Mee Siam Mai Hum

Mee Siam Mai Hum

Spiaking Singlish

Singlish is a punchy and witty patois used in Singapore. It mixes English with words, phrases, and syntaxes from the languages of different ethnic groups living in the country. This fascinating feature of Singaporean life favours efficient communication and humour and is well-loved by many. Spiaking Singlish doesn’t just describe Singlish elements; there are already several such references books. Rather, it aims to show how Singlish can be used in a confident and stylish way to communicate. Gwee Li Sui’s collection of highly entertaining articles shares his observation of how Singlish has evolved over the decades. To appeal to the “kiasu” nature of readers, each of the 45 pieces comes with a bonus comic strip. There is also a Singlish quiz at the end of the book for readers to test their grasp of Singlish! Spiaking Singlish is possibly the first book on Singlish written entirely in Singlish, complete with colloquial spelling. It may also be the most stimulating of them all. Fear not if you find this book too bizarre: all Singlish words and phrases are indexed and explained at some point in the book

Choreographies of Multilingualism

Singapore boasts a complex mix of languages and is therefore a rich site for the study of multilingualism and multilingual society. In particular, writing is a key medium in the production of the nation's multilingual order - one that is often used to organize language relations for public consumption. In Choreographies of Multilingualism, Tong King Lee examines the linguistic landscape of written language in Singapore - from street signage and advertisements, to institutional anthologies and text-based memorabilia, to language primers and social media-based poetry - to reveal the underpinning language ideologies and how those ideologies figure in political tensions. The book analyzes the competing official and grassroots narratives around multilingualism and takes a nuanced approach to discuss the marginalization, celebration, or appropriation of Singlish. Bringing together theoretical perspectives from sociolinguistics, multimodal semiotics, translation, and cultural studies, Lee demonstrates that multilingualism in Singapore is an emergent and evolving construct through which identities and ideologies are negotiated and articulated. Broad-ranging and cross-disciplinary, this book offers a significant contribution to our understanding of language in Singapore, and more broadly to our understanding of multilingualism and the sociolinguistics of writing.