The government of Singapore has not always wanted people to think that Singlish is anything other than ‘bad English’. But this popular language is different from English in important ways. Singlish arose in the past century from the mixing of many different language groups within an English school system. Much of its grammar is borrowed from dialects of Chinese, and while many of the words come (sometimes changed) from English, it also has Malay and Tamil influences. It is now the native tongue of many Singaporeans, and much of the country’s daily life is conducted in it. Since it is not official or standardised, it has multiple varieties on a continuum from quite similar to standard English all the way to really not mutually intelligible with English. To take a couple of examples from worksingapore.com: “Wah lau, the movie damn sian” (“I didn't really like the movie. I found it rather uninteresting”) and “Kena saman? Die, lah” (“I’m being fined? Oh dear”).

And what is the future of English and its offspring? There are pulls in two directions: on the one hand is the homogenising influence of the global economy and the internet, engendering greater conformity and homogeneity (but also spreading innovations rapidly); on the other hand is the desire for expression of local identity, a sense of belonging to a place and a distinct culture. English may come to have a global standard that is not exactly what is spoken in any local culture, which may be quite different in some places for the reasons mentioned above. Some of those local varieties may over time have strong mutual influence and convergence with global English. Others may become independent languages.

Some local varieties will not survive – the future is not bright for Pitkern. But other local variations may come to be increasingly local and even, as deliberate expressions of independence from the dominating hegemony of global English, become standardised languages of their own, as Tok Pisin has.

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