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Final Particles of Singlish:

effects on international

communication

Weerawat Lertromyanant

550132016

Objectives

- To analyze the negative and positive effects of

using Singlish final particles on the way

Singaporeans communicate with foreigners

- To find out the solution for common problems and

misunderstandings caused by Singlish final particles

in the use of English as an international language

- To survey the attitudes of foreign tourists toward

the use of Singlish final particles by Singaporeans

By: Hannah, Christina, Dorea

What kind of English do they speak?

Singapore Colloquial

English

TamilMalay

English Chinese

What is Singlish?

Singlish has become an English used in Singapore.

Examples of some final particles in

Singlish

used at the ends of words or phrases for emphasis

used at the ends of words or phrases to mean “already”

Ex. “It’s very hard so I can’t do it lah”

Ex. “he passed the final exam liao”

Liao can also be used with Lah. Ex. "I told you he came liao lah!"

used as an informal way of saying 'please' or complaining

Ex. "give me soy sauce leh“ or "why you say

6÷2(1+2) = 10.You so stupid leh!"

Singapore Colloquial English has about ten particles; lah,

ah, what, hah, lor, hor, nah, leh, ma, and meh. The

frequency of these finalparticles in the spoken categories

in ICE-SIN (a corpus of about 600,000 words) is shown in

Table 1.1.

Singlish

final

paricles

Final

particles

Frequency

1. lah 1,742

2. ah 1,242

3. hah 256

4. what 224

5. lor 114

6. hor 63

7. nah 50

8. leh 43

9. ma 27

10. meh 20Table 1.1 A comparison of the Singlish final particles in the spoken categories in ICE-SIN

Methodlogy

• 5 Singaporeans

• 3 foreign

tourists in SG

• Questionnaire • Data collection

• Research design

• Data analysis

MaterialSubject Procedure

QuestionnaireTopic: “Final Particles of Singlish: their effects in international communication”

Please answer the following questions and briefly explain your answers

1. Which final particles often used unintentionally for communication with

foreigners? (Such as lah, lor, etc.)

2. Do those final particles cause some problems or misunderstandings

among foreigners? What are the problems or the misunderstandings

occurred? (Give some example)

3. How do Singaporeans solve the problems (or change their way) for

more effective and more understandable communication with foreigners?

(Give some example)

4. How do the foreigners respond to the solutions?

Data Collection in Singapore

Weilin Tan

Qua Jian HuiAlistar NgXi Jing Tan

Joshua

My close friend !

Research results

● Singaporeans- Having unexpected situations

Ex. Foreigner: Where are u

going?

Chia How: I‟m going to work

lor.

Foreigner: „Wow so you are a

lawyer?‟

Credit: Chia How

● Foreign tourists- Misunderstandings in

conversation

Ex. Zach: Why did you bring

along an umbrella?

Singaporean: Because it is

going to rain what.

Zach: What?

Credit: Zach Michael Milburn

Solutions

● Singaporeans- Speaking slowly

- Changing their accent to

sound more American or

British

- Using simple words

- Google translation in

order to provide instant

responses

● Foreigner tourists- Asking for repetition or

clarification in English

- Using hand gesture (body

language)

- Finding others to help

- Nod & smile (esp. Asians)

Positive and Negative effects

● Positive- Singapore trademark

(identity)

- Strengthening unity

between ethnic groups

- Effective way of

communication among

Singaporeans (endemic

language)

- Variation of

English (another version

of English)

● Negative- Drop in standard of

English in Singapore

- Inferiority

- Improperness for

business

Conclusion

● The findings from the study reveal that even though final

particles of Singlish seem to cause misunderstandings

and broken English, they are part of Singlish language

which refer to “identity” of Singaporeans. However, both

foreigners and natives of Singapore should learn to have

the same standard of English as it is the language for

international communication. Moreover, the impact of

using English as an lingua franca will help us express

and understand one another as well as learn about other

cultures from around the world.

It’s your time!!!

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& good luck for the next person !