Ad
related to: chinese singapore language
Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
During the 1930s and 1940s, new immigrants from China, known as xīn kè (新客) helped to established more Chinese schools in Singapore, increasing the propagation of Mandarin Chinese in Singapore. The name of Mandarin in Singapore was eventually changed from Guoyu (國語, i.e. National Language) to Huayu (華語, i.e. Chinese Language).
The languages of Singapore are English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil, with the lingua franca between Singaporeans being English, the de facto main language. Singaporeans often speak Singlish among themselves, an English creole arising from centuries of contact between Singapore's internationalised society and its legacy of being a British colony.
The use of Mandarin in the Chinese-medium schools led its use mainly by the Chinese-educated or Chinese elites in Singapore. After Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew announced and kickstarted the Speak Mandarin Campaign in 1979, the Promote Mandarin Council started research on Mandarin standardisation based on case studies in mainland China and Taiwan.
The Singapore Department of Statistics defines "Chinese" as a "race" or "ethnic group", in conjunction with "Malay, Indian and Others" under the CMIO model. [10] They consist of "persons of Chinese origin" such as the Hokkiens, Teochews, Hainanese, Cantonese, Hakka, Henghuas, Hokchias and Foochows, Shanghainese, Northern Chinese, etc." [11] Chinese Singaporeans are defined as the "Chinese ...
Non-Chinese language communities, principally the Malays and Tamils, have argued that the effort placed into promoting Mandarin weakens the role of English as Singapore's lingua franca and threatens to marginalize Singapore's minorities. Dialects such as Hokkien, along with Malay have served as a language for the Straits Chinese, or Peranakan ...
Before 1969, Singapore used traditional Chinese characters.From 1969, the Ministry of Education promulgated the Table of Simplified Characters (simplified Chinese: 简体字表; traditional Chinese: 簡體字表; pinyin: jiǎntǐzì biǎo), which differed from the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme of the China. [1]
Today, Chinese has an official language status in three countries and two territories. In China, it is the sole official language as Standard Chinese; in Taiwan, it is the de facto official language; while in Singapore (as Mandarin) it is one of the four official languages.
Today, Singdarin remains often used and is commonly spoken in colloquial speech in Singapore and occasionally even on local television, and most Chinese-speaking Singaporeans are able to code-switch between Singdarin and Standard Mandarin, likewise with most Singaporeans in general with Singlish and standard Singapore English. Furthermore, most ...
Ad
related to: chinese singapore language