Singdarin

Colloquial Singaporean Mandarin, also known as Singdarin (simplified Chinese: 新加坡式华语; traditional Chinese: 新加坡式華語; pinyin: Xīnjiāpōshì Huáyǔ) is an interlanguage native to Singapore. In Taiwan, this language variety is known as Singnese (Chinese: 星式中文; pinyin: Xīngshì Zhōngwén). It is based on Mandarin but has a large amount of English in its vocabulary. For this reason, Singdarin is sometimes known as "Anglo-Chinese". There were also words from Malay and other Chinese dialects.

Singdarin is the first language of quite a number of younger Singaporeans, especially those whose parents speak different languages at home. Singdarin is spoken colloquially on streets and among teenagers in Singapore. In general, well-educated Chinese Singaporeans are able to code-switch between Singdarin and Standard Mandarin.

Singdarin grammar is usually identical to Mandarin. In some circumstances, there is code-switching with English. Singdarin vocabulary consists of a large number of words from English, Hokkien, and Malay, among other languages, often when speakers do not know the Mandarin equivalent of what they wish to express, and instead use English words to convey the meaning.

Native Chinese from China or native Taiwanese from Taiwan generally find it difficult to understand Singdarin due to large number of English or non-Mandarin words used. The Singaporean government currently discourages the use of Singdarin in favour of Standard Singaporean Mandarin as it believes in the need for Singaporeans to be able to communicate effectively with native Chinese from China or Taiwan.

Read more about Singdarin:  Origins, Examples of Singdarin (Anglo-Chinese) Dialogue, English Loanwords, Loanwords From Other Languages, Usage of English Technical Terms, Other Terms Associated With Singdarin, See Also