Malay lexical borrowings in Singapore colloquial English

Singapore English evolved as a contact variety with English as its superstrate and the local languages, namely Chinese, Malay and Tamil as its substrate languages. It is expected, therefore, that Singapore English would contain features borrowed from these substrate languages. In this paper, we inv...

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Main Authors: Sri Norazrin Buang, Nurulhuda Abdul Halim, Shamala Ramakresinin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Malaya 2017-07-01
Series:Journal of Modern Languages
Online Access:https://samudera.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/3696
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author Sri Norazrin Buang
Nurulhuda Abdul Halim
Shamala Ramakresinin
author_facet Sri Norazrin Buang
Nurulhuda Abdul Halim
Shamala Ramakresinin
author_sort Sri Norazrin Buang
collection DOAJ
description Singapore English evolved as a contact variety with English as its superstrate and the local languages, namely Chinese, Malay and Tamil as its substrate languages. It is expected, therefore, that Singapore English would contain features borrowed from these substrate languages. In this paper, we investigate the processes and types of lexical borrowing in the colloquial variety of Singapore English (henceforth SCE) from vernacular Malay. Based on analysis carried out on a corpus of sixty-four Malay ISCE lexical items, we propose that equivalence in the grammatical category, economy of use and social motivations are three key factors that could account for the integration of Malay words in SCE. In addition, the integration of Malay words in SCE works in tandem with the more dominant substrates influence of Chinese languages on the grammar of SCE.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1675-526X
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language English
publishDate 2017-07-01
publisher Universiti Malaya
record_format Article
series Journal of Modern Languages
spelling doaj-art-5c4e8e60b16247f6afd62e64e6a4aa5d2024-11-22T04:47:23ZengUniversiti MalayaJournal of Modern Languages1675-526X2462-19862017-07-01181Malay lexical borrowings in Singapore colloquial EnglishSri Norazrin BuangNurulhuda Abdul HalimShamala Ramakresinin Singapore English evolved as a contact variety with English as its superstrate and the local languages, namely Chinese, Malay and Tamil as its substrate languages. It is expected, therefore, that Singapore English would contain features borrowed from these substrate languages. In this paper, we investigate the processes and types of lexical borrowing in the colloquial variety of Singapore English (henceforth SCE) from vernacular Malay. Based on analysis carried out on a corpus of sixty-four Malay ISCE lexical items, we propose that equivalence in the grammatical category, economy of use and social motivations are three key factors that could account for the integration of Malay words in SCE. In addition, the integration of Malay words in SCE works in tandem with the more dominant substrates influence of Chinese languages on the grammar of SCE. https://samudera.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/3696
spellingShingle Sri Norazrin Buang
Nurulhuda Abdul Halim
Shamala Ramakresinin
Malay lexical borrowings in Singapore colloquial English
Journal of Modern Languages
title Malay lexical borrowings in Singapore colloquial English
title_full Malay lexical borrowings in Singapore colloquial English
title_fullStr Malay lexical borrowings in Singapore colloquial English
title_full_unstemmed Malay lexical borrowings in Singapore colloquial English
title_short Malay lexical borrowings in Singapore colloquial English
title_sort malay lexical borrowings in singapore colloquial english
url https://samudera.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/3696
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AT nurulhudaabdulhalim malaylexicalborrowingsinsingaporecolloquialenglish
AT shamalaramakresinin malaylexicalborrowingsinsingaporecolloquialenglish