Singaporean Hokkien
Singaporean Hokkien is a local variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively in Singapore. Within Chinese linguistic academic circles, this dialect of Hokkien is known as Singapore Minnan. It bears similarities with the Amoy dialect in Xiamen and Taiwanese Hokkien in Taiwan.
Hokkien is the Southern Min pronunciation for the province of Fujian, and is generally the term used by the Chinese in Southeast Asia to refer to the Quanzhang dialects. Singaporean Hokkien heavily views the Amoy dialect as its prestige, and its accent is predominantly based on a mixture of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou speech, with a greater inclination towards the former instead of the latter.
Nevertheless, the grammar and tones of Singaporean Hokkien are still largely based on standard Hokkien. When compared to the prestige Taiwanese accent spoken in Tainan and Kaohsiung, the accent and pronunciation of Singaporean Hokkien inclines towards Quanzhou, which is also close to the pronunciation of Taipei and Xiamen, and is less close to that of Tainan, which has a greater inclination towards Zhangzhou.
Like many spoken languages in Singapore, Singaporean Hokkien is influenced by other languages spoken in Singapore. For instance, Singaporean Hokkien is influenced to a certain degree by Teochew, and is sometimes regarded by non-Singaporean speakers as a combined Hokkien–Teochew speech. In addition, it incorporates many loanwords from Singapore's four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. Because of its historical prevalence in Singapore, Singaporean Hokkien has also exerted significant influence on the Singaporean variant of Mandarin.
History
From the 19th until the early half of the 20th century, there was a large influx of Chinese migrants from southern China into Singapore. This led to Chinese constituting almost 75% of Singapore's population. Of these Chinese, many originated from the regions of Amoy/Xiamen, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in Fujian province. They brought Southern Min to Singapore, which was then propagated throughout the Malayan region. As there was no formal Chinese name for Southern Min in the early 20th century, these migrants began to use their place of origin as the name of their speech, and thus called the variety "Hokkien", referring to Fujian province.During the 19th century, many traditional private Chinese schools in Singapore generally used Hokkien to teach Chinese classics and Classical Chinese. However, by the early 20th century, Mandarin began to replace Hokkien as the medium of instruction in Chinese schools after the founding of many Mandarin-medium schools.
During the 1950s and 1960s, many political speeches in Singapore were in Hokkien, in order to reach out to the Chinese community in Singapore. There was also a thriving Hokkien cultural scene that included Hokkien story-telling, opera, and media in Singapore.
After 1979, the Singapore government began to push for the use of Mandarin in Singapore, spearheaded by the Speak Mandarin Campaign. Following this, the Singapore government also began to employ a more stringent censorship, or ban, of Hokkien media in the Singaporean Chinese media. Consequently, all Hokkien-language media in Singapore had to be dubbed in Mandarin before being allowed to stream on national TV.
In addition, the 1980s saw Chinese-medium education replaced by that in English, causing English to emerge as the most widely used language in Singapore. The emergence of the English language, coupled with heavy promotion of Mandarin, generally led Hokkien to decline in Singapore after 1979.
Current status
Today, the lingua franca of the Chinese community in Singapore is Mandarin. Although Hokkien is still widely spoken in Singapore today, it is not as widespread as before and is mostly restricted to the older generations. The most common places to hear Hokkien spoken in Singapore are at the country's hawker centres or kopi tiams.Speaking ability varies amongst the different age groups of the Hokkien Singaporeans. The elderly are generally able to communicate effectively in Hokkien. On the other hand, the middle and younger generations, while generally proficient, have generally lost the ability to communicate as fluently. However, when it comes to using profanities, majority of the younger generation, even among non-Chinese Singaporeans, listed Hokkien as the first out of all languages and Chinese varieties. With the Speak Mandarin Campaign from the government, the Hokkien speaking population has been on a gradual decline.
Revival
There is, however, groups of Hokkien Singaporeans working to help preserve, spread and revive the use of Singaporean Hokkien in the country.The ease of access to online Hokkien entertainment media and pop music from the internet has helped to connect to the language and culture. Many Singaporeans are increasingly using online and social media platforms to learn, discuss, meet, and interact with each other in Hokkien.
Phonology
Note: In this article, the Tâi-lô romanization system is used.Consonants
VariationRegional accents and tonesWhen Singaporeans speak Hokkien, they do so with various accents and tones largely from Tong'an, Anxi, Nan'an, Kinmen as well as Yongchun, Jinjiang, Longhai City and Southern Zhangzhou accents. In practice, it is common for Singaporeans to mix English conjunctions such as "and" into a Hokkien sentence. Some would include honn, in addition to the widely used Hokkien exclamatory particles la or loo.No distinction between literary and vernacular readingsIn saying years or numbers, Singaporean Hokkien normally does not differentiate between literary or vernacular readings of Chinese characters. In Taiwan or Amoy, a distinction is usually made. For instance, the year 1980 would be said with a literary pronunciation ; but in Singapore, no differentiation is made and is pronounced as otherwise vernacular.As another instance, Taiwanese would speak telephone numbers using literary readings, whereas Singaporeans would use vernacular ones instead. For example, the telephone number 98444678 will be pronounced in Taiwan as, where in Singaporean Hokkien it would be pronounced as. Influence from Southern Zhangzhou and Teochew PhonologyVowel shift from ''ing'' to ''eng''In Singaporean Hokkien, as compared to Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Amoy or Taiwanese, which pronounce the vowel —there is a vowel change from to . This change is similar to pronunciation in regions south of Zhangzhou—Dongshan, Yunxiao, Zhangpu, Pinghe, Zhao'an counties —and in Teochew and Cantonese.Below is a table illustrating the difference:
Pronunciation of 'I'In Amoy Hokkien pronunciation, 我 is pronounced as ; but in Singapore, it is pronounced as, which is alleged by some to have been influenced by the Teochew pronunciation although other varieties like Putianese and some regional Hokkien dialects including most Taiwanese Hokkien dialects also pronounce it as.GrammarThere are some differences between the sentence structure used by Singaporean Hokkien and by Amoy/Taiwanese Hokkien.For instance, when asking a question "do you want to...?", Singaporean Hokkien typically uses the sentence structure 愛……莫？, whereas Taiwan uses 欲……無？. The word 愛 is commonly used in Singaporean Hokkien to mean "want to", but in Amoy Hokkien and Taiwan Hokkien, the word 欲/卜 is used instead. 愛 in Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien it typically means "love to" or "need to". Also, unlike Taiwanese Hokkien—which typically uses the word 敢 when asking a question, which is more formal or polite—Singaporean Hokkien does not use the word 敢. Instead, it simply adds the word 無 at the end of the sentence to indicate that it is a question or adds a Cantonese intonation 咩 at the end. Adding the word 無 at the end of a sentence is also used in Taiwanese Hokkien, when one is asking a question in an informal way.
NumeralsThe following list shows the colloquial readings of the numerals used to count objects.
Most ordinal numbers are formed by adding 第 in front of a cardinal number. In some cases, the literary reading of the number must then be used. For example, 第一 =, 第二 =. Differences from other Hokkien varietiesThere are minor differences between Singaporean Hokkien and Amoy or Taiwanese in terms of vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. Amoy and Taiwanese bear close resemblance, and are usually considered the prestige dialect of Hokkien, differing only in terms of vocabulary.Unique vocabularyAlthough Singaporean Hokkien is similar to Amoy or Taiwanese, there exist certain unique Singaporean Hokkien words, which are different from those two aforementioned dialects.
Same meaning, different words
Same word, different pronunciationThere are some words used in Singaporean Hokkien that are the same in Taiwanese Hokkien, but are pronounced differently.
Influences from other languagesBecause Singapore is a multilingual country, Singaporean Hokkien has been influenced by many other languages spoken in Singapore. As a result, there are many non-Hokkien words that have been imported into Singaporean Hokkien, such as those from Malay, Teochew, Cantonese, and English.Loanwords from other Chinese varietiesThere are words in Singaporean Hokkien that originated from other Chinese variants spoken in Singapore.
Malay loanwordsThe following are the common Malay loanwords used in Singaporean Hokkien. Most of them are also used in Amoy.
English loanwordsThere are also many English loanwords used in Singaporean Hokkien. They are usually used when the speaker does not know the Hokkien equivalent. Some of these English terms are related to working and living in Singapore
Vocabulary from Old ChineseCertain colloquial pronunciations of Singaporean Hokkien words are directly inherited from the consonant system of Old Chinese. Hokkien did not experience a great phonological change throughout the transition period from Old Chinese to Middle Chinese.Min languages, including Hokkien, preserved a unique feature of Old Chinese: it does not have labiodental consonants. For instance, the word "分" is pronounced as in Mandarin, but as in Hokkien. This marks a major difference between Old Chinese and Middle Chinese.
Cultural useIn religionHokklo Taoist priests are the largest group among Taoist clergy community in Singapore, they had always conduct their religious services in Hokkien and still continue to do so. Most Tangki or Chinese mediums from Hokkien temples also communicate in Hokkien during spiritual consultation. Some of the Chinese Buddhist temples in Singapore continue to recite the Buddhist scriptures in Hokkien during their daily worship services. The scriptures contain Singapore-style Hokkien romanization are available to assist during the scriptural recitation. There are also Hokkien Buddhist sermons CDs made available and distribute among Hokkien communities in Singapore and overseas. Some of the Chinese Christian churches in Singapore also have services conducted in Singaporean Hokkien.MusicThere exist Singaporean Hokkien writings, folk adages, and ballads written by early Chinese immigrants to Singapore.Amongst the folk ballads, a few outstanding writings tell of the history and hardship of early Chinese immigrants to Singapore. There are 18 sections in the poetry ballad "行船歌", which talks about how early immigrants migrated to Singapore. There is another ballad called "砰嘭水中流" : An example of a folk love ballad is "雪梅思君", on the loyalty and chastity of love. An example of love poetry is "針線情" : GetaiSingapore also held Getai during traditional Chinese festivals, for instance the Zhong Yuan Festival. During the Getai event, it is common to speak a number of Chinese varieties, including Hokkien, Teochew, and Cantonese. During the 1960s, Hokkien song was particularly popular. The Singapore Hokkien star Chen Jin Lang was once the compere and main singer during the Hungry Ghost Festival. His famous song "10 levels of Hades" was especially popular.In operaEarly Singaporean Hokkien opera had its origins in Gaojia opera, which was brought from Quanzhou to Singapore during the late 19th century. In 1927, the Taiwanese Gezai opera spread to Singapore. Because its lyrics and singing style were easier to understand, it made a great impact on Singapore. Consequently, by the mid 20th century, it had replaced Gaojia opera to become the mainstream Hokkien opera in Singapore.Currently, Singapore Hokkien opera is performed by two older troupes—Sin Sai Hong Hokkien Opera Troupe and Xiao Kee Lin Hokkien Opera Troupe —and three newer troupes—Sio Gek Leng Hokkien Opera Troupe, Ai Xin Hokkien Opera Troupe, and Do Opera, which is the newest. A Singapore Chinese opera school nurtures talents in opera, including Hokkien opera. In moviesSingaporean movies that heavily use Hokkien began to appear in the late 1990s, notably by dubbing in Hokkien mainstream Chinese movies made in Singapore. Amongst these, local movies such as I Not Stupid, I Not Stupid Too, Singapore Dreaming and Money No Enough were popular. These movies often reflected the social environment of local Singaporeans.In radioAlthough Singapore radios started to ban Hokkien in the 1980s, Rediffusion Singapore continued to broadcast in Hokkien and greatly contributed to the culture of Singapore. For instance, the Hokkien story-telling program Amoy folks story, by Koh Sock May, was very popular.NanyinNanyin first spread to Singapore in 1901. Many immigrants from Quanzhou began to establish various Nanyin organizations.Those which survive include the Siong Leng Musical Association, which was established in 1941. It was responsible for promoting Nanyin, as well as Liyuan opera. In 1977, the then chairman of the association, Ting Ma Cheng, advocated for the ASEAN Nanyin Performance, which helped to revive Nanyin. In addition, in order to educate young people about this performance art, he also published two books on Nanyin and Liyuan opera. Currently, the Siong Leng Musical Association is led by Ding Honghai, and it continues to promote Nanyin in Singapore. Footprints of Pe̍h-ōe-jīThere are some letters written in Pe̍h-ōe-jī from early Hokkien migrants in Singapore.An example was provided by the descendant of Tan Book Hak, a cousin of Tan Kah Kee.
Places in SingaporeSingapore's Chinese name "新加坡" comes from the Hokkien transliteration of "Singapore". Many other place names in Singapore also have origins in Hokkien, often mixed with Malay. For example, Ang Mo Kio "宏茂橋" means "red-haired man's bridge", Toa Payoh "大巴窯" combines Hokkien "toa" meaning big with Malay "paya" meaning swamp, and Tiong Bahru "中峇魯" comes from Hokkien "塚" meaning cemetery and Malay "bahru" meaning new. The transcription using Hokkien "中" meaning middle is a near-homophone but ultimately inaccurate. |