Manglish

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Manglish is an informal form of Malaysian English with features of an English-based creole principally used in Malaysia. It is heavily influenced by the main languages of the country, Malay, Tamil, and varieties of Chinese. It is not one of the official languages spoken in Malaysia.

Manglish spoken in West Malaysia is very similar to and highly mutually intelligible with Singlish, a creole of similar roots. There is little distinction between the two creoles except that Manglish vocabulary contains more Malay words while Singlish contains more words of Hokkien (Min Nan) and Teochew origin.

The vocabulary of Manglish consists of words originating from English, Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil, and, to a lesser extent, various other European languages and Arabic, while Manglish syntax resembles southern varieties of Chinese. Also, elements of American and Australian slang have come through from imported television series.^[1]

The Malaysian Manglish is sometimes known as Rojak or Bahasa Rojak, but it differs from the Rojak language by the use of English as the base language. The term rojak derives from "mixture" or "eclectic mix" in colloquial Malay. The East Coast versions (Kelantan and Terengganu) of Manglish may differ greatly from that of West Coast Malaysian speakers.

Besides mixing multiple languages, Manglish includes mixing the syntax of each language. Hence, Malaysians often speak English in Malay or Chinese syntax. Idioms, proverbs and phrases are also often translated directly to English from Malay, Chinese, and Tamil. The accent and vocabulary used is highly dependent on the formality of the context and language dominance of the speaker. The speaker would also vary the quantity of Manglish spoken depending on their counterpart.

Foreigners are generally unable to understand Manglish as it is a mix of so many languages and multiple language rules, it is understandable only to Malaysians. Many Malaysians are able to speak their native language fluently but choose to speak Manglish in their daily lives and conversations.