Defining Singlish

Australia is celebrated for its multiculturalism and acceptance of ethnic minorities, however, according to linguist Ben crustal ‘Australia…recaptured by a pervasive monolingual mindset which sees monolingualism as the norm and multilingualism as the exception even as a problem or deficit.’ Although ethnolects are viewed negatively by the mainstream society, its usage is both beneficial to ethnic minorities and has been adopted as the Lingua Franca in some situations. As a result of the majority’s consensus on the dislike of ethnolects, minorities are pressured to adopt Standard Australian English (SAE) in formal and public domains; limiting the usage of ethnolects. These observations are reflected in a recent interview with X; a forty-year-old

Language use in Australia constantly and rapidly changes to reflect the ever-evolving Australian national identity. It is being influenced by American culture, through its pervasive media, and altered to create a unique identity that addresses the needs of the younger Australians. Technology, the loss and gain of expressions, changing perception of taboo words and political correctness also attribute to the way that language has evolved to fabricate our national identity.

The film “American Tongues” documents a variety of English accents that are present across the United States and highlights a lot of the opinions people have about accents and people who speak these accents. A large majority of the people who express opinions about other peoples’ accents tend to express negative views, as they see their own accent as the superior one. The film focuses on showing the array of accents found in the U.S., but also how a lot of people who speak these “inferior” accents work to learn “Standard American English” to increase their chances of getting jobs and communicating in more official domains. Although the film was made in 1988, it expresses views still present in today’s society towards different accents, as people tend to continue judging others based not only on what they say, but also how they say it.

“Mother Tongue” is an essay by Amy Tan that examines the ways in which people treat those who do not speak or act like them. Simply, how people perceive those that are different . The main purpose of “Mother Tongue” is to inform the readers of the ways they might intentionally or unintentionally be treating people who speak broken english as Tan’s mother does. This essay highlights the extreme importance of language and how it connects with everyone’s day to day lives.

In the examining and writing my analysis of the article Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, I hope to appeal to an audience that wishes to expand their knowledge of the cultural use of various languages and their social impacts. In this case, the language would be English and the culture would be that of Asian-Americans. I would think that this work, and the analysis of, would primarily be of interest to those in academic or research fields of sociology and language. I would hope the reader of my analysis would be interested in gaining insight into how using a “broken” English system heavily influences one’s communication and feeling towards those outside of your culture. The analysis would benefit the reader by

1. How important, if at all, is having one unique type of English that we all speak as Australians?

As I have already mentioned, Singapore has four official languages: English, Tamil, Mandarin and Malay. It was so historically formed that the official language of Singapore is Malay and the national anthem is also written in Malay language. English is the administration language of Singapore and it is mainly British English, but also contain some American English influences. English remains the first language medium in schools and colleges of the country, and is also the most widespread language in the literature. All signs and official publications are written in English, but there are also versions translated into other official languages. But the population doesn’t speak English, but so-called Singlish with Creole characteristics, Chinese dialects, and Indian and Malay languages.

In more modern times the interaction of English speakers with other languages, through first colonialism, and later the emergence of English as a global language has enriched the vocabulary (‘pyjama’) and led to the evolution of different versions of English around the world, for example the hybrid ‘Singlish’ that has emerged in Singapore.

In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she opens the story by informing us that she speaks more than one language. She states that she is a writer and she is someone who has always loved language. Throughout the story she explains the different situations that she experience because of the way she talks such as when she has to translate for her mother on the phone and how she talks proper when she is giving a speech. She feels as if her mother’s English “limits” her perception of her. She also states that at one point she was ashamed of her mother’s English. On the other hand, her mother’s English is perfectly clear to her and she describes it as her mother tongue.

Amy Tan, a Chinese woman who throughout her youth lived with her mother, is speaking at an assembly of her peers. After this assembly, she is informed of the changes in her dialect that were present during her speech when her mother arrived. This information gave Tan incentive to check up on her own speech patterns in her home and at the workplace, accordingly. While Tan is walking with her mother, she notices the differences in her formal and comfortable Englishes distinctly. In her and her mother’s conversation, Tan discovers that the way she speaks around her mother is different from the way she would converse with a colleague. In a professional setting, Tan would carefully construct her sentences in saying things similar to: “The intersection

Reading chapter six from Beyond Grammar Language, Power, and the Classroom, written by Mary R. Harmon and Marilyn J. Wilson has open my eyes not to base peoples’ language off from standard American English because everyone has a different dialect depending on their culture. I am going to be more mindful of peoples’ dialect, and not be quick to judge a person based on their language because a person's language is what makes that individual unique. Instead, I am going to embrace the different dialects and use them as an advantage when teaching a classroom

Talking incorrectly can sometimes have advantages and disadvantages while communicating with others. People nowadays talk slang and incorrect grammar. But still, it is still very effective to us right now. People haven’t noticed but language today has changed very much compared to how people used to speak 10 or even 20 years ago. Stories written by Kirk Johnson, David Sedaris, and Anita Jain all show the how speaking today has changed.

When people speak of affective qualities of a language variety, it is not the language that is being evaluated, but an underlying stereotype of the speakers themselves. For this reason, attitudes toward divergent language varieties “are better understood as attitudes towards the members of language communities” rather than the variety itself (Edwards, 1994, p. 89). In this way, then, by judging the speakers of in-group language varieties, respondents are also indirectly evaluating members of these in-groups as well , essentially making qualitative judgments regarding language and their own group identity (Edwards, 1985). Fundamentally, as Edwards (1985) writes, language attitudes “allow some insights into the perception and presentation of identity” (p. 151). Therefore, by looking at attitudes of learners of Mandarin toward regional accented-Mandarin, we can probably understand whether this language variety is more likely to be used, emulated, and accepted throughout learners of Mandarin.

There are many indicators of identity by which we are made known individually, socially and culturally; the best of these would be language and how it has shown great flexibility in accommodating the needs of people. Through language people have been able to establish their identities and cultivate friendships with others who share the same common ground. By looking at accents such as Broad Australian English, slang and phonological features as they apply to Australian varieties, we can see how it has forged solidarity and assisted in creating an identity on an individual and national scale.

Language is a powerful communication tool the user holds to express their individual identity and ingroup solidarity. The use of Standard English helps to direct this, as it acts as the structure of communication, ingroup and between speech communities to effectively present a standard for mutual understanding. Outside of Standard English comes the use of slang, netspeak and textspeak, which helps to develop and enrich the language, as well as evolve with contemporary Australia and its fast paced lifestyle. Using the Standard all the time would be exclusive of the linguistic freedom formed by the world beyond Standard English with varying ethnolects, but is also a