A tiny country thousands of miles away from the UK has one of the strongest economies in the world, and its own unique version of English. Singapore, known officially as the The Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia.
The nation, which is located 6,816 miles from the UK on a strait between the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, is made up of one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, as well as one outlying islet. The country has four official languages, including English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Tamil. However a fifth, called Singlish, which includes influences of all four main languages and others, is also widely spoken. The language emerged as an observable phenomenon when Singapore became independent in 1965, splitting from Malaysia to become a sovereign state, BBC News reports.
Authorities encouraged the use of English across the ethnically and cultural diverse country, though the language the became infused with various linguistic influences and non-standard grammar, as per the outlet.
Its origins are thought to date back to the time of British colonial rule, and it continues to be seen as an official language of the country.
Tan Ying Ying, Associate Professor of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, previously explained in an article on Academia SG that Singlish is “a contact language” that has “linguistic features from a number of languages, the earliest contributors being Bazaar Malay and Hokkien”.
“Contact language arises when speakers of different language communities interact with one another in a multilingual context for a sustained period of time, which results in a mixture of linguistic features across different languages,” she explained.
The academic notes that scholars “prefer to view Singlish as an informal, colloquial variety of standard English”, though others regard it as a language in its own right.
Singapore, a nation of some six million people, is one of the smallest countries in the world, covering just 728.6 square kilometres (281 miles), according to geographical.co.uk.
But despite its size, the nation is a heavy-hitting economy, benefitting from a pro-business environment and low tax rates, explains Export Finance Australia, which supports the country’s export activities.
This has led to high levels of foreign direct investment, and has helped elevate the country to one of the wealthiest in the world in terms of GDP per capita, the government agency adds.