What about Singdarin? (Singaporean-Mandarin)

Given that I have been enjoying a number of Jack Neo movies on youtube recently, I thought I'd do a piece about Singdarin since there have been so many articles about Singlish already but hardly any about Singdarin - well, not in English anyway. I'm such a total linguistic geek and am so fascinated with languages so this is right up my alley. After all, I tend to speak mostly in Mandarin (and a little Malay and Hokkien) with my dad (but strictly no English), so it is a language I grew up with.

Singapore Chinese Gardens

Now for those of you Singaporeans who have worked with PRCs, I am sure you would have been told how strong your Singaporean accent is when you speak Mandarin. There are a few sounds that would definitely identify you as a Singaporean/Malaysian and not a PRC when you speak Mandarin - the 'zh' sound confounds Singaporean. 'Zh' is one of the most common sounds in Mandarin, found in words like:

中国=Zhōngguó (China)
这=Zhè (This)
站=Zhàn (Stand)
桌子=Zhuōzi (Table)

Now most Chinese Singaporeans simply cannot make the 'zh' sound and it always comes out as a 'z' sound - and for those of you who are not Chinese reading this, I'm using the Chinese phonetics system here, aka Hanyupinyin. To an English speaker, 'zh' = "tsch" whilst 'z' = 'ts'. So for a word like table 桌子 which has both a zh and z consonant sound, both would come out as 'z's.

Another common mistake made my Chinese Singaporeans is the 'ch' sound, again, very common in Mandarin found is words like:

车= Chē (Car)
吃=Chī (Eat)
叉=Chā (Fork)
晨=Chén (Dawn)

Again, it's not like the 'ch' sound is that difficult to Chinese speakers (it's nothing like the way Ls and Rs confuse them) - it's just that Singaporeans by and large simply have an accent that mispronounces words with, turning them into 'c's instead. Again, this is all in Hanyupinyin; to an English speaker, ch = tch and c = ts. 

I could go on - another common mistake is the 'sh' sound which gets turned into an 's' sound. Words like teacher 老师=Lǎoshī become Lǎosī - one can see a pattern emerging. Singaporeans (and Malaysians) tend to turn consonant sounds like zh, ch and sh into z, c and s, dropping the 'h'. 

老师=Lǎoshī don't leave out the h!

Another one that is quite common is to turn a 'h' into an 'f'' - eg. nurse = 护士 Hùshì, but a Singaporean would say Fùshì. I am guessing that this is an influence from either Hokkien or Cantonese. A clear example of how Hokkien influences our Mandarin is with the word 吃=Chī (Eat) - I often hear it spoken as 'cit', now the 'ch' is turned into a 'c' (which is more like the Hokkien consonant used when we say 'jiat/ciat') and whilst Hokkien words can end with a soft t or k sound, this is not found in Mandarin. However, some Singaporeans insert the soft Hokkien T sound at the end of the word 吃, so it sounds more like 'cit' (to be pronounced according to Hanyupinyin not English) instead of Chī. So in standard Mandarin, "what are you eating?" would be 你在吃什么? Nǐ zài chī shénme? But in Singdarin, it would come out as "Nǐ zài cīt somo?"

As for vowel sounds, the ü confounds most Singaporeans who turn it into an 'i' or longer 'ee' sound. Take the word for green for example: 绿=Lǜ - most Singaporeans would pronounce that as 'Lì'  (but with a longer vowel sound). Getting the ü right involves really pouting the lips and making that round ü sound - which does involve more effort than the easier i sound which can be made with the tongue (and not the lips). 

I could go on but these are some of the more common mispronunciations by Singaporean Chinese people when speaking Mandarin. It is a mix of Hokkien,  Cantonese, English and Malay influences that has created this brand of Singaporean Mandarin. In fact, that wikipedia link goes into great detail about how Singaporean Mandarin (aka Singdarin) differs from standard Mandarin - it is a fascinating read. There's even a detailed section on the impact of Hokkien on Singdarin. I enjoyed the part where they talked about the list of Mandarin words that originated from Singapore. My favourite is 巴仙 which is a transliteration of 'percent' - so if I wanted to say 80%, I would say 八十巴仙 - but someone from China would say 八成 or 百分比八十. In fact, when I first said  八十巴仙 to my PRC colleague, she stared at me blankly before saying, " 八十巴仙?! What the hell are you trying to say?! 八仙过海 ah?"

The Chinese Legend of八仙过海

Now so far, what I've written may sound like a criticism about how Singaporeans mispronounce words in Mandarin, but don't take this the wrong way. These are all very common errors which are made on a national level which results in a very distinctive local accent but it is more than just an accent. It is a distinct way of speaking which includes unique words and expressions, such as 巴仙.

I tend speak Beijing standard Mandarin rather than Singdarin for a number of reasons. Now my regular readers will know that I have never really gotten on very well with my parents as a child and whilst big fights were rare, I would always do little things to show them that, "hey, I am not like you." So whilst we were a very Mandarin-speaking family, I always made sure I got my 'sh, 'zh' and 'ch' sounds right just so my Mandarin had a distinctly different flavour from my dad's - he had and still has a really, really strong Malaysian accent. 

 

Furthermore, I speak English as a first language and thus found Hanyupinyin really helpful in learning Chinese. My dad on the other hand found Hanyupinyin a pain in the butt and never liked it. With Hanyupinyin, I knew exactly how each word was meant to be pronounced - this was crucial for any kind of technology application (eg. texting, computers etc) which relied on the user inputting the correct Hanyupinyin of the word in order to match the corresponding Chinese characters. Being a pedantic linguist, once I knew exactly how each character was meant to be pronounced, well I am going to get it right. If you think the zh or ch in Mandarin is hard, try 'rh', 'll' or 'ch' in Welsh (and no it's nothing like English, but I'll not talk about Welsh today).

Lastly, I also learnt Mandarin from my PRC coaches - from a young age, the national training centre had employed a number of PRC coaches for the national team and development squad and given my involvement in professional sports as a young person in Singapore, Beijing Mandarin (we had many coaches from the 北京体育学院) was the lingua franca in that environment and I knew that my coaches in the gym spoke proper Mandarin whilst my father spoke Malaysian-Mandarin. Furthermore, having worked with PRCs and spent time in China, this further eradicated any Singaporean influences from my Mandarin and fine tuned my Mandarin pronunciation. There are even little things, expressions that I picked up from my PRC colleagues over the years - especially from the time when I ran a department together with an Aussie-PRC (ie. born in Shanghai, educated in Oz, working in the UK) and she had such an impact on my Mandarin. Oh those were the days... I remember us being able to speak about the other colleagues in Mandarin and bitch about them not behind their backs but right in front of them. 

As a result, I am often mistaken to be a PRC when in Singapore when I speak Mandarin. I suppose for me, I always think that my Singaporean friends will think that just because I have emigrated to the West, I will forget how to speak Chinese so I totally overcompensate by trying really hard to prove that I speak better Mandarin than them in laying on the thickest possible PRC accent and using every 諺語 and 成語 I can think of. The result is that people think I am PRC and then I have to switch to English or Hokkien to assure them that, no really, I am from Singapore. Limpeh is from Ang Mo Kio lah.  

The following story happened near Suntec City... but not at Suntec City. 

I am not going to name the shop in this story - but it is a clothing chain store with outlets in many malls. Now the staff  in there are very Chinese speaking (or Singlish speaking) - but it is distinctly Singaporean-Mandarin that they speak. One of the standard lines the shop assistants there use is this: "你可以try!" Yeah, precisely in that combination. Like the word 'try' is always in English.

Anyway, so when I replied in my Beijing Northern standard Mandarin, the attitude of the shop assistant changed. She had gone from friendly to quite cold in an instant and immediately, I switched to Singlish and she became friendly again. She then confided in me, "Actually I was a bit nervous lah, you know har, in this mall, recently got some PRCs come and shoplift one. They come one big group, some of them ask you for size, colour, different pattern, keep you busy then when you are distracted, they steal things. It didn't happen in our shop because we are very careful one, but quite a few shops on this floor kena victim already leh? They very garang one you know? Broad daylight 敢敢来 one leh, waliau... So when we hear people speak like PRC, I become... more alert lah. Just being careful."

Read it carefully...

Please understand that I am not in any way trying to imply that all PRCs shoplift but clearly, the shopkeepers in this particular mall were nervous the moment they hear a PRC accent. Now imagine if I hadn't instinctively, switched over to Singlish - I would have been viewed with suspicion in the shop for no more than my accent. It's not nice, but then again, I can also appreciate how shopkeepers have to protect their livelihoods.

Do shopkeepers now perceive PRCs as potential shoplifters?

Now that was just one example of people mistaking me for a PRC the moment I speak Mandarin - it happens almost on a daily basis when I am in Singapore. I suppose I have two modes of speaking Mandarin - either I would go PRC standard perfect or I would completely go down the Singlish route and mix it liberally with Malay, Hokkien and English.

I do wonder though, Singaporeans have made a big deal about Singlish - about how proud we are of it and how it is something that has organically evolve from our society and how it captures our spirit. But what about Singdarin? Why doesn't it enjoy the same status as Singlish in Singapore?

Now firstly, Singdarin isn't clearly defined. It can vary from pretty standard Mandarin simply with a Singaporean accent to a spicy mix which is less than 50% Mandarin + Hokkien, Malay and English and there's everything in between the two extremes. And of course, at some stage, it stops being Singdarin altogether and becomes Singaporean-Hokkien when there's more Hokkien content than Mandarin.

Secondly, Hokkien has always been the language that Singaporeans have felt more protective about. After all, after years of the "speak Mandarin campaign" shoved down our throats compounded by the many PRC service staff who speak only Mandarin, Mandarin has been perceived as the language we have to speak by necessity and Hokkien is the language we speak by choice. There's a sense of "the forbidden fruit is always sweeter": by that token, given that Hokkien - like Singlish - has always been frowned upon by the authorities, it has been used as a language of protest, a mark of defiance. It's a potent statement: "PAP wants me to speak Mandarin, but Limpeh chooses to speak Hokkien - what are you gonna do about it eh?"

Thirdly, there is still an element of snobbery when it comes to Singaporeans and Mandarin. This is the same kind of attitude they have towards what they deem proper English vs Singlish. It all starts in school - I remember when I came up with a Hokkien expression instead of a Mandarin expression during a Chinese lesson. (Yes Limpeh is old enough to be of the generation where kids speak Hokkien instead of English during Chinese lessons at school.) I can't even remember exactly what I said, I think it was the word "lao-kwee" (to be embarrassed) but boy I remembered my teacher's reaction. She got angry and screamed at me, telling me that I came to school to learn proper Mandarin and not to speak 乱七八糟 的华语 like some uneducated taxi driver. No offence to the taxi drivers out there, that was what she said, not my words. It seems that even amongst the Mandarin speaking, this prejudice against Singdarin and Hokkien is fueled by snobbery.

I guess we don't really miss something until it is gone or threatened. I remember how I felt when I watched the Jack Neo film One More Chance and the role of Mike was played by a PRC actor Chen Hong - and my first reaction was, great, are they getting PRC actors to play local roles? Or is his character supposed to be a PRC? Why couldn't they get a local actor? Why did they have to cast a PRC in a Singaporean film? What the hell was Jack Neo thinking?

It was only at times like that when one gets defensive about one's culture, one's heritage - when it is threatened. I don't want to see what little Chinese language media we have in Singapore being effectively taken over by PRCs who impose their Beijing standard Mandarin on us - we must resist this PRC invasion. I know it's ironic because I tend not to speak Singdarin myself, but suddenly, I got rather protective of it when I saw it under threat. Do we have to lose something altogether before we miss it or cherish it?

How do you Singaporeans feel about the issue? What is your relationship with Mandarin and how do you feel about the way you speak Mandarin? Is there any emotional attachment or do you simply listen to the PRCs and say, "yup, that's how it's meant to be spoken, we Singaporeans can't speak Mandarin as well as they do." What are your experiences learning Mandarin in Singapore? Do you speak Singdarin and/or Singaporean-Mandarin or do you speak standard Mandarin? How do you feel about Singdarin? Leave a comment, let me know, kum siah, 谢谢- tanks everybody tanks!

Akan datang: Tomorrow's piece will be on the Singapore Day event in NYC on the 14th April - what is the point of such events? Limpeh discusses how it is an event with good intentions but achieves little.