Non-Native Varieties of EnglishNuruljannah Usop

Introduction

•The result of British and U.S. colonialism • Influenced by local languages and cultures in

places where English was not originally spoken•These varieties are characterized by

“nativization”(the loosing of its original cultural roots).

•A systematic changes in their formal features at all linguistic levels, which result from the use of English in new sociocultural settings, in contact with other languages and may be unintelligible.

Examples:

•Nigerian English•Indian English•Pakistani English•Filipino English•Malaysian English•Singapore English•Etc.

Malaysian EnglishIntroduction• English was spread via colonialism by the

English but it has been filtered through to the heterogeneous local population.

• There are two types of Malaysian English which are Standard Malaysian English(SME) and Colloquial Malaysian English(CME).

• Malaysian English should not be confused with Malaysian Colloquial English which is famously known as Manglish (a portmanteau of the word Malay, and English).

• There is a difference between the standardized norm and Malaysian colloquial language

•Standard Malaysian English is a form of Standard English and used as a second language and it is the acceptable model for official purpose and functions.

•The basic features of phonology, syntax and lexis are not utterly different from the original British English.

•Whereas, Manglish is deviated from the Standard English in terms of grammatical features,lexical features and etc.

•The vocabulary of Manglish consists of words originating from English, Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil and the syntax resembles southern varieties of Chinese.

•Malaysian English is standard enough to be near-native, at the acrolectal level, tolerating the occasional phonological features lexical divergencies to a certain degree.

•E.g. Four men were arrested in a dusun (orchard) off Kuala Ketil for allegedly having murdered the kadi(judge) who rebuked them for previous instances of khalwat (close proximity with members of the opposite sex).

Three-tiered lectal continuum(levels or "lects" (registers) (Baskaran,2005)

Official Malaysian English

Unofficial Malaysian English

Broken Malaysian English

Acrolect(Standard)

Mesolect(Dialectal)

Basilect(Patois)

Formal use Informal use Colloquial use

International Intelligibility

National intelligibility

Patois

Official Malaysian English

Unofficial Malaysian English

Broken Malaysian English

Phonology Slight variation tolerated as long as it is international intelligible.

More variation—including prosodic featuresespecially stress and intonation.

Severe variation—both segmental and prosodic, with intonation so stigmatized—almost unintelligibleInternationally.

Syntax No deviation tolerated at all

E.g.Where is he going?

Some deviation is acceptable although it is not as stigmatized, as broken EnglishE.g. Where he is going?

Substantial deviation.

E.g. Where he going?

Lexis Variation acceptable especially words not substitutable in an international context (or to give a more localized context)E.g.Malaysians have the kampung close to heart.

Lexicalizations quite prevalent even for words having international English substitutesE.g.He is very gatal. Let’s go makan roti canai.

Major lexicalization—heavily infused with local language items.

E.g. Little-little, I know how to cakap Bahasa Inggeris

You sangat jahat I don wan to kawan you

Features of Malaysian EnglishLexical features• Borrowings from local languages are common.• Some of the local words that have been

borrowed into Malaysian English have no equivalent in standard English.

• E.g. Bumiputera, khalwat, gotong-royong,• Bumiputera literally means son of the soil.• Khalwat literally means illicit proximity with

the opposite sex.(proximity here implies a wider meaning than just promiscuity—even sitting together in public places connotes khalwat).

•Gotong-royong refers to the spirit of co-operation amongst people of various ethnic groups) this being a feature characteristic of Malaysian society)—when they get together to clean the entire vicinity of all the rubbish.

•Some of the borrowings are culturally and emotionally loaded.

•Although some words are translatable, they would lose their culture-bound association.

•The local words gives the language the local character.

•E.g. Kampung(village),penghulu (village-chief), bomoh (medicine-man) and etc.

Differences between Malaysian English and British EnglishWords with different meanings

Word/Phrase British English meaning

Malaysian English meaning

Driver anybody who drives a personal chauffeur

Bus stop Regular stopping-place for a bus

It is commonly referred to as ‘bus stand’.

Bungalow A small house or cottage with one storey.

It refers to a mansion for the rich.

Submit Give something or hand in assignment

“Pass up” , a non standard verb form to indicate handing in something

Word/Phrase British English meaning Malaysian English meaning

An alphabet A set of letters used in a language

A letter of the alphabet, e.g. "The word 'money' has five alphabets."

Slang Informal spoken language; jargon.

Accente.g. "I cannot understand your slang”.

To follow To go after or behind,e.g. "The police car was following me"

To accompany, e.g. "Can I follow you?“ which means "Can I come with you?"

To send To cause something to go somewhere without accompanying itE.g. "I sent this letter to my grandma."

To take someone somewhere. E.g. "Can you send me to the airport?"

To revert To return to a previous state, E.g. "We reverted to our initial plan of hosting the party in a restaurant."

To come back (reply) to someoneE.g. "I had sent our clients an email this morning, but they have yet to revert."

Different words usedMalaysian British

Handphone (often abbreviated to HP) Mobile phone

Outstation Out of town or abroad.

Keep in view (often abbreviated to KIV)

Pending further consideration

MC (medical certificate) Sick note/sick leave

Mee Noodles

Brinjal Aubergine

Photostat Photocopy

Share Market Stock Market

Features of Manglish(colloquial Malaysian English)1)Pronunciation•Some Malay speakers find certain sounds

difficult to produce. They confuse p,f, & v with one another.

•E.g. Very=fery•Pity=fity•University= uni(b/p/f)ersity•Traffic=Trapik•The consonants th as in this, thin are

replaced with d & t respectively as in dis, tin.

• Other features include breaking consonant clusters where they omit the last 1 or 2 consonants cluster as in:

• Desks=des• Guests=gues• Depth=dep• Vowel insertion often accompanies such a

process as in:• little=litel• Film-=filem• Subtle=subtel • Clinic=kelinik

2)Extended Semantic Range of MeaningThese are standard English lexemes that have the original English meaning as well as an extended semantic range of meaningVerb cut originally means slicing, but it also carries the following meanings:a)Overtake(of vehicles):E.g. I tried to cut him but he was driving too fast

b)Beat( to beat opponent by points, marks):E.g. Rahman cut me by only two marks to become the first boy in class.

c)Reduce (as amount of money)E.g. The shopkeeper cut twenty-cents for that breakage when he gave me back the change.

•Open:•As for blinds, curtains(draw)•As for light(switch on) (and all the

electrical appliances)•As for shoes/socks(remove)•As for tap(turn on)•As for clothes(take off or undress)

3)Grammar• Malaysians apply the singular-plural distinction to all nouns,

regardless of whether they are treated as countable or uncountable in standard English.

• E.g.• Alphabet-alphabets• Clothing-clothings• Luggage-luggages• Jewellery- jewelleries• Staff- staffs• Furniture-furnitures

• Where the singular is meant, the noun is used with an appropriate determiner (e.g. an alphabet to refer to a letter of the alphabet)

• Where the plural is meant, the noun is inflected with the regular plural morpheme(e.g. alphabets to refer to the letters of the alphabet).

•The lack of present and past tense marking in the verb

•E.g:-•She do it all the time.•His father get home very late every day.•Yesterday we go home early.

•The lack of the –s inflectional suffix to show verb agreement

•E.g:-• Who don’t know all this?•That girl love to eat.

a)Omission• It refers to those instances where a component of

Standard English has been left out in the structure.

i)Deletion of “it”• E.g. If by bus, is very convenient You see, is not compulsory for everyone.

ii)Copula deletionE.g.He very selfish. (is) I very scared then. (am) Who you boss? (is)

iii)The omission of auxiliary “do” in wh-questions:• E.g.Who you talk to? When he say that? Where you want to go?

•The use of the verb got to replace the expletive+ copula construction in Standard English

E.g.• Got too many people in the room already.• Got many nice dresses in the shop

• It also functions as an auxiliary:•E.g.• I got go there before (I’ve been there

before).• You got fly in an aeroplane before?(Have you

ever flown in the aeroplane?).

4)The use of modal auxiliary verb “can”.•Some of the forms with modal verb can may

also be considered as having been institutionalized through frequent use.

• It takes on the variety of functions expressing doubt, affirmation, approval, agreement and etc.

•For examples:1. “Can”• It simply means “yes”, to indicate ability. E.g.•A:“Can you do it do this for me?”•B: “Can, can”.

2. “How can?”•To express disbelief, incredulity, or to

replace English phrases like “That’s impossible!”, or “I don’t believe you!”

•E.g. “How can? I think is nasib (luck) lah!”

3. Can Hor?•It means "It can be done right?”.•Similar to a question tag , like “Is it?” or

“Isn’t it?”•“Just make a simple excuse, then quickly

cabut (flee) lah. Can hor?”

4. Can or not? • To confirm, request or seek permission • E.g. I want to lepak (chill out) with friends, can or

not?”

5.Can meh? Can ah?• The both “meh” and “ah” are derived from

Cantonese and Hokkien dialect.• They are used as a question with a hint of doubt or

uncertainty. The proper English would be: “Are you sure it can be done?”

• E.g. Want to finish your work in a day, can meh?”

6.Why cannot?• It means “Why not?”.E.g.: “Why cannot? He can, I also can, what?!”

•5)The use of “Isn’t It/ Is it Tags”•In Malaysian English, “isn’t it/is it” is only

used in the system of interrogative tags. •They are somewhat like response

promoters, in that they prompt a response from the addressee, regardless of factors like reversed or constant polarity.

•E.g.•B.E. She hasn’t finished, hasn’t she?•M.E. She hasn’t finished, is it?

•B.E.You can’t drive, can’t you?•M.E. You can’t drive, isn’t it?

Other grammatical particles

a)The use of particle “Lah” • It can function as an intensifying particle, as

a marker of informal style and also for persuasion, rejection and other purposes. • E.g.• They not Malaysians lah, they Singaporean

one (For heaven’s sake, they’re not Malaysian; they are all Singaporean).• Don’t be lazy lah, please carry this for me.• (I am pleading with you not to be too lazy).

b)The use of “what”.•Unlike British/American English, the word

'what' is often used as an exclamation mark to reaffirm the statement, not to ask a question.

•E.g. •I told you what, you didn’t believe me.

(Don’t you remember I told you?)•Yes what, she came here yesterday. (I’m

affirming that she came here yesterday)

c)The use of ah or aa• It is most frequently associated with question,

especially with yes and no question. • E.g.• You just buy it ah?• He don’t want to go ah?

d)The use of man• It is used in a declarative form.E.g. He don’t want to do it man. He not Chinese man

e)The use of “one”Used as an emphasis at the end of a sentenceE.g: She very sombong one. He started throwing stones first, one

Why do many Malaysians prefer to use Manglish (colloquial Malaysian English)?

•According to Wong (1983), such colloquial variety of English belongs uniquely to the Malaysians.

•They see it as intended purely for local and indigenized users among themselves.

•They have the freedom and can simply adjust the language according to their own needs.

•It is easier, concise and straight to the point.

References• Baskaran, L.M. (2005). A Malaysian English

Primer Aspects of Malaysian English Features. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press.

• Kirkpatrick, A. (2007). World Englishes. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

• Wong, I.F.H. (1985). Simplication Features in the Structure of Colloquial Malaysian English. In Noss, R.B.(Ed.), Variation of English in Southeast Asia (pp.125-149). Singapore: Singapore University Press.

• Zaidan Ali Jassem. (1994). Malaysian English A Sociolinguistic and TESL/TEFL Perspective. Kuala Lumpur:Pustaka Antara.