The anatomy of Singlish: globalisation, multiculturalism and the construction of the ‘local’ in Singapore

Abstract

ABSTRACTSinglish – ‘the name given to the colloquial variety of English spoken in Singapore’ [Wee, Lionel. 2014. “Linguistic Chutzpah and the Speak Good Singlish Movement.” World Englishes 33 (1): 85–99], incorporating Chinese dialect (particularly Hokkien) and Malay lexical and grammatical elements – has for some time been the antagonist in a cultural war of linguistic prescription (which has also targeted Chinese dialects) waged by the government. Some scholars have pointed out that apart from contestations about grammaticality and ‘brokenness', Singlish is also the site of contestation about identity politics in a post-colonial national setting. In more recent years, with the rise of discourses in social media critical of some government policies, as well as the increasing contestation of Singaporean identity in a transnational era, Singlish has increasingly been mobilised to mount a more grim note of sociopolitical discontent. This role is reinforced by Singlish's status as a creole of ‘the body', an affective discourse of visceral responses that thus defines an entrenched and conservative local community and identity.