Chapter 2. Singapore English

Ee-Ling Low | National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

This chapter first provides a broad historical overview about how English came to be used in Singapore and landmark language policies are also mentioned to provide an understanding about the status and roles that English has attained in the country. Next, a discussion of the main models for language variation in Singapore (Standard and Colloquial Singapore English) is included. The phonetic/phonological description of English in Singapore takes into account the acoustic research work done to substantiate earlier impressionistic descriptions. Wells’ (1982) lexical word sets are used to provide a standard means of comparing the realization of vowels across the different varieties covered in this volume. The grammatical and lexical description draws on work done by Lim (2004) and Deterding (2007).

Published online: 24 January 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g42.06low

Cited by

Cited by 11 other publications

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2013. In A Dictionary of Varieties of English, ► pp. 363 ff.

Cavallaro, Francesco, Bee Chin Ng & Ying‐Ying Tan

2020. In The Handbook of Asian Englishes, ► pp. 419 ff.

Geraldine, Kwek & Low Ee-Ling

2020. Emergent features of young Singaporean speech: an investigatory study of the labiodental /r/ in Singapore English. Asian Englishes ► pp. 1 ff.

Goh, Christine C. M.

2017. In Lee Kuan Yew’s Educational Legacy, ► pp. 57 ff.

Huang, Li & James Lambert

2020. Another arrow for the quiver: a new methodology for multilingual researchers. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 41:7 ► pp. 567 ff.

Low, Ee Ling

2019. In The Handbook of World Englishes, ► pp. 135 ff.

LOW, EE-LING

2014. Research on English in Singapore. World Englishes 33:4 ► pp. 439 ff.

Low, Ee‐Ling

2020. In The Handbook of Asian Englishes, ► pp. 107 ff.

Moody, Andrew

2020. The authority and authenticity of performative Englishes in popular culture. World Englishes

Ploywattanawong, Phanyamon & Wannapa Trakulkasemsuk

2014. Attitudes of Thai graduates toward English as a Lingua Franca of ASEAN. Asian Englishes 16:2 ► pp. 141 ff.

Silver, Rita Elaine & Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng

2016. In Quadrilingual Education in Singapore [Education Innovation Series, ], ► pp. 3 ff.

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