Wah! Singapore tries to purge "Singlish"

[Althalus]

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - "Speak English. Can or cannot lah?"

Singapore launched its annual exercise in linguistic engineering on Wednesday with its "Speak Good English Movement" aimed at stamping out "Singlish", a local patois that borrows from Chinese and famously ends most sentences with "lah".

It's an uphill battle.

Although most Singaporeans speak English they often banter in shops, at home or with friends in a punchy native appropriation that adds words from Chinese, Malay or Tamil -- the nation's three other official languages -- with frequent Chinese grammar.

View: Full Article | Source: Yahoo News