Малайзиядағы Manglish тілі

Creole language in Malaysia

the creole language in Malaysia

Manglish is an informal form of Malaysian English with features of an English based creole principally used in Malaysia. It is heavily influenced by the main languages of the country, Malay, Chinese languages, and Tamil. It is not one of the official languages spoken in Malaysia. Manglish spoken in West Malaysia is very similar to and highly mutually intelligible with Singlish, a creole of similar roots. There is little distinction between the two creoles except that Manglish vocabulary contains more Malay words while Singlish contains more words of Hokkien (Min Nan) and Teochew origin. The vocabulary of Manglish consists of words originating from English, Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil, and, to a lesser extent, various other European languages and Arabic, while Manglish syntax resembles southern varieties of Chinese. Also, elements of American and Australian slang have come through from imported television series. The Malaysian Manglish is sometimes known as Rojak or Bahasa Rojak, but it differs from the Rojak language by the use of English as the base language. The term rojak derives from "mixture" or "eclectic mix" in colloquial Malay. The East Coast versions (Kelantan and Terengganu) of Manglish may differ greatly from that of West Coast Malaysian speakers. Besides mixing multiple languages, Manglish includes mixing the syntax of each language. Hence, Malaysians often speak English in Malay or Chinese syntax. Idioms, proverbs and phrases are also often translated directly to English from Malay, Chinese, and Tamil. The accent and vocabulary used is highly dependent on the formality of the context and language dominance of the speaker. The speaker would also vary the quantity of Manglish spoken depending on their counterpart. Foreigners are generally unable to understand Manglish as it is a mix of so many languages and multiple language rules, it is understandable only to Malaysians. Many Malaysians are able to speak their native language fluently but choose to speak Manglish in their daily lives and conversations.

The term Manglish is first recorded in 1989. Other colloquial portmanteau words for Manglish include (chronologically): Malish (1992), Malaylish (1992), Malenglish (1994), Malglish (1997), Malayglish (2005), and Malanglish (2013). Manglish shares substantial linguistic similarities with Singlish in Singapore, although distinctions can be made, particularly in vocabulary. Initially, "Singlish" and "Manglish" were essentially the same language, when both Singapore and the states now comprising Peninsular Malaysia were under various forms of direct and indirect British rule, though not forming a single administrative unit except between 1963 and 1965. (See Malaya.) In old British Malaya, English was the language of the British administration whilst Malay was the lingua franca of the street. Even Chinese people would speak Malay when addressing other Chinese people who did not speak the same Chinese language. English as spoken in Malaysia is based on British English and called Malaysian English. British spelling is generally followed. Since 1968, Malay has been the country's sole official language. While English is widely used, many Malay words have become part of common usage in informal English or Manglish. An example is suffixing sentences with lah, as in, "Don't be so worried lah", which is usually used to present a sentence as rather light going and not so serious; the suffix has no specific meaning. However, Chinese languages also make abundant use of the suffix lah and there is some disagreement as to which language it was originally borrowed from. There is also a strong influence from Malay, Hokkien, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Tamil, which are other major languages spoken in Malaysia. Manglish also uses some archaic British terms from the era of British rule (see "gostan" and "outstation" below).

In Malaysia, Manglish is considered to be a less formal form of Malaysian English which has features of a pidgin or a creole, rather than a fully fledged creole language. some make a distinction between Malaysian English and Manglish; Malaysian English being a form of English that largely follows the standard rules of English grammar but with some local characteristics, while Manglish is a pidgin that does not follow the grammatical rules or structure of English. while some argued for the basilect form or pidgin as the "real" Malaysian English. At the lexical level, limited lexis is used and consequently, a number of words serve a variety of functions, giving extended meanings not normally accepted in standard British English. There are some differences of contemporary words used between Malaysia and the United Kingdom. The use of Manglish is discouraged at schools, where only Malaysian Standard English is taught. The term Malaysian English is not used in any official context except for the ever changing school curriculum modules in attempts to improve the command of English but without going into advanced lessons. It is however, possible to speak Manglish without substituting English words with those from another language.

Speakers of Manglish from the country's different ethnic groups tend to intersperse varying amounts of expressions or interjections from their mother tongue – be it Malay, Chinese or one of the Indian languages – which, in some cases, qualifies as a form of code switching. Verbs or adjectives from other languages often have English affixes, and conversely sentences may be constructed using English words in another language's syntax. People tend to translate phrases directly from their first languages into English, for instance, "on the light" instead of "turn on the light". Or sometimes, "open the light", translated directly from Chinese. Aside from borrowing lexicons and expressions at varying levels depending on the speaker's mother tongue, Malay, Chinese and Tamil also influence Manglish at a sentence formation level. For example, Chinese languages do not mark the verb for tenses. Instead, information about time is often acquired through contextual knowledge or time specific markers such as 'yesterday', 'today' and 'tomorrow'. This is also replicated in Manglish with sentences like 'She go to the shop yesterday' and 'I come here every day'. The Chinese also tend to speak Manglish with staccato feel as it is syllable timed, unlike English which is stress timed.

"ang mo" – White people, from Hokkien "red hair" (lang=zh). Used by Chinese, while the Malays use Mat Salleh {see below}. Laan si is of Cantonese origin. "best" superlatively good, see also syok/shiok. "geng" – great, amazing, used to describe a person. e. g. "Wah, he is so geng." "lang=ms" – to be annoyed, irritated, pissed off. Originally from Malay meaning "angry" or "to feel agitated". e. g. "Eh look at his attitude lah, geram only!" e. g. "It ngaam ngaam fits in." (It fits in just right.) "pai seh" – ashamed, embarrassed/embarrassing. 'pai seh' (lang=zh) is of Hokkien origin [E. g.: I kena punish lah very pai seh eh!]. "slumber" – relaxed, laid back; possibly a conflation of the Malay "selamba", meaning nonchalant, and the English "slumber". "sup sup sui" – easy, no big deal. 'Sup sup sui' (lang=zh) is of Cantonese origin. "tidak apa" to have a happy go lucky attitude, or be indifferent. From Malay. "yellow" – dirty minded, perverted. Direct translation of Chinese word for yellow to describe a perverted or dirty minded person. e. g. "Aiyer, he is very yellow, better stay away from him." (He is very perverted, you should stay away from him.)

"lang=ms" approximately, roughly, from Malay for "guess". "sibeh" – very, extremely. From Hokkien (lang=zh). Used when wanting to put an emphasis on something saying it is great or big—whether it is in a good or bad way does not matter as long as it is "huge" e. g. : "That guy is sibeh annoying lo."

"(Subject + predicate), is it?" – this is often used as a question. "It" doesn't refer to the subject, but rather to the entire preceding clause ("Is it so?") This is comparable to the French phrase "n'est ce pas?" (literally "isn't it?") and the German usage of " , oder?" (literally " , or?")

There is a tendency to use plural forms for uncountable nouns such as 'staffs', 'equipments', 'informations', 'criterias' and 'phenomenons'. Additionally, some articles are often dropped.

Manglish and Singlish share a common history and some common characteristics. The difference between Manglish and Singlish can be subtle and sometimes difficult to be distinguish even among the locals. However, Manglish is markedly more influenced by the Malay language, with the majority population in Malaysia being the Ethnic Malays; while Singlish is more influenced by Hokkien dialect or Mandarin Chinese, with the majority population being the Ethnic Chinese. For example, "kena" (a Malay word, somewhat of a prefix added for the sake of turning an action verb into passive form) might be more often used in Manglish; while Singlish more frequently uses words like "liao" (meaning "already" in Hokkien), "nia" (meaning "only" in Hokkien). However, referring the aforementioned example, "kena" is also used in Singlish and "liao" in Mangish, only to a less extent. This shows the huge influences on these two languages on each other as well. There is no difference between the two when heard from foreigner's ears.

The word 'Manglish' is also used to describe the English spoken by Malayalam speakers from the Kerala state in India having a Malayalam accent, mainly by those who have studied in Malayalam medium schools. This is also propagated by Malayalam media. Manglish (manga in English) is also the name of an interactive cartoon feature in the Mainichi Daily News, Japan's major English language online newspaper. Manga, or Japanese comics, are displayed on the Web site in their original format, but English translations of the Japanese characters can be seen by mousing over the speech balloons.