Topic 1: History of the English Language Question 2: People throughout the world speak English as the International Language.

But English is spoken in many varieties, as what is known as World Englishes. For instance, in Malaysia people speak Standard English and Malaysian English (Manglish). Discuss how Standard English differs from Malaysian English. Provide examples to justify your answer. According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary 8 th Edition (Turnbull J., 2010) Standard English is believed to be correct and used by most people in terms of spelling, pronunciation, grammar and so on. Malaysia is one of the countries learning English as Second Language (ESL). It is because it was one of the countries under the colonies of British before our independence in 1957. From the establishment of the British trading port in Penang in 1786 to the early interactions between Malay-speaking and English-speaking traders, and from the politically-charged relationships between the British colonial officers and the Malay ruling class in the 19th century to the present-day communications among different groups of English-speaking and Malayspeaking bilinguals in Malaysia, the contact between the two languages has been intense and continuing.
(Tan.S.I., 2009)

As our country has various races and ethnicities learning English language, formally or informally, with the latter often received influences from the mother tongue, therefore it has invented a lot of versions of New English in our country and refined continuously from time to time. Although it has not been standardized, the possibility of Malaysian English being standardized is still under the stage of examining and considering the need for a standardized variety of Malaysian English as the reference model in language teaching. (Talif and Ting, 1994)

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The topic which will be discussed in this essay is the differences between Standard English and Malaysian English. In schools, we are learning Standard English and because of the influences of our mother tongue, we often assimilate our mother tongue into the language. We end up creating words or sentences which are made out of our mother tongue and English, or in other words - Manglish. Standard English (SE), also known as Standard Written English (SWE), is the form of English most widely accepted as being clear and proper. Publishers, writers, educators, and others have used Standard English in their works which includes word choice, word order, punctuation, and spelling. Standard English can be understood by all speakers and users of English regardless of ethnicity, dialect, pronunciation, and usage. Therefore it is especially helpful in writing as it maintains a fairly uniform standard of communication. This is why it is sometimes called Standard Written English. (English Plus, 2006) In contrast, Malaysian English (ME) is not globally understood as it is considered a creole and code-switching in the sentences are generally acceptable and understood. In addition, it is a blend of the words; whether it is Malay and English, Chinese and English, Tamil and English or other possible combinations. The vocabulary of Malaysian English consists of words originating from English, Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil and also, elements of American and Australian slang from imported television series. As mentioned earlier, Malaysian English is an English based Creole spoken in Malaysia and a Creole is defined as a language that has evolved in a contact situation to become the native language of a generation of speakers. (Fromkin V. al et, 2011, p.458) In the past, when the Malays, Chinese, Indians and other ethnics communicate with each other, they will use English as pidgin and eventually their generations-to-come learn creole which is the combination of different kind of pidgin. In the past, Malaysians eventually learned English by adding words from their native languages and transformed into another Creole to make the language easy to understand as well. For instance, in Malay, the proverb malu-malu kucing are directly translated into English as shy shy cat which means shy; in ChineseHokkiean, the word sui is directly used in English which brings the meaning of pretty. Besides that, many idiomatic expressions have been directly translated from the mother tongues of speakers to English which bring meanings to certain groups
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of people, in this case in Malaysia, but is considered meaningless or grammatically incorrect in Standard English; such as shaking legs (having a relaxing time.), and spend someone (giving someone a treat).(Talif and Ting, 1994) Therefore, the difference between Standard English and Malaysian English can be traced back through history, as the Malaysians actually inherited English Language as a creole, then the creole budded into a English-creole-based language, and thus, the Malaysian-English (Manglish). Malaysia is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nation and it is not unusual to say that Malaysia has two or more languages being used throughout the country. The Malay Language is our National Language and English is our second Language. English used to be the medium of learning in academics, the latest being the scrapped PPSMI policy, however policy makers had made Malay Language as the medium of learning to promote racial unity. Bilingualism refers to the ability to speak two or more languages, either by an individual speakers, individual bilingualism, or within a society, societal bilingualism. (Fromkin V. al et, 2011, p.460) As a matter of fact, almost every Malaysian knows at least two languages, Malay and English, whether Standard English or Malaysian English. Malaysian English developed when the citizens learn English, because during the learning process, they will do some sort of code-switching in their sentences which they put in another language while speaking English un-purposely in order to avoid a difficult target language form or one that has not yet been learned, or a desire to fit in with ones peers. (Talif and Ting, 1994 as cited at Tarone et al. 1983) For instance, I nak pergi bank this afternoon. There is a code or language-switching between Malay and English. In Standard English, it should be, I want to go to bank this afternoon.

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Furthermore, there are grammatical differences between Standard English and Malaysian English. Standard English will demand zero grammatical errors in sentences whereas Malaysian English is influenced by the other languages such as the Malay Language. For example, in Malaysian English, a sentence is directly translated word by word, Saya nak pergi makan to I want go eat. Grammatically, it should be I want to go to eat. Malaysian English normally accepts sentences which are not grammatically correct or sentences that apply grammatical rules of other languages, normally the mother tongue. As long as the message is conveyed, grammar is considered second place in Malaysian English. It is usually used for Short Message Service (SMS) or in any other informal situations such as friends talk, peers talk and so on. It has only been used in friendship and transaction domains and has not been used in mass media but, at times it will be used for commercial purposes. In addition, some other slang expressions comprising of Malay words and phrases can be found in Malaysian English such as no-lah, finish-lah, dont want-lah and so on. The use of fillers such as lah and one are very popular among Malaysians. For instance, The bus is always late one. Tongue defines fillers as items of language which communicate no particular denotative meaning but which are used to indicate affective attitudes of the speaker or simply to fill a pause or in the stream of speech.
(Talif and Ting, 1994)

Therefore, we can see that Malaysian English usually uses a lot of words in localized context such as kampong, and makan, which are absent in Standard English A distinguishing characteristic of Malaysian English is its phonology. The intonation is syllable-timed instead of stress-timed, and there is an absence of weak forms. (Talif and Ting, 1994) In addition of that, the pronunciation of some words in Malaysian English differs from Standard English, possibly due to the influence of graphology; approximation in pronunciation and differences in how sounds of English words are perceived. (Talif and Ting, 1994) However the slight variation in phonology may not hinder international intelligibility.

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Standard English is mostly used in formal situations such as public speaking, teaching in class, writing formal letters and many more. On the other hand, Malaysian English is mostly used in informal situations such as peers talk, friends talk and so on. We can observe that Malaysian English is used for communicating verbally as well. For Standard English, it can be used for both verbal and non-verbal communications too. Malaysian English is widely used in Malaysia and it is acceptable in public. By using ME, it is more social acceptable and has less barrier as it is easily understood too. Besides that, in Malaysian context, it has been widely used in social websites such as Twitter, Facebook and others. Malaysian users usually use Manglish in order to shorten the sentences and code-switching as well as it is easily understood by Malaysian people. Usually by using Manglish, it can be create a lot of commercial effect in certain context. Although Standard English can be used for commercial purposes too but, the usage of Malaysian English will attract more attention and will create a much more cordial impression among customers. In conclusion, we can see clearly the differences between Standard English and Malaysian English from the historical aspect, grammatical aspect and phonological aspect and that Standard English and Malaysian English are used in different contexts and situations. Also, we can see that English is considered to be important in Malaysia as the language is frequently used, and thus, branched out into Malaysian English, which brings Malaysians closer. (1525 words)

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Reference
English Plus. (2006). Standard English. Retrieved from http://englishplus.com/ grammar/00000374.htm Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An Introduction to Language (9 th ed.). Chapter 9: Language in Society: Language in Contact: Creoles and Creolization. (p.458.) Wadsworth, Canada. Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An Introduction to Language (9 th ed.). Chapter 9: Language in Society: Language in Contact: Creoles and Creolization. (p.460.) Wadsworth, Canada. Talif, R.,& Ting, S.H. (1994) Malaysian English: Exploring the Possibility of Standardization. Pertanika.J.Soc.Sci.& Hum. 2(1):96-76 Tan, S.I. (2009) Lexical Borrowing in Malaysian English: Influences of Malay. (p.1162) Retrieved from http://lexis.univ-lyon3.fr/IMG/pdf/Lexis_3_Imm.pdf Turnbull J. ,Lea D., Parkinson D. , Philips P. , Francis B. , Webb S. , Ashby M. (2010). Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary.International Students Edition (New 8th ed). (p.1453), Oxford, N.Y.

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