Read this, can? - Singlish

On Tuesday this week, I was checking in to a flight at Singapore airport. The check-in lady turned to her colleague and asked: "Print this, can?" (referring to my boarding pass).

This mangled, but logical, use of English tickled me - I mentioned it to a colleague - of course it's a known phenomenon "Singlish" ... just that I've not noticed it before.

Wiki:

"Singlish originated with the arrival of the British and the establishment of English language schools in Singapore. Soon, English filtered out of schools and onto the streets, to be picked up by non-English-speakers in a pidgin-like form for communication purposes. After some time, this new form of English, now loaded with "Loanwords" -- substantial influences from Indian English, Baba Malay, and the southern varieties of Chinese, became the language of the streets and began to be learned "natively" in its own right. Creolization occurred, and Singlish then became a fully formed, stabilized, and independent English creole."

Here's my colleague's favourite example:

"Can also can, cannot also can"

.... which means, "Either way is fine".

Wiki has loads of examples ... and an explanation of its origins. It's officially frowned upon in Singapore as it leads to "bad English" ... I quite like it and enjoy the fact that the language is so adaptable (can you imagine this being allowed for the French language?) ... but it does feel 'Orwellian'.

Some more egs fom wiki:

* Dis country weather very hot one. — In this country, the weather is very warm.
* Dat person there cannot trust. — That person over there is not trustworthy.
* Tomorrow dun need bring camera. — You don't need to bring a camera tomorrow.
* He play soccer also very good one leh. — He's very good at playing soccer too.
* Not good one lah. — This isn't good.
* Cannot anihow go liddat one leh. — You/it can't go just like that.
* How come never show up? — Why didn't you/he/it show up?
* I li badminton, dat's why I every weekend go play. — I like badminton, so I play it every weekend.
* He not feel well, so he stay home sleep lor. — He's not feeling well, so he decided to stay home and sleep.

The inevitable 'Lah' at the end of sentences is very painful to my ears, but perversely I find myself using it when in Singapore "Hot today, Lah?".

M