European Journal of Language Policy

Singlish: an illegitimate conception in Singapore’s language policies?

European Journal of Language Policy (2017), 9, (1), 85–104.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3828/ejlp.2017.6
Language
English
Pages
20

Abstract

Singapore, like many post-colonial states, longs for a common language to unite its linguistically heterogeneous population. Singlish, which comprises primarily elements of English, Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin-Chinese and Cantonese, is a language spoken by almost every Singaporean, and can be considered to be Singapore’s common language. Unfortunately, this common language, Singlish, is also a language that the authorities are eager to get rid of. The Singaporean state holds the belief that Singlish is a corrupted and incorrect form of English, and is detrimental to the image and development of the nation. Singlish, has therefore, since 2000, been the subject of a large scale, state-run language campaign, the purpose of which is to delegitimise and eliminate this language. This paper traces the development of Singlish and argues that the birth of Singlish would not have been possible without the socio-political and historical factors that have created it. Applying, for the first time, Mufwene’s (2001) theory of language ecology and evolution to the field of language planning and policy, I will show that Singlish is in fact an inevitable but unwelcomed conception of state language policies.

Symptomatique de beaucoup de pays postcoloniales, Singapour, c’est-à-dire l’état singapourien, désire une langue commune afin de mettre en unité ses citoyens qui partagent entre eux des langues hétérogènes. Et cela est en dépit du fait que presque tout Singapourien parle Singlish, une langue qui se constitue des éléments de l’anglais, du malais, du hokkiène, du mandarin et du cantonnais. L’état vise cependant à supprimer le Singlish puisqu’il croit que ce dernier est une forme corrompue et défectueuse de la langue anglaise et qu’elle compromet l’image et le progrès du pays. Dès 2000, le Singlish a ainsi été la cible d’une campagne étatique de grande envergure cherchant à le délégitimiser et à l’éliminer. À l’encontre de la perspective de l’état et de son rejet du Singlish, cet article trace la généalogie du Singlish en s’appuyant sur la théorie du langage écologique et évolutionnaire de Mufwene (2001), et met en avant l’argument que la naissance et l’existence continue du Singlish, bien que contestées, sont essentiellement indéniables, étant donné les facteurs historiques et socio-politiques qui l’ont effectivement créé.

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Tan, Ying-Ying