Archive for Malaysian English “Manglish”
October 14, 2011 at 4:07 am · Filed under Malaysian English "Manglish" ·Tagged For Malaysian, Malaysian English
Malaysian English “Manglish”
Manglish is made up largely (about 99% ) of English words, interspersed with elements from at least three of the main languages of the country (Malay, Chinese and Indian). While the vocabulary may be largely English, the grammar is not, and sentence construction in Manglish almost seems to be without structure.
Some notable features of “Manglish”
“Shirt unbutton, chest can see.”
“She very sick yesterday.”
Come on, hurry up-lah
You think you big shot-ah?
This pobblem only small matter-mah!
Where you go last night?
“This chair very rickety, but can do”
“I want to borrow this DVD, can or not?”
which is equivalent to
“May I borrow this DVD?”
“I have not finished the work. I have got only two hands.”
The marker pen, where got?
The teacher got tell us to go to Chemistry Lab
“I want to lend (intended meaning: borrow) your bike, can or not?”; and
“Can you borrow (intended meaning: lend) me 10 ringgit?”
“My pen won’t come out ink.”
“Bring come that chair.”
“You think you very smart-ah?”
“Lunch at MacDona. Come-lah. I spend you.”
“Gostan some more until you hear a bang.”
“Those two guys no manners-one.
Always ride motorbike two abreast and talk.
Should ride motorbike one abreast.”
The Russian spaceman was labelled as COSMONAUT,
the American as ASTRONAUT,
the Chinese as TAIKONAUT,
and the Malaysian as CAN-OR-NOT!
Dear readers,
you got understand this article-ah?
If yes, you pobbably Malaysian.
If blur, you pobbably foreigner.
For foreigner,
get Malaysian to teach you-lah.
Very easy-one, like kacang only.
By Dr Lim Chin Lam
Permalink
Manglish is made up largely (about 99% ) of English words, interspersed with elements from at least three of the main languages of the country (Malay, Chinese and Indian). While the vocabulary may be largely English, the grammar is not, and sentence construction in Manglish almost seems to be without structure.
By Dr Lim Chin Lam
Learning English by Uncle Teng