Malay and Indian Languages | Languages of Singapore

Malay and Indian Languages of Singapore: History, Current Use, and Future

This talk, the 2nd in a series of 4, brings together experts in the languages of the Malay and Indian communities of Singapore. While the focus is on the National and official languages, Malay and Tamil, the panelists also discuss the other languages of these communities.  Panelists will touch on the history, status, use, challenges, initiatives, and prospects of the languages.

The Malay language in the world and Singapore

In Singapore, Malay is often thought of as just a local ethnic language. However, Malay has a long history as the major language of communication throughout Island Southeast Asia and adjacent parts of the Mainland. Today, in all its many varieties, Malay is the most widely spoken member of the vast Austronesian family, from which it initially emerged some 2000 years ago in the region around Singapore. Dr Geoffrey Benjamin will outline the history of Malay, with special emphasis on its role as a means of communication throughout the region, as well as Singapore, both within and between populations. 

“Sebutan Baku”: Has it really caught on with Singaporean Malay speakers?

For a long time in Singapore’s history, both Colloquial Malay and Standard Malay were spoken using the socially accepted standard – Sebutan Johor Riau (SJR). In 1993, “Sebutan Baku” (SB, literally translated: “Standard Pronunciation”) was created and adopted to be used with Standard Malay. SB was regarded as more systematic and easier to teach to learners of the Malay Language. Recent research, however, has shown that after almost 30 years of its legislation, speakers who use SB could only afford a sub-standard version. Dr Mukhlis Abu Bakar will explain what is standard pronunciation, and why the desired standard is hard to achieve, if at all possible.

Tamil to strive as a living language in Singapore

Dr Venugobal Thangaraju will stress the status of Tamil as one of the oldest living languages and how it has a rich and long literary heritage dating back to Sangam era. Being a diglossia Tamil has two distinctive varieties, namely spoken and written.  The talk will highlight the need to safeguard both varieties in the community to ensure Tamil remains to a living language in years to come. He would expect one to ponder over these questions: In the light of English language dominance among current profile of speakers, what challenges do Tamil language face in Singapore? What needs to be done at instructional level to enthuse our younger generation to connect with the language and value its cultural heritage.

The other tongues of the Indians in Singapore

Dr Ritu Jain will draw attention to the lesser-known languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, and Hindi, spoken among the Indians in Singapore. She considers questions such as: How did the bilingual policy historically affect students from these language backgrounds? How has the education policy supported the education outcomes of these students over the years? What is the current 'health’ and future prospect of these languages? Above all, I invite you to ask me questions and share your experiences and aspirations for these languages.

About the Speakers

Dr Geoffrey Benjamin is currently Lecturer in Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at Nanyang Technological University, teaching courses on the linguistics of Malay and Southeast Asia. As anthropologist and linguist, his research interests include the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia and the Malays of the Riau Islands, Indonesia.

Dr Mukhlis Abu Bakar is Associate Professor at the Asian Languages and Cultures Academic Group of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University Singapore. He was trained in Applied Linguistics in the field of speech perception. His current research interests include pronunciation issues in the Malay language.

Dr Venugobal Thangaraju is a Master Specialist at Ministry of Education, Singapore.  He has been involved in the planning and implementation of Tamil language curriculum for primary, secondary and JCs for the past 20 years.  He shows keen interest in research works pertaining to Tamil grammar and Spoken Tamil.

Dr Ritu Jain is a lecturer at NTU and a researcher in the languages of the Indians in Singapore. She studies the effect of policies on the languages of minority communities such as those identifying with the non-official Indian languages. She is the editor of the recently published Routledge volume, Multilingual Singapore and moderator of the NLB talk series Languages of Singapore.

The discussion is moderated by Dr Ritu Jain, a lecturer at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and editor of the recently published volume, “Multilingual Singapore”.