore in 2000 in an attempt to replace Singlish with Standard English. This movement was made to show the need for Singaporeans to speak Standard English. Nowadays, all children in schools are being taught Standard English with one of the other official languages (Chinese, Malay, Tamil) being taught as a second language. In Singapore, English is a "working language" that serves the economy and development and is associated with the broader global community. Meanwhile, the rest are "mother tongues" that are associated with the country's culture. Speaking Standard English also helps Singaporeans communicate and express themselves in their everyday life. In 2014, the Singaporean government made an announcement entitled "Speak Good English Movement brings fun back to Grammar and good English", where the strategies that would be used to promote their program in the following years were explained. Specifically, the government would release a series of videos demystifying the difficulty and dullness of the grammatical rules of the English language. These videos provide a more humorous approach to learning basic grammar rules. Singaporeans will now be able to practise the grammatical rules in both written and spoken English thanks to a more interactive approach.

Malay, Indian, and Chinese influences

Although Standard Singapore English (SSE) is mainly influenced by British English and, recently, American English, there are other languages that also contribute to its use on a regular basis. The majority of Singaporeans speak more than one language, with many speaking three to four. Most Singaporean children are brought up bilingual. They are introduced to Malay, Chinese, Tamil, or Singapore Colloquial English (Singlish) as their native languages, depending on their families' ethnic backgrounds and/or socioeconomic status. They also acquire those languages from interacting with friends in school and other places. Naturally, the presence of other languages in Singapore has influenced Singapore English, something particularly apparent in Singlish.

Both Singapore English and Singapore colloquial English are used with multiple accents. Because Singaporeans speak different ethnic mother tongues, they exhibit ethnic-specific features in their speech such that their ethnicity can be readily identified from their speech alone. The strength of one's ethnic mother tongue-accented English accent depends on factors like formality and their language dominance. Words from Malay, Chinese, and Tamil are also borrowed, if not code-switched, into Singapore English. For example, the Malay words "makan" (to eat), "habis" (finished), and the Hokkien word "kiasu" are constantly used and adopted to SE vocabularies, to the point that Singaporeans are not necessarily aware of which language those words are from. Furthermore, the word "kiasu" has been used in the Singapore press since 2000 without being italicised; Kiasu means "always wanting the best for oneself and willing to try hard to get it". In another journal, "Kiasu" is also defined as 'characterised by a grasping or selfish attitude arising from a fear of missing out on something' (usu. adj., definition from OED (Simpson and Weiner 2000); Hokkien kia(n)su).

Overview of Singaporean accents

See also: Singlish § Phonology

Like most Commonwealth countries outside of Canada, the accents of most reasonably educated Singaporeans who speak English as their first language are similar to Received Pronunciation, though there are immediately noticeable differences. Singaporean accents are predominantly non-rhotic, like Australian and Nigerian English, so most speakers leave out the "r" sound in words like far, although rhotic accents can be heard among a small minority of speakers and its prevalence seems to be directly correlated with both education level and socioeconomic status.

Studies suggest that realising the r sound at the end of words and syllables is more common for women among Chinese and Indian Singaporeans and younger speakers in general, and that it is more common in content words than in function words, and in reading than in conversation.

Low vowels

Monophthongs of Singapore English on a normalised formant chart, from Deterding (2007a:19). Here, /ɛ̝/ represents the NEXT vowel, and [ɔː] and [uː], in red, are allophones of /ɔː/ and /uː/ in open syllables. The vowels in FACE and GOAT are not included in this plot.

As a general rule, words like grass, last and path are pronounced with the PALM vowel /ɑː/ [ä]—the a in father—like most dialects from the south of England. Unlike some varieties of North American English, aunt /ɑː/ and ant /æ/ do not sound the same. The vowels in luck and lark usually overlap and are both open central [ä]. Speakers may maintain a length distinction, in which case the ar /ɑː/ vowel is longer. Strong vowels tend to be longer in open syllables, so the vowels in fur [əː], law [ɔː] and bee [iː] are longer than the ones in work, fork and beet on average.

The vowels in met /ɛ/ and mat /æ/ are seldom distinguished [ɛ] in conversational speech. Any distinction is less likely between words ending in stop consonants, like met and mat, though bed [e] and bad [ɛ] are kept distinct (see § Next–text split). Some studies report that /æ/ tends to be less centralised in vowel space. The SQUARE vowel is long and open-mid [ɛː].

While most speakers will use the PALM vowel [ä] in the words laugh, staff, plastic, elastic and the prefix trans-, many will use the TRAP vowel /æ/ [ɛ] in gasp. Usage of the TRAP vowel in dance and can’t has also been reported, but this is generally rare.

The LOT vowel has been described as near-open [ɔ̞˖]. The vowel in THOUGHT/COURT may be longer and closer to cardinal [ɔː] and this tendency is stronger before voiced consonants and in open syllables, but is otherwise the same as the LOT vowel for many speakers.

Next–text split

For nearly all speakers, some words from the DRESS lexical set have diverged into a separate group, so the words next and text do not rhyme. The word next has a raised vowel [e], which differs from the low-mid vowel [ɛ] in text. This raised vowel is found in several words including leg, dead and head, and may be identical to the vowel in FACE, in which case dead rhymes with made, but not with fed (which does not have the raised vowel). Taking this into account, speakers with the complete met–mat merger will distinguish lag [ɛ] from leg [e], but not the words lad [ɛ] and led [ɛ]. The raised vowel also occurs in red, making red [e] and read [ɛ] (as in I have read the book) non-homophones.

The raised vowel [e] can be found in a small number of words, including bed, dead, edge, egg, head, heavy, instead, leg, next, red, said and says, though edge only has the raised vowel for a minority of speakers. The vast majority of other words like mess, beg and dread do not have their vowels raised and continue to use the more common low-mid vowel [ɛ]. The exact realisation of the next vowel ranges from mid [ɛ̝] to close-mid [e].

The next–text split appears to be motivated by the met–mat merger in the speech of younger Singaporeans. Younger speakers are more likely than older speakers to raise the vowel in next, though younger speakers raise it to a lower height on average. While words with the raised vowel tend to end in voiced stop consonants like d and g, this split is not phonologically conditioned, unlike /ɛɡ/ raising in Pacific Northwest English.

High vowels

The vowels in FACE and GOAT may be realised with slight diphthongal movement, or as short [e] [o] or long monophthongs [eː] [oː].

The KIT vowel is, on average, closer to the vowel in FLEECE in Singapore English than in other accents like RP. At its most extreme, it is as high and front as the FLEECE vowel. Likewise, for many speakers, the vowels in FOOT and GOOSE are very similar and may overlap in vowel quality. Concerning vowel length, the KIT and FOOT vowels are often shorter, so speakers may also rely on vowel length to distinguish words like rid [ɹɪd] and read [ɹiˑd].

Studies suggest that GOOSE-fronting is now prevalent among younger speakers, and that it is more accurate to classify this variant of /uː/ as a near-back [u̟] or central [ʉ] vowel. According to Deterding (2007a), /uː/ is further front in words like soon and noon, and remains a back vowel in words without a final consonant like two.

Diphthongs

The diphthongs in PRICE, CHOICE and MOUTH do not differ significantly from their counterparts in RP. Words like fire /ˈfaɪ.ə/ and towel /ˈtaʊ.əl/ are normally broken down into two syllables.

The vowel in NEAR is always a gliding vowel: [ɪə], [iə] or [jəː]. Within the CURE lexical set, words like cure and endure end in [-jɔː] for some speakers, and [-juə] for others. Other words without a preceding /j/ sound, like tour and sure, are always pronounced with the diphthong [-uə].

Consonants

Th-stopping is common at the start of syllables, making tree and three homophones. This is generally more common in informal settings. Dental fricatives may undergo th-fronting at the end of words, so teeth sounds like teef, though many speakers will use a [t] sound in the word maths [mɛts]. For some Tamil bilinguals, word-final th sounds are alternatively realised as stops. Stop consonants in Singapore English are usually not released at the end of words, and voiceless stops can be aspirated or unaspirated in initial positions. Additionally, word-final voiceless stops may exhibit some degree of glottal reinforcement.

There are three prevalent variants of final L in Singapore English: dark "l"s, clear "l"s and vocalised "l"s. For speakers who vocalise their "l"s, the "l" sound can be dropped entirely after mid central vowels, back vowels and diphthongs with back vowels, so that wall and war sound the same, and the diphthong /aɪ/ is monophthongised into [ä] before a vocalised "l", so Nile and now are similar-sounding. Vocalised "l"s are realised as high back vowels [ö] with varying degrees of lip rounding. Older Chinese Singaporeans are more likely to vocalise final "l"s, and Malay speakers are more likely to use clear "l"s in these environments.

Generally, t and d in words like water and ladder are seldom realised as alveolar taps or flaps like in North American English and certain varieties of Australian and New Zealand English. However, for some speakers, tapped t and d are occasionally used in colloquial speech, and younger speakers are more likely to use them.

The r sound

The use of linking and intrusive R is generally uncommon in Singapore English. In a 2018 study examining the speech of 104 Singapore English speakers, linking R was used less than 20% of the time, and intrusive R was found to be extremely rare. The majority of speakers will drop the r sound entirely at the end of words most of the time, even if the next word begins with a vowel.

The most common and predominant realisation of the r sound in Singapore English is the postalveolar approximant [ɹ̠], the standard variant worldwide. The alveolar tap [ɾ] or trill [r] is an uncommon realisation of r among Malay and Indian Singaporeans and older speakers in general. Among Tamil Singaporeans, the trilled variant appears to be extremely rare in comparison to the approximant and tapped r. A rare and emergent variant of r, described as a labiodental approximant [ʋ], has also been reported. Across English dialects, this phenomenon is known as R-labialization.

Lexical incidence

While words generally follow the lexical incidence patterns of Southern British English accents, so new for example, is pronounced nyoo, never noo like in some North American dialects, there are several exceptions.

• The words want and what are pronounced with the open central STRUT vowel instead of the rounded LOT vowel, like most varieties of North American English. In the English spoken in Southern England and Australia, these words are usually pronounced with the LOT vowel.
• Many speakers use the LOT vowel for won (win in the past tense), so that it rhymes with con and no longer sounds like one.
• For many, their [ðɪə ~ djä] sounds more like thya in informal or conversational speech, so it is distinct from there, which rhymes with mare.
• Flour is pronounced FLAR, and is clearly distinct from flower.
• Seems and seen are sometimes realised with the lax i vowel found in words like KIT.
• The vowel in love is the mid central NURSE vowel, rather than the open STRUT vowel.
• December is sometimes De[z]ember, with a /z/, at least for some speakers.

Stress and intonation

Stress-tone relationship in SgE according to Ng (2011)

Single phonological word		Multiple phonological words
example	pitch contour	example	pitch contour
rat	H	greenhouse	H–H
today	L–H	underneath	M–H–H
peanut	M–H	unimpressed	H–L–H
creative	L–M–H	watermelon	M–H–M–H
minimum	M–M–H	anticlockwise	M–H–H–H

Pitch contour of a declarative sentence in Singapore English, from Chong (2012). Here, aL and Ha mark the left and right edges of an accentual phrase, and L* is a pitch accent falling on stressed syllables. The gradual downwards movement of pitch towards the end of the sentence is represented by the boundary tone L%.

Singapore English is characterised by a unique intonational system where pitch tends to be slightly raised at the end of a word with lexical stress. According to one analysis, the rightmost syllable of a stressed word or phonological word is marked with higher pitch, while words with no stress (e.g. my house) and unstressed initial syllables (e.g. again) carry relatively lower pitch. Meanwhile, all other non-final stressed syllables (e.g. writer) coincide with a mid level tone, or similar pitch contour between low and high levels. There is also a tendency for pitch contours to be accentuated near the start of a sentence and diminished towards the end, and for pitch to drop or level out at the end of declarative sentences. For example, in the phrase I don’t remember [aɪ˨ ˈdon˦ ɹɪ˨ˈmɛm˧.bə˦], pitch starts off low in I, then rises to a higher level in don’t. The word remember is then realised with a less accentuated low–mid–high pitch contour.

Tone assignment only takes place within the scope of the phonological word. Cranberry takes on a high–mid–high pitch contour [ˈkɹɛn˦ˌbɛ˧.ɹi˦], since cran and berry are analysed as separate words. Similarly, in brainstorm [ˈbɹeɪn˦ˌstɔːm˦], brain and storm are both assigned high pitch. Prefixes with stress constitute their own phonological words, so the re in reenact [ˈɹi˦.ɛn˨ˌɛkt˦] is high-pitched. In words where the prefix is unstressed or less salient, like unfortunate [an˨ˈfɔ˧.tʃə˧.nət˦] and nonsense [ˈnɔn˧.səns˦], the prefix is not treated as a separate unit with stress and is therefore not assigned high pitch.

Words are not restricted to discrete level tones. One alternative analysis posits that high pitch is associated with the right edge of an accentual phrase, and low pitch with the left edge; an accentual phrase may consist of a content word with zero or any number of preceding unstressed function words. For instance, in a sentence like I joined the call, in which I joined is analysed as a single accentual phrase, joined can be realised with rising pitch starting from the low pitch in I, in lieu of consistently high pitch. In this model, phonological words (e.g. cran and berry in cranberry) and prefixes with stress are analysed as belonging to separate accentual phrases. Other intonational variants have also been noted. For instance, flat pitch contours can sometimes span the entire length of words and accentual phrases where rising contours would normally be expected.

Wider pitch range is associated with the introduction of a topic near the start of a sentence. Elsewhere in the sentence, differences in pitch are less prominent, so low, mid and high tones may collapse into roughly the same pitch level. Moreover, at the end of declarative sentences and open-ended questions, "high-pitched" syllables are weaker and often replaced with a drop or leveling out in pitch. For example, in the sentence I left all my things on the table, pitch is much higher on left than it is on the second syllable of table, which has underlying high pitch but tends to be realised instead with a fall or leveling out in pitch. Yes-no questions are accompanied with rising pitch, as is the case in many other dialects of English. Rising pitch is also commonly used when there is non-final information at the end of an utterance, sometimes to indicate a non-final item in a list.

Timing

Unstressed initial syllables are often realised with shorter duration and lower intensity. There is also a tendency for the last syllable in an utterance to be lengthened or dragged out.

Singapore English tends towards syllable timing, unlike British English, which is considered stress-timed.

Foreign dialects of English in Singapore

Further information: Eurasians in Singapore

A wide range of foreign English dialects can be heard in Singapore. American and British accents are often heard on local television and radio due to the frequent airing of foreign television programmes.

Singapore Colloquial English / Singlish

Main article: Singlish

Unlike Singapore Standard English, Singlish includes many discourse particles and loan words from Malay, Mandarin and Hokkien. Many of such loan words include swear words, particularly Hokkien profanities such as "kanina" and "chee bai". Hence, it is commonly regarded with low prestige in the country and not used in formal communication.

However, Singlish has been used in several locally produced films, including Army Daze, Mee Pok Man and Talking Cock the Movie, among others. Some local sitcoms, in particular Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, also feature extensive use of Singlish.

The proliferation of Singlish has been controversial and the use of Singlish is not endorsed by the government. Singapore's first two prime ministers, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, have publicly declared that Singlish is a substandard variety that handicaps Singaporeans, presents an obstacle to learning standard English, and renders the speaker incomprehensible to everyone except another Singlish speaker. The country's third, Lee Hsien Loong, has also said that Singlish should not be part of Singapore's identity. In addition, the government launched the Speak Good English Movement in 2000 to encourage Singaporeans to speak proper English.

Despite strong criticisms of Singlish, linguist David Yoong has put forward the argument that "Singaporeans who subscribe to Singlish and have a positive attitude towards the code see Singlish as a language that transcends social barriers" and that the language can be used to "forge rapport and, perhaps more importantly, the Singaporean identity". Sociolinguist Anthea Fraser Gupta also argues that Singlish and standard English can and do co-exist, saying that "there is no evidence that the presence of Singlish causes damage to standard English". This was followed by organisers of the Speak Good English Movement clarifying that they are "not anti-Singlish", with their primary intention instead to ensure that Singaporeans are able to speak standard English first. A spokesperson was quoted as saying: "The presence of Singlish causes damage to standard English only when people do not have a good grounding in standard English".

English language trends in Singapore

In 2010, speakers of English in Singapore were classified into five different groups:

1. Those who have no knowledge of English (extremely few people, most of whom were born before the 1940s);
2. Those who regard English as a foreign language, have limited command of, and seldom speak the language (mostly the older age groups);
3. Those who learnt English at school and can use it but have a dominant other language (many people, of all ages);
4. Those who learnt English at school and use it as their dominant language (many people, of all ages);
5. Those who learnt English as a native language (sometimes as a sole native language, but usually alongside other languages) and use it as their dominant language (many people, mostly children born after 1965 to highly educated parents).

As of 2015, English is the most commonly spoken language in Singaporean homes. One effect of mass immigration into Singapore since 2000, especially from China, has been an increase in the proportion of the population to whom English is a foreign language. The most recent trend in Singapore favours an increasing use of English as well as stability in the use of Mandarin at the expense of other varieties of Chinese (apparently as the Chinese population switches first to Mandarin, then to English) while the use of Malay slowly erodes.

Language most frequently spoken at home (%)

Language	1990	2000	2010	2015	2020
English	18.8	23.0	32.3	36.9	48.3
Mandarin	23.7	35.0	35.6	34.9	29.9
Chinese dialects	?	23.8	14.3	12.2	8.7
Malay	14.3	14.1	12.2	10.7	9.2
Tamil	2.9	3.2	3.3	3.3	2.5
Others	?	0.9	2.3	2.0	1.4

In 2010, 52% of Chinese children and 26% of Malay children aged between 5 and 14 speak English at home, as compared to 36% and 9.4% respectively in 2000.

Other official languages in Singapore

English is Singapore's main and one of the four official languages, along with Malay, Chinese and Tamil. The symbolic national language is Malay for historical reasons. All official signs, legislation and documents are required to be in English, although translations in the other official languages are sometimes included, though it is not necessary. Under the education system, English is the language of instruction for all subjects except the official Mother Tongue languages (the other three official languages) and the literatures of those languages.

Further reading

• Rachel Siew Kuang Tan; Ee-Ling Low (January 2010). "How different are the monophthongs of Malay speakers of Malaysian and Singapore English?". English World-Wide. 31 (2): 162–189. doi:10.1075/eww.31.2.03tan.