Malay may be enshrined in the Constitution as the 'national' language, but in practice the most common language is English, spoken by almost every Singaporean under the age of 40. However, the distinctive local patois Singlish may be hard to understand at times, as it incorporates slang words and phrases from other languages, including various Chinese dialects, Malay and Tamil. It also incorporates slang from British and American English, and has a queer way of structuring sentences, due to the original speakers being mostly Chinese. Complex consonant clusters are simplified, plurals disappear, verb tenses are replaced by adverbs, questions are altered to fit the Chinese syntax and semirandom particles (especially the infamous "lah") appear:

Singlish: You wan beer or not? -- No lah, drink five botol oreddi.

English: Do you want a beer? -- No, thanks; I've already had five bottles.

Thanks to nationwide language education campaigns, most younger Singaporeans are, however, capable of speaking so-called "Good English" when necessary. To avoid unintentional offense, it's best to start off with standard English and only shift to simplified pidgin if it becomes evident that the other person cannot follow you. Try to resist the temptation to sprinkle your speech with unnecessary Singlishisms: you'll get a laugh if you do it right, but it sounds grating and patronizing if you do it wrong.

Singapore's other official languages are Mandarin Chinese and Tamil. Various Chinese dialects (especially Hokkien) and other Indian languages are also spoken.

additional information from Wikipedia

11/24/06 by visitEarth
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