Bi-accentism

read an interesting article in the Straits Times today by Karl Ho entitled 'Wait, I forgot my accent'.

I quote,"In sociolinguistics. there's a theory called 'convergence' where a speaker moves towards the speech style of his interlocutor so as to reduce social disturbance".

In Singapore you always hear how people criticise our local DJ's, celebrities or announcers for having faux ang moh accents. We have all heard the joke about the guy who went to the U.K. for 2 weeks and came back with a thick British accent. I guess there is some truth to that. But the greater truth is that we need to be understood and to undertstand what the other guy is saying. It is little different to a person talking Hokkien or Malay at the wet market to the stall owner there. It would be really out-of-place to speak so-called Queen's English to a hawker just as it would be to speak Singlish at a Parliament sitting (but it has been done before).  

I guess when in Rome you should do as the Roman's do. When in Singapore,...you know the rest. In any event, there is no singular right or wrong way to speak english. English is merely a mish mash of other tongues with the origins of many words in common use being derived from French, German and other languages. And to the detriment of some, there is little weight to the term 'Queen's English' anymore. Even all the Queen's horses and all the Queens men do not speak english the Queen's way. Accents and slang from the various parts of the United Kingdom vary according to region. It seems like the further north you go, the more incomprehensible it becomes. In fact I think I can safely say that the best exponents of the english language are outside the land of its birth.

The story is very much the same on the other side of the Atlantic. The americans are probably the ones who love to bastardise the language more than any other. To be in New York and to hear english in all its wonderful forms is something that has to be heard to be believed.

To get to the point that I am trying to get to, I think the important thing is that both parties in the conversation understand what the other is saying. Much like how all the ang moh's try to pick up our local lingo and Singlish when they come here, we Singaporeans are justified if our ang moh friends get the point we are trying to get across. Granted some of us have a horrible grasp of the finer points of the language and sound as though we have potatoes in our mouths half the time when we attempt to speak like our former colonial rulers do. But I think being the cosmopolitan state we are and our attempts to be a global economy on the world stage, I do believe there is a time and a place for every sort of english language permutation in this land we call Singapore.