How Standard English Differs From

Malaysian English English Language Essay

Communication is one of the most important aspects in our everyday activity. In fact, most of
the activities we do are directly or indirectly related to communication. More than 300
million people in the world speak English and the rest sometimes seem to or are trying to. At
the same time, English is spoken in many different varieties in dependence to the country, as
what it is known throughout as the World Englishes. The British introduced English to
Malaysia more than two centuries ago. It became the most important language for generations
and it is often associated with power and prestige. However, in post-British era, when
Malaysia became independent in 1957, English was made the second language in conjunction
with the promotion of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language. Then, in the 1990s, spurred
by the government's objective to push the nation into globalization, the importance of English
increased. Today, Malaysians speak Standard English and Malaysian English. But here what
is actually meant by Standard English and Malaysian English and how exactly it differs?
What actually counts the Standard English will depend on both the locality and the particular
varieties that Standard English is being contrasted with. As a whole, Standard English is
also known as Standard Written English or SWE, is the form of English most widely accepted
as being clear and proper. It is regarded as the most appropriate and most commonly used
form of English around the world and is acknowledged as the model of speech and writing of
educated speakers. While on the other hand, Manglish is a Malaysian speaking style, just like
the Singaporean English, Singlish. This is a distorted use of English that is mainly spoken
between the locals and sometimes is also referred to as a rojak language. So, how is Standard
English differs from Malaysian English?

In Malaysia, we regard Malaysian English as bahasa rojak. (Johnleemk, 8 Mac 2007). Rojak
is a malay word, loosely translated actually means 'a mixture of'. Same goes to in Malaysian
context. We regard our English as rojak English. Malaysians, are very lucky to have many
different races speaking many different languages and still staying together peacefully under
one nation. The variety known as Malaysian English has, among various factors, the local
languages as one of the ingredients that colour this variety. These local languages mentioned
being basically Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Such indigenized varieties are most often used in
an informal communicative variety. This means using the English language with a
mixture of the Malay words, Chinese dialects and Tamil. For example, in an informal
communication, people more often than not used the word 'lah' , 'aaah' and 'aiyoo'. 'Lah' is
used to emphasise, 'Aaah' is usually followed by a question mark and 'Aiyoo' is often
accompanied by the exclaimation mark. For example, 'Aiyoo, why you so late one huh?' and
'faster lah. This kind of Manglish spoken sentences are only understood by Malaysians and
not tourists. Recently, I read an article where, an English spoken tourist who came to
Malaysia commented on the Malaysian English. "It sounds curiously like English, but I
could'nt understand what was being said." How is the tourist going to understand if the
English is spoken in this manner, "My car, 4 months never pay. The finance people are going
to pull already. Myself, where got money. Aiyoo...! Die lah like that". This actually means I
have not paid up my car installments in 4 months. The finance company is going to reposess
it soon. I don't have the money. Argh! I'm done for. The main point on how Malaysian
English differs from Standard English is the words spoken which are used in the speaking of
English language. In Standard English we use words which can be understood by everyone
whereby in Malaysian English, we mix all the language into English whereby only
Malaysians can understand the whole meaning of the sentence.

Besides that, Standard English differs from Malaysian English in terms of pronunciations of
words. As I have explained in the above context, Malaysia is a well diverse country with the
Malaysians speaking many different dialects. So, English is a second language in this
country. If compared to the British, the one main language spoken there is English. Here, in
Malaysia, the English spoken here is mixed with many different dialects spoken by the
different ethnics in Malaysia. Thus, one thing we need to bear in mind here that most of the
pronunciations mistake relates to mother tongue interference. For example, this piece is taken
from the Start Online, "There are many points in Hussaini's article that I can comment on, but
I'll just choose two examples he gave as wrong pronunciation of English words, "head" and
"said", which he claimed were mispronounced as "had" and "sad". The Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English and other mainstream dictionaries give the
pronunciation of the words as /hed/ and /sed/, using the International Phonetic Alphabet
system and hence they would actually sound almost like "had" and "sad" but with shorter
vowel sounds. Perhaps Hussaini thought "head" should sound like /het/ and "said' like
/sed/, which are actually Malaysian English pronunciation of the words". Some other
words Malaysian pronounce differently are their (Malaysians read it as thee-ya but it's
actually is there) , Wednesday ( Malaysians pronounce it as wed-nes-day but it's actually
wenz-day), question ( Malaysians read as ques-tion but it's actually ques-chen), procedure
( Malaysians pronounce it as prou-si-dear but it is pre-si-jer) and many other words. At the
same time, In Malaysian English, the last syllable of a word is sometimes not pronounced
with the strength that it would be in British English. So, here we can see Malaysian English
differs in terms of pronunciation of words, whereby it is mostly affected by the interference
of the different dialects in Malaysia.

Standard English also differs from Malaysian English in terms of grammar. There are many
Manglish grammatical structures taken from Chinese dialects and many claim that the
structure is also borrowed from the malay language. For example, the phrase "Why you so
like that one?" in standard English it means "Why are you behaving in that way". In
Cantonese, a similar phrase would be rendered as "Dmgai nih gm ge?" or literally "Why
you like that?" The "one" in the sample phrase does not literally mean the numeral one;
instead it is used more as a suffix device. It is also sometimes rendered as "wan."One other
characteristic is anastrophe and omission of certain prepositions and articles. For example
"I haven't seen you in a long time" in standard English becomes "Long time no see" in
Malaysian English. Not only are those, even to the certain extent the words used in Standard
English and Malaysian English also different. With the variety of influences Malaysian
English is gradually forming its own vocabulary. Typically, these words are based on other
English words but most of the time the Malaysian speaker is unaware that these words are not
the words from the standard use of English or even from British or American English. For
example, one of the most used words in Malaysia is hand phone but it is actually a mobile
phone or a cell phone. Malaysian use brinjal, but the right use of that vegetable is eggplant or
Aubergine, the standard word for MC is actually sick note and gostan which is used in
Malaysia is actually reverse or to go backwards in Standard English. Moreover, some of the
same words found in Standard English and Malaysian English have different meaning. For
example, bungalow. In Standard English it means a small house or cottage usually having a
single storey and sometimes an additional attic story that is free standing, i.e. not conjoined
with another unit. But in Malaysian English it means a mansion for the rich and/or famous; or
a fully detached house, regardless of the number of floors it has. (absolute astronomy).
Currently, many different English varieties, which are called World Englishes, are spoken all
over the world. Malaysian English, one of the World Englishes, has an important role as an
inter-ethnic lingua franca in the Malaysian community. Since language is closely related to
identity, even if the Malaysian government carries on the language policy which ignores the
relationship between language and identity, the policy will have little effect on Malaysian
language use and attitudes. At the same time, I believe that it is not wrong using Malaysian
English, we should always minimize the usage and avoid speaking Malaysian English in
formal situation. On the other hand, standard English should always be uphold and given the
highest priority as English is becoming the highest medium of communication everywhere
around the world. Thus, the difference between Malaysian English and Standard English can
be lessened if there is a commitment from every individual to improve the standard of
English in Malaysia.

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