Is Singapore Chinese Mandarin?

Singaporean Mandarin (simplified Chinese: 新加坡华语; traditional Chinese: 新加坡華語; pinyin: Xīnjiāpō Huáyǔ) is a variety of Mandarin Chinese widely spoken in Singapore. It is one of the four official languages of Singapore along with English, Malay and Tamil.

What is the mother tongue of China?

Mandarin
China/Official languages
Mandarin Chinese is known as 普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà), the “common speech,” and it has only been the official language of China since the 1930s, when the country established it as the standard dialect and began pushing to make this a reality nationwide.

Does Malaysian speak Chinese?

As a whole, Standard Chinese (Mandarin) and its Malaysian dialect are the most widely spoken forms among Malaysian Chinese, as it is a lingua franca for Chinese who speak mutually unintelligible varieties; Mandarin is also the language of instruction in Chinese schools and an important language in business.

Why is Singapore so Chinese?

Many were unskilled and migrated from China to Southeast Asia for jobs during the colonial period of the region. In 1821, the first Chinese junk arrived in Singapore, then a newly founded British port. Today, descendants of early Chinese migrants make up the bulk of the population of Chinese Singaporeans.

What is the Singaporean Mandarin language?

They tend to infuse the language with many words from other Chinese dialects, Malay and English. Singaporean Mandarin only became widely spoken by the Chinese community in Singapore after the Speak Mandarin Campaign in 1979. It is today considered to be the second most commonly spoken language in Singapore, after English.

What is the mother tongue of Singaporeans?

In this context, the mother tongue of a Singaporean refers to the official language assigned to their racial group (Mandarin for Chinese, Malay for Malays and Tamil for most Indians ), regardless of the language spoken at home.

What is the Speak Mandarin Campaign?

The Speak Mandarin Campaign sought to destroy Chinese Singaporeans’ real mother tongues, first by demeaning them as provincial “dialects” of Mandarin when they are in fact mutually unintelligible languages as different as English, German and Danish.

How similar is Singaporean Mandarin grammar to Putonghua?

In terms of standard written Mandarin in Singapore, the Singaporean Mandarin grammar is almost similar to that of Putonghua. However, the grammar of colloquial Singaporean Mandarin can differ from that of Putonghua as a result of influence from other varieties of Chinese, classical Chinese and English.