Chinese Language Romanisation in Singapore

Chinese Language Romanisation In Singapore

The romanisation of the Chinese language in Singapore is not dictated by a single policy, nor is its policy implementation consistent, as the local Chinese community is composed of a myriad of dialect groups. Although Hanyu Pinyin is adopted as the preferred romanisation system for Mandarin, the general lack of a romanisation standard for other Chinese dialects results in some level of inconsistency. This may be illustrated by the many variants for the same Chinese characters often found in surnames such as Low, Loh, Lo; Tay, Teh; Teo, Teoh; Yong, Yeong.

The surname Zheng (simplified Chinese: 郑; traditional Chinese: 鄭) alone has several variations including Teh, Tay, Tee, Chang, Chung, Cheng, and Zeng. The variations Teh or Tee normally have roots in Malaysia, Tay or Tee coming from Singapore, Chang, Chung or Cheng from Hong Kong, and Zeng or Zheng normally from mainland China.