Interethnic variation in Singlish

Abstract

Language variation is prevalent in almost every language and has been integral in the foundation of discipline of sociolinguistics. Many studies have focused on variations in languages based on social variables such as gender, age, socioeconomic status and education. While studies have been conducted on Singlish, it has been mostly limited to research on the status of the language in Singapore and the phonetics and grammar of the language. This research project looked at how Singapore Colloquial English varied in conversations between Singaporeans of different ethnicities. It should be noted that participants were difficult to gather due to the coronavirus situation that occurred during the project period. People were less willing to participate due to how the coronavirus affected their work and school schedules. In some cases, they were also did not wish to be in close contact with other people. The circuit breaker period then rendered any further collection of data impossible for this project due to the face-to-face requirement of it. Hence, this study is insufficient and lacking in accurate data to draw decisive conclusions.