Singlish - Sociolect Continuum

Sociolect Continuum

The English language in Singapore is a sociolect continuum. The continuum runs through the following varieties:

Acrolectal: Acrolectal Singaporean English exhibits an absence of or a much smaller degree of Singlish pronunciation features than do Mesolectal, Basilectal, and pidgin variants of Singlish.

Mesolectal: This is a mix between Standard English and Singlish. At this level, a number of features not found in other forms of English begin to emerge.

Basilectal: This is the colloquial speech. Basilectal is the speech usually referred to as "Singlish" for informal settings. Here, one can find all of the unique phonological, lexical, and grammatical features of Singlish. Many of these features can be attributed to Asian languages such as the Chinese languages, Malay, or Indian languages such as Tamil, though some cannot.

Pidgin: This is the "pidgin" level of Singlish, which is probably a good representative of an earlier stage of Singlish, before creolization took place and solidified Singlish as a fully formed creole. As with all pidgins, speakers at the pidgin level speak another language as a first language, and Singlish as a second language. However, since a substantial number of people today learn Singlish natively, the number of speakers at the "pidgin" level of Singlish is dwindling. This is because by definition, a pidgin is not learned natively.

The coexistence of basilectal Singlish and acrolectal Standard Singapore English can also be analysed as a diglossia, which is a split between a "high" formal language and a "low" informal language.

The Sociolect Continuum of Singaporean English
Each of the following means the same thing, but the basilectal and mesolectal versions incorporate some colloquial additions for illustrative purposes.

The phenomenon of code switching, or the alternation between multiple languages within the same conversation, further complicates the linguistic situation in Singapore. Due to international commerce in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, many well-educated Singaporeans aged 40 and below can, in addition to British English, speak French, Japanese, German and Mandarin Chinese.

Since many Singaporeans can speak English at multiple points along the sociolect spectrum, code-switching can occur very frequently between the acrolectal (Standard Singapore English) and the basilectal (Singlish). In addition, as many Singaporeans are also speakers of the Chinese languages, Malay, or Indian languages such as Tamil, code-switching between English and other languages also occurs dynamically.

For example, a local Singaporean might speak in a Singlish consisting of English, Mandarin and Malay loan-words, when chatting with his friends.