Singdarin

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Colloquial Singaporean Mandarin, also known as Singdarin (simplified Chinese: 新加坡式华语; traditional Chinese: 新加坡式華語; pinyin: Xīnjiāpōshì Huáyǔ; Wade–Giles: hsin¹ chia¹ p'o¹ shih⁴ hua² yü³),^[1] is an interlanguage native to Singapore. In Taiwan, this language variety is known as Singnese (Chinese: 星式中文; pinyin: Xīngshì Zhōngwén; Wade–Giles: hsing¹ shih⁴ chung¹ wen²; lit. 'Sing[apore] colloquial Chinese language').^[2] It is based on Mandarin but has a large amount of English in its vocabulary. For this reason, Singdarin is sometimes known as "Anglo-Chinese". There are also words from Malay and other Chinese languages.^[3]

In general, well-educated Chinese Singaporeans are able to code-switch between Singdarin and Standard Mandarin.

Singdarin grammar is usually identical to Chinese. In some circumstances, there is code-switching with English.^{[citation needed]} Singdarin vocabulary consists of a large number of words from English, Hokkien and Malay, among other languages, often when speakers do not know the Mandarin equivalent of what they wish to express, and instead use English words to convey the meaning.

It is almost identical to the Colloquial Malaysian Mandarin spoken in Malaysia, while native Chinese from China or native Taiwanese from Taiwan generally find it difficult to understand Singdarin due to large number of English or non-Mandarin words used. The Singaporean government currently discourages the use of Singdarin in favour of Standard Singaporean Mandarin as it believes in the need for Singaporeans to be able to communicate effectively with native Chinese from China or Taiwan.

Origins[]

Like its Singlish equivalent, Singdarin evolved because many Singaporean Chinese families come from mixed language environments. For instance, children may be raised in households in which one parent speaks English while the other speaks Chinese or coming for other Chinese dialects, such as Hokkien or Cantonese respectively.

Singdarin has also evolved largely because Singapore is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society. One of the most important policies of the Singaporean government is to ensure social and multi-ethnic harmony. Therefore, instead of letting certain ethnic groups to live in an isolated community like they did in the past, the Singapore government encourages the majority of Singaporeans to live in HDB flats that have now become a melting pot of Chinese, Malays, Indians and other different ethnicity who speak different languages. This is believed to reduce differences between the diverse linguistic and ethnic groups in Singapore.

As the majority of Singaporeans live in HDB flats, which have families coming from various linguistic, racial and ethnic background, there is a tendency for different languages to be mixed in order to facilitate more effective communication between the different races. In short, it leads to the creation of a hybrid culture (known colloquially as a "rojak" culture).

This and the tendency for the Singaporean Chinese people to use the mixed language that they use at home in daily colloquial conversation has since influenced the Mandarin spoken in schools, resulting in "Singdarin" being formed. It was in this environment that Singdarin developed.

Examples of Singdarin (Anglo-Chinese) dialogue[]

Below are some examples of Singdarin dialogue spoken amongst some Chinese Singaporeans.

¹ Usually the word 'station' is omitted.

English loanwords[]

The following are the common English loan words used in Singdarin.

Loanwords from other languages[]

Just like Singlish, certain words used in Singlish are also interchangeably used in Singdarin.