British and Malaysian English differences
|
|
This article outlines the differences between Malaysian English, the form of the English language spoken in Malaysia and often called Manglish, and British English, which for the purposes of this article is assumed to be the form of English spoken in south east England, used by the British Government and the BBC and widely understood in other parts of the United Kingdom.
It is necessary to make a distinction between Manglish and the English spoken by Malaysians speaking so-called proper English. While there are still certain peculiarities in the latter (especially in terms of intonation, accent and choice of words), proper Malaysian English is merely a normal variation in the way English is spoken and does not deviate significantly from common English. It is intelligible to most English-speaking peoples around the world.
Pure Manglish however can be likened to pidgin English, and it is usually barely understandable to most speakers of English, except Singaporeans who also speak a similar patois known as Singlish.
| Contents |
Spelling
Despite officially being based on British English, Malaysian English is strongly influenced by American English. This can be commonly seen in web based media and documents produced within organisations. Typically, the writer is unaware of the differences between British and American English, and just uses the default settings on their installed software spellchecker. For example, centre (British) is typically spelt center (American), although colour and color are used interchangeably. In schools and in the print media, Malaysians default to spelling the British way, i.e. "vapour" instead of "vapor" and"organise" instead of "organize"
Manglish does not possess a standard written form, although many variations exist for transcribing certain words. For most purposes it is a spoken tongue.
Grammar
Much of Manglish grammatical structure is taken from Chinese dialects. Many also claim the structures have also been borrowed from the Malay language, but the amount of borrowing from Malay dwarves in comparison to the borrowing from Chinese. For example, the phrase "Why you so like that one?" means "Why are you behaving in that way" in normal English. In Cantonese, a similar phrase would be rendered as "Tim kai lei kum keh?" or literally "Why you like that?" The "one" in the sample phrase does not literally mean the numeral one, instead it is used more as a suffix device. It is also sometimes rendered as "wan."
Other common characteristics are anastrophe and omission of certain prepositions and articles. For example "I haven't seen you in a long time" becomes "Long time haven't seen you."
Punctuation
Vocabulary
Words only used in British English
To a large extent, standard Malaysian English is descended from British English, largely due to the country's colonisation by Britain beginning from the 18th century. But because of influence from American mass media, particularly in the form of television programmes and movies, Malaysians are also usually familiar with many American English words. For instance, both lift/elevator and lorry/truck are understood, although the British form is preferred. Only in some very limited cases is the American English form more widespread, e.g. chips instead of crisps, fries instead of chips.
Words or phrases only used in Malaysian English
Malaysian English is gradually forming its own vocabulary, these words come from a variety of influences. Typically, for words or phrases that are based on other English words, the Malaysian English speaker may be unaware that the word or phrase is not present in British or American English.
| Malaysian | British |
|---|---|
| Handphone (often abbreviated to HP) | Mobile phone or Cell phone |
| KIV (keep in view) | Kept on file, held for further consideration |
| Outstation | Means both 'out of town' and/or 'overseas/abroad'. |
| MC (medical certificate). Often used in this context, e.g. 'He is on MC today' | Sick note |
| Can | Yes/Alright |
| Cannot | No |
| One hundred over, one thousand over etc. | Over one hundred, over one thousand etc. |
| Meh/Ke | An optional suffix usually used to donate a question mark to yes, as in "yes meh?" or "ye ke?" i.e. "Are you sure?", with the former being more commonly used amongst those of Chinese descent and the latter by Malays |
| Ar | An optional suffix usually used to donate a question mark, as in "Sure ar?" or "Are you sure ar?", i.e. "Are you sure?" |
| Lah | An optional suffix to phrases and sentences. For example "cannot, lah", i.e. "Sorry that's not possible." and "I don't think so lah.", i.e. "I don't think so," |
| Gostan | To reverse, especially in the context of driving motor vehicles. A contraction of the term "go astern". |
Different Meanings
This is a list of words and phrases that have one meaning in British English and another in Malaysian English
| Word / Phrase | British meaning | Malaysian meaning |
|---|---|---|
| @ | short for 'at' | an indicator that the name following is a nickname or alias, usually used by Chinese, e.g. for Tan Siew Khoon @ Jimmy, his nickname/alias is Jimmy |
| driver | anybody who drives / is driving | a personal chauffeur / odd job man, often sent on errands |
| last time | on the previous occurrence | previously |
| bungalow | A small house or cottage usually having a single storey and sometimes an additional attic storey | A mansion for the rich and/or famous; or a house that is fully surrounded by open space, as opposed to terraces. |
Pronunciation
- Main article: phonemic differentiation.
In Malaysian English, the last syllable of a word is sometimes not pronounced with the strength that it would be in British English.
Also, p and f are sometimes pronounced somewhat similarly among speakers of Malay descent. For example, the two Malay names 'Fazlin' and 'Pazlin' may sound almost identical when spoken by Malays, whereas this confusion would not arise when spoken by a British Speaker.
External links
- http://thestar.com.my/merdeka/story.asp?file=/2002/8/31/merdeka/manglishmain
- http://www.asiaosc.org/enwiki/page/Malaysian_Proper_Noun_List.html - common proper noun list used in Malaysian languages