By Kenny Goh
According to the Malay Annals, the Kingdom of Singapura ruled the island way before the British colonised it. Before that, Singapore was under the influence of the Srivijaya Empire. Old Malay and Sanskrit were languages that existed on this island.
Thereafter, the Malacca Sultanate took over and the language used evolved to Middle Malay.
The British colonised Singapore, initially as the Straits Settlement from 1826 to 1867, and as a Crown Colony after 1867. English was introduced for commerce and governance. Migrants from India and China brought Indian languages such as Tamil and Punjabi, and Chinese dialects including Hokkien, Cantonese, and Hainanese. These immigrants mainly came from Southern India and China.
Japan conquered Singapore, renaming it Shonan-to, or Light of the South. Japanese was taught in schools as a compulsory language and required in government agencies.
Even before the Japanese Occupation, Bazaar Malay had become the lingua franca in the region, and Hokkien became the lingua franca of the Chinese community. After self-governance, English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil became Singapore's four official languages.
The four official languages remained. Malay became the national language of Singapore. Among the Malay community, Javanese, Buginese, and Boyanese were also mother tongues in many families. Among the Chinese community, although many schools taught Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin was not commonly used in family households. English, as a first or second language, was made compulsory in national exams to encourage bilingualism.
The government strongly encouraged the use of Mandarin over other Chinese dialects. The use of dialects declined rapidly after the Speak Mandarin Campaign began in 1979.
The Speak Good English Movement launched on 29 April 2000 aimed to combat Singlish. Singapore has evolved into a globalised city with multiple languages and ethnicities. As seen by the warning sign at a construction site, Korean and Bengali are included alongside the four official languages.
Source: CNA, Mediacorp
The pie charts above show that English has become more dominant at homes in just 10 years. The percentage of people speaking languages outside of the four official languages and Chinese dialects has also increased, showing our diversity.
Source: Department of Statistics, Singapore
We can see the steep decline of Chinese dialects in 1980, largely due to the Speak Mandarin Campaign. Malay has remained relatively stable, although languages like Bugis, Javanese, and Boyanese have declined in favour of Malay. English use has grown sharply since the Speak Good English movement started in 2000. Tamil has also remained largely stable.
Different regions of Singapore used to be dominated by different languages in the past.
Click on the interactive map to find out more!