It is hard to find exact numbers of how many
English speakers there are in the world, but there are supposed to be about 500 million to 1.8 billion people who has English as their native, first or second language.
To us in Norway, the most familiar varieties of English is American-English, British-English and Australian-English. These three are languages we meet everyday, whether we watch TV or surf the internet. I will now write about two other varieties of English that we aren't as used to; Hinglish and Singlish.
In Singapore there has been developed two versions of the English language with influence from Chinese and Malay, and they are Colloquial Singaporean English and Standard Singapore English. The first one is also known as Singlish. It is an English-based Creole language. There are about 5 000 000 people who speak this language. The use of Singlish is low prestige in Singapore, and the language is heavily discouraged in school and in the mass media. Singlish is most commonly used by Singaporeans who are not fluent in English. Most of the educated people in Singapore speak Standard Singaporean English.
Read more about Singlish here
Here is a funny video about Singlish
Hinglish is the combination of Hindi and English, and is spoken mostly in the urban and semi-urban centers of the Hindi-speaking states of India. But via television, mobile phones and word of mouth, it is also slowly spreading into rural and remote areas. Hinglish is effecting the English which is spoken in England, with the adaption of words and expressions used by Indian immigrants and their offspring into colloquial English in England. This is similar to what is going on in Norway, where our language is influenced by the immigrants in our country. We use words from, for instance, "Kebab Norwegian", which is slang spoken by immigrants in parts of Oslo and other places.
Read more about Hinglish here
When I listen to both of the languages, Hinglish and Singlish, they both sound a bit funny to me. But I guess this is just because I'm used to hearing regular English being spoken, and not a mixture of languages. Sometimes it is really hard to understand what they are saying, because they speak unclearly and they add words like "lah" in the end of a sentence. But I guess with a little training, you can understand it easily! I would really like to learn to speak Hinglish or Singlish one day :)
To us in Norway, the most familiar varieties of English is American-English, British-English and Australian-English. These three are languages we meet everyday, whether we watch TV or surf the internet. I will now write about two other varieties of English that we aren't as used to; Hinglish and Singlish.
In Singapore there has been developed two versions of the English language with influence from Chinese and Malay, and they are Colloquial Singaporean English and Standard Singapore English. The first one is also known as Singlish. It is an English-based Creole language. There are about 5 000 000 people who speak this language. The use of Singlish is low prestige in Singapore, and the language is heavily discouraged in school and in the mass media. Singlish is most commonly used by Singaporeans who are not fluent in English. Most of the educated people in Singapore speak Standard Singaporean English.
Read more about Singlish here
Here is a funny video about Singlish
Hinglish is the combination of Hindi and English, and is spoken mostly in the urban and semi-urban centers of the Hindi-speaking states of India. But via television, mobile phones and word of mouth, it is also slowly spreading into rural and remote areas. Hinglish is effecting the English which is spoken in England, with the adaption of words and expressions used by Indian immigrants and their offspring into colloquial English in England. This is similar to what is going on in Norway, where our language is influenced by the immigrants in our country. We use words from, for instance, "Kebab Norwegian", which is slang spoken by immigrants in parts of Oslo and other places.
Read more about Hinglish here
When I listen to both of the languages, Hinglish and Singlish, they both sound a bit funny to me. But I guess this is just because I'm used to hearing regular English being spoken, and not a mixture of languages. Sometimes it is really hard to understand what they are saying, because they speak unclearly and they add words like "lah" in the end of a sentence. But I guess with a little training, you can understand it easily! I would really like to learn to speak Hinglish or Singlish one day :)
hm, yes perhaps you will! It is fun to listen to the video you posted. It sure is a different language difficult to hear that it is English sometimes.
SvarSlett