Singlish is a language for our future, lah! | Gwee Li Sui | TEDxSingapore

Gwee Li Sui puts up an argument for Singlish, a colloquial version of English in Singapore.

Gwee Li Sui's demeanour belies his expertise across multiple fields. A literary critic, a poet, and a graphic artist, he wrote Singapore's first full-length comic-book novel, and published a volume of humorous verse, 'Who Wants to Buy a Book of Poems?' A staunchly independent voice on a wide range of cultural topics, he entertains and rivets with his Facebook posts and tweets.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

We all know the value of the new.

The new changes our lives;

it engineers progress;

it shapes the future.

But what is the new?

When we first meet the new,

it's always never quite
what we expected it to be like.

It feels useless;

it feels threatening;

it feels disruptive to the way
we normally run our lives.

It always feels easier, better
to do without the new.

Today, I want to talk
about the new in language.

Language, by definition, is something old.

The age of language itself
secures for it two things:

firstly, a stable community of speakers,

and secondly, a stable,
consistent manner of use.

That means the two things being

people who will speak
this language together

and people who know
what is the vocabulary,

the syntax,

the structures of the language

and know how to communicate
with each other.

So today, I want to talk
about Singlish, can?

(Laughs)

(Laughter)

(Applause)

[SINGLISH]

Over the years, Singlish ah,
has 'kena' a lot of bad press

from the government, from the schools,

from a lot of sectors, you know,
who believe in English.

We don't get the sense
of what the broader use of Singlish is

other than, you know, you just buy food
from the 'kopitiam' or the hawker centre

or trying to find the 'jamban' after that
when you 'kena' food poisoning.

(Laughter)

It feels too 'kampung',
the use of Singlish.

It seems to be at odds

with our Singaporean
pursuit of excellence,

pursuit of economic progress
in the international world.

So is Singlish the enemy of English?

Is it the enemy of business English?

But, you see, in this stigmatisation,

what we all fail to notice

is that Singlish may well not be
a creature of the old.

What if it's the creature of the new?

Here are three thoughts
I want to share with you this evening.

Firstly, Singlish is only as old
as the concept of multicultural Singapore.

That means there has been no Singlish

before there was
a multicultural Singapore,

and it cannot not exist

as long as we, as Singaporeans,
remain multicultural.

There are two fundamental
pillars of Singlish.

And this is, firstly, 'kampung' life.

Because in 'kampung' life -

which is village life, when Singapore
was not as progressive decades ago -

diverse people
would talk across languages.

People from different communities
would learn how other people speak

and then communicate with them by means
of how he or she knows how to speak.

Secondly, there is commerce.

And commerce is a way in which
people from different countries,

different communities outside Singapore

find a way to meet,

to exchange things,

to buy things,

to sell things.

But also, through those,

they achieve a kind of common goal
of trying to understand each other.

So people come into contact.

Now, as far as our 'same-same' future
is about building some global 'kampung',

or some global village,

Singlish is actually very relevant.

The future, if you stop to think about it,

will actually sound a lot like Singlish
rather than English.

[#2 Singlish globalises.]

Secondly, Singlish is a version
of a global language.

Speakers of Singlish do this:

they find something
in their own stem language

that can overcome
its own language barrier.

So what we do

is that in the language
that we normally speak,

we move from the inward-looking part

and we move to the borders,
to the accessible, outward-looking part,

and there create communication

with other people
from a different language sector.

Singlish is therefore very open
to the involvement of other languages

and to the developments within languages.

It is more able to do
what we call 'potong jalan' ah,

which is 'potong' - 'cut' -

'jalan' means 'walk'.

You 'potong jalan' across
distinct grammars and syntaxes.

You create a way where previously
there was no way to communicate.

Is this not how English itself developed

and become the global language
of our time today?

After all, English
has developed for 1,500 years

by absorbing German,
Celtic, Latin, French,

and words from different British colonies
like Singapore and Malaysia and India.

If you look at how English developed,

it shifts.

It began as Old English,

500 to 1100 AD,

to Middle English,

which was spoken 1100 AD to 1500 AD,

to Early Modern English

during the 17th century
to the 19th century,

and arriving at what we get now,

which is English
in the 20th century onwards.

In other words, English itself
hasn't been stable -

it's also always changing.

Do you know, for example,

that the words 'one',
'two', 'three' in English

came long ago from the German words
'eins', 'zwei', 'drei'?

Did you know, for example,

that less than three lifetimes
of Singlish ago,

people were still saying
'thou art' and 'thee'?

Today, we say 'you are'
and 'you' and 'I', right?

And also, notice that in Singlish itself,

the words that we have
are always changing,

and that is an interesting aspect.

You never expect to see this
on a TED stage, ah?

(Laughter)

We have the Malay word 'hentam'.

It became 'hantam' at some stage.

And now we say 'hum-tum', right?

The word is changing.

We say 'puncit' in Malay.

And then at some point
we say 'puncik', with a 'K'.

And now we say 'pumchek'.

We say 'ah, but then' a long time ago
as a way to show disbelief or - you know.

But now, we say 'arbuthen'.

(Laughter)

And also consider how Singlish
is about mixing different words together.

So the word 'buay tahan' -

the phrase 'buay tahan' we use,

which means 'I cannot stand it anymore',

comes from, in part, Hokkien,

in part, Malay.

We have the word 'relak one corner' -

which was what I was doing before this -

(Laughter)

which is one part Malay, one part English.

And then we have 'steady pom pi pi',

which means ah, 'very good ah, excellent',

like a lot of TED speeches so far.

'Steady' is English;
'pom pi pi' is Hokkien.

So, you know, in this,
we see that Singlish is evolving,

and that is my third point.

Singlish's evolution actually proves
its trend towards a more global form.

Because why?

(Applause)

Singlish is still changing.

And because it's still changing,

it's open to influences from any source
it comes into contact with.

A finished language
is useless to outsiders.

A finished language has no future

in a multicultural society

because a multicultural language
resides between languages.

Singlish's openness and its fluidity
is therefore actually its strength.

But yet because of its shifting status,

Singlish lends itself very often
to being treated badly

by people who don't understand
what it's actually doing.

They think it's teaching
our kids bad English;

they think it's doing all sorts
of horrible things to people's minds.

It is reflecting and encouraging
the psychic interaction among people.

More than we believe, therefore,

Singlish needs our support
and our love now.

(Applause)

We have, in Singlish,

a very unique, powerful,
and unconscious national invention.

I don't think anyone
actually set out to plan this.

It may well prove to be
our Singaporean one national resource

in a country that doesn't have any.

(Laughter)

Singlish may well be
our great contribution

to the world of inventions
and to the world of languages.

It is practical,

it's good-natured,

it's funny,

it's self-deprecating,

it's succinct,

it's futuristic,

it's identity-clarifying,

it's communal,

and, most importantly,

it's people-powered.

With Singlish, if you therefore
dare to keep your heart on it -

while, of course, speaking good English -

we can help make ourselves
into the hub of how the future speaks.

So I'd like to thank you today.

(Laughs)

As we would say,
I hope you enjoy the time here.

And in Singlish, we say 'song bo'?

Audience: 'Song!'

Thank you.

(Applause)