Talk:Singlish vocabulary

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 11 September 2018 and 31 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Taymccreary.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:24, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Please
Please try to improve this article according to the suggestions listed at the Afd page. Thanks! --Han Sheng 17:34, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Tiao Herr
I'm Singaporean, and I thought that the description and actual drink listed as 'tiao herr' as a packaged drink in the condensed milk can was wrong.

I thought 'tiao herr' meant teabag tea (western OR chinese) to be drunk AT the coffeeshop (not to go) and the words tiao herr referred to the action of dipping the teabag into the tea. Could be wrong though. Squiggle 05:56, 26 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I thought so too. --ZhongHan (Email) 05:43, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Questionable Entries
"Hokkien" hitch a girl''' - Hitch a girl to WHAT? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.8.252.97 (talk) 03:13, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * '''Xian


 * blanket party - how is this unique to singlish? I'm from the US, and we use this term, too. It has the exact same meaning.
 * OT - ditto
 * roadsweeper - sort of similar concern

I have no opinion on terms derived from other languages, but, obviously, I'd argue that if there are any more where singlish usage doesn't differ from usage in the language they were borrowed from, those entries should be deleted. My Alt Account 08:07, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Ok. I'm working hard to clean-up the list. Thanks for the suggestions. --Han Sheng 08:38, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

The Singlish usage of words derived from other languages might be of the same usage as in the language they were borrowed from. However, it is because these terms are commonly added into an English conversation which makes this combination of English + Hokkien + Malay etc. unique to Singlish. Therefore, I feel that these terms should be continued to be included in this article as they have already become part of the Singlish lexicon. --Han Sheng 08:43, 13 September 2006 (UTC)


 * I don't get it. Since singlish is a pidgin, all its words are derived from other languages and then uniquely combined. So how do you decide which words to leave out? Surely this list shouldn't include every singlish word. My Alt Account 09:44, 13 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Some of the words are derived from other languages but take on their own unique spellings and pronunciations over time. These words are chosen as those that are representative of Singlish as they are frequently used. They are even sometimes used colloquially in the local newspapers, which shows that they are widely understood by Singaporeans. Of course, the list is not perfect so anyone who feels that there are other terms that are representative to Singlish can add on to it and remove those that they feel are not appropriate. But then again, isn't that the whole point of Wikipedia? --Han Sheng 15:11, 13 September 2006 (UTC)


 * I use the following rule of thumb for my Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English: if a word or phrase believed to be Singlish or Singapore English appears in a dictionary of standard English such as the Oxford English Dictionary with the same meaning, then I regard it as not really being Singlish or Singapore English. In my view, it only makes sense to treat a standard English term as having entered the 'Singlish vocabulary' if it has gained a different meaning. For this reason, I would exclude 'wallop' (to eat greedily) because the OED includes this sense of the word, but would include 'bungalow' (a detached house, regardless of the number of storeys it has) as the OED defines it as a single-storeyed detached house. Jacklee 21:46, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure, but is the word 'muds' actually 'mats'? I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with skin colour, but is probably a contraction of 'Ahmad' or 'Muhammad'. Anyway, the Coxford Singlish dictionary doesn't have an entry for 'muds', but does have one for 'mat' and the associated 'mat rocker'. Quenderin (talk) 05:05, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Also, doesn't 'sod' come from short, as in to short-circuit something? It seems unlikely that the term could come from such a colloquial British expression, which doesn't even mean being spoilt. Quenderin (talk) 05:14, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

The Place of Singlish in Singapore
I'm of the view that the paragraphs under this heading are more appropriate under the main 'Singlish' article because they do not relate directly to Singlish vocabulary. Jacklee 01:42, 25 September 2006 (UTC)


 * The original purpose of this section was meant to explain the reason for the lack of proper documentations of Singlish. Hence, i believe it belongs to this article. Maybe the heading of this section could be modified to suit the article? or this section cuold be merged with the section before it. --Han Sheng 17:22, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

I think merging the section with the preceding one is a good idea. Jacklee 21:48, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Naughty words
Wah lao, dis list so boring one. Where got kan ni na bu chao chee bye and all the other lovely Hokkien-cum-Singlish expressions? Jpatokal 06:04, 23 October 2006 (UTC)


 * On a related note, I notice that an editor added the Hokkien term chee bye but it was removed by another editor. Despite its rudeness, I would regard chee bye as a legitimate term for inclusion in this article. Should it have been censored out? Cheers, Jacklee 15:55, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

The Hokkien expletive Chee bye ( or any variant spellings) must stay. Colloquially pronounced Ji-bye, with emphasis on the Consonant "J" The "ch" sound is usually used by foreigners attempting to sound native. This word, though crude, is in every way part of Singlish speech. To take it away would be akin to removing the word "Fuck" in the English language. It is simply part of the daily speech for many native speakers. As for verifiable encyclopedic content, take it from a Hokkien. 116.14.96.66 (talk) 07:33, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Supported restoration of all legitimate swear Singlish phrases. - Epicity95 (talk) 15:37, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Creation of tables
I believe we should create tables for the entries, to make them look organized. Arbiteroftruth (talk) 06:57, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Coxford Singlish Dictionary.jpg
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BetacommandBot (talk) 21:56, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

List of terms
The list needs a major cutdown. Now all kinds of vulgarities and "non-official" Singlish terms are setting in. I propose that we remove whichever terms which cannot be accounted for by a credible source. Hopefully that'll reduce the number of terms on the list. Isn't that in line with Wikipedia's guidelines? Standupforsingapore (talk) 16:23, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Bahasa?
I lived in Singapore for nine years and have been there on and off for the last twenty, and I don't know of anyone who calls Malay 'Bahasa Melayu', much less 'Bahasa', which tends to be used to refer to Indonesian rather than Malay. While people in the Riau Islands may speak a form of Indonesian closer to the Malay of Singapore and Malaysia than standard Indonesian, Singapore and Malaysian English would have been influenced by local vareties of Malay, not those spoken in Indonesia. Quiensabe (talk) 20:29, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Kelong
Needs to be here. — Llywelyn II   04:35, 18 December 2013 (UTC)

Needs an overhaul to comply with the Manual of Style
This whole page is a wreck. Even aside from the lack of sources (WP:V, WP:RS), and being full of personal opinion and editorializing (WP:NOR, WP:NPOV), just the formatting is completely wrong. Some tips: — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ &gt;ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ&lt;  21:06, 21 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Do not capitalize things that are not proper names. Virtually every entry in this list should be lower-case. (Guidelines: MOS:CAPS, MOS:GLOSSARIES.)
 * Non-English (buay, etc.) goes in italics (MOS:FOREIGNITALIC) if it's in the Latin alphabet (other writing systems like Chinese do not get italics).
 * Non-English of a known origin goes in markup with the language code for the language of origin (MOS:LANG). This is done for languages that use the Latin alphabet (which most Asian ones do not, though Vietnamese and a few do), and for non-Latin text in another character set like Chinese. It is not done with Romanizations of Chinese, etc. (those just get italics).
 * Linguistic glosses (short definitions of meaning) go in single quotes (MOS:SINGLE).
 * Double quotation marks should not be put around any of these things.
 * This entire list begs to be put into template-structured glossary format (MOS:GLOSSARIES). Using tables for this kind of material makes the content less accessible and much harder to edit correctly.

Beverages needs an overhaul
The current format leads to a lot of repeated/overlapping info. Especially given how drinks are usually ordered in a formulaic way, this would definitely be better presented in a table form or something else where each element is separated and more organized. Danielbunchie (talk) 20:27, 14 April 2024 (UTC)