Malaysian English

Greetings in English among Malaysian

1.0 Introduction

The English language has been widely spoken and used in Malaysia over the decades. Malaysian English originated from the British English during British colonialism in Malaya far back before the Second World War. In the first half of the 20th century, Malaysian English was exactly similar to British English (BrE) (albeit spoken with a Malaysian accent). However, after Malaysia gained her independence in1957,Bahasa Melayu claimed its status and replaced English as the official language of the nation. Since there is no official language board, council or organisation to ensure the correct and standard usage of Malaysian English, a special variety of English,which is now referred as Manglish, evolved in Malaysia and prevailed across different ethnics.

Manglish refers to the colloquial, informal spoken form of Malaysian English. It is the most common form of spoken English on the street and is used in daily interaction. Nevertheless it is not encouraged in schools where only Malaysian Standard English is taught. Loan words (code-switching) included non-English nouns and verbs from indigenous languages in Malaysia into the authentic language, has been a common phenomenon which resulted in the emergence of Manglish. The use of Manglish or Malaysian English is therefore a style-based regional variation and it is often used in informal context to show solidarity and affecting meaning.

Agheyisi, Rebecca and Joshua A.Fishman(1990) in their books “Language Attitude Studies” argued that “People’s styles of speech and written communication reflect and express not only aspects of their identity, age and gender, they also indicate the context in which language is being used”. Thus, the emergence of Malaysian English must have some relations with some variables mentioned above. This study intends to find answers to the implication of factors like languages of different ethnics on the emergence of this special form of language. In addition, it will also look at how strong the influence of this indigenous languages and cultural aspects is on this special variety of language and the usage of informal variety according to age and gender. Finally, this study seeks to find out whether the special linguistic features like grammar and morphology indicate the solidarity between the interlocutors. Janet Holmes cited that the better you know someone, the more casual and relaxed the speech style you used to them (p.236). Janets argued that relative social distance/ solidarity is one important dimension reflected in the greeting of the members in a particular speech community.

In order to find out the answers to the questions above, an observation was carried out on the greeting in English among Malaysian because greetings is the most obvious speech style in Manglish among Malaysian L2 speakers of English. The reason which accounts for these greetings are an essential part of the communication of any speech community and is the context in which informal variety being manifested broadly. For half a century, ethnolinguists like Hymes (1962) have suggested that beyond syntax and phonology, cultural differences is another dimension that needs to be given due consideration. According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, people’s perception of reality, and the way they see the world are determined by their ideology, emotion and the social-cultural values.

Unfortunately, the speech style of Manglish greetings language have not been much consideration in the development of Malaysian national curriculum , leading to misunderstandings and negative feelings towards the different speech style of greetings. In the context of a foreign language, “the more speakers understand the cultural context of greetings, the better the society appreciates them, and the more they are regarded as well behaved” (Schleicher 1997:334). Failure to fulfill one’s obligatory role during greeting exchange may consequently result in a social disappointment, which may vary from dismay to a more serious breach of social relations and perhaps cause to be in a physical danger as in Tuareg greetings in the Sahara desert (Youssouf et al 1976). . Therefore, more studies need to be conducted to look into the problems and to accumulate more findings in order to alert the multiracial community of the importance of mutual understanding and tolerance in the effort towards realization of the 1Malaysia ideology.

The purpose of this study will be to understand the influence of indigenous culture of different ethnics on the greetings discourse and the influence of age ,gender and the solidarity between speakers and addressees on the greeting discourse in English among Malaysians. It is also meant to say this topic was identified as being important to the field of Sociolinguistics in specific, and generally to Malaysians to investigate the phenomenon of polyglossia in our speech community. The study is equally important to the leading political party leaders in providing them the necessary background to handle with ethnically sensitive issues and to design courses promoting the proper usage of English.

2.0 Methodology

The study methodology aims to collect and record about the way Malaysians greet each other in their daily interaction. For each greeting, variables like gender, age , ethnic group and receiver will be taken into account. An observation was carried out on a number of 35 randomly picked subjects who are of Malaysian of diverse ethnics , age and of both genders .Data of their greetings will be recorded in the form of a data collection sheet as raw materials.

All the subjects being observed are multilingual and are speakers of English at least at the beginning level. This criterion is employed to assure basic speech competence and auditory comprehension. The subjects are being observed in a spontaneous situation and are unconscious of being deliberately perceived. This rule is strictly observed in order to gain the natural and unplanned discourse. A mobile phone recorder device is used to record the utterances of subjects who are engaged actively in interlocution in spontaneous manners.

The observation is be carried out in several different venues by the same researcher. One of the place is a recreation park where many joggers flock in in the morning. The other spot is a secondary school (SMK ULU TIRAM ) where students in the range of early teens to late teens. 45 subjects are selected randomly but only 16 of the subjects and their receivers who served the requirements are chosen after the analysis. Greetings which are not in English will be discarded. The research is also carried out in a renowned local Mamak roti canai stall. All the walk-in customers would probably be greeted by the boss and some will give response passionately to him. Some 23 customers of different ethnics ,out of all only two ladies , are observed and only 17 of them are selected to be the fulfilling subjects

Another challenging spot to carry out the research is at the STORE Supermarket, Taman Johor Jaya, Johor Bahru. A small scale study carried out has identified some subjects who are not easy to identify due to the shopping nature.(Music being played all the time and was not easy to eavesdrop shopper’s interlocution )Two sophisticated ladies were spotted greeting each other in English but their demography data were unknown. By appearance they were Indian ladies and were in their late 30s.
Demography data was collected in relation to their ethnic, age, gender and occupation after the observation by using different channel including interview ( subjects which were passers-by or customers to a famous Mamat store), drawing inference on appearance ( two female subjects who looked unfriendly and too sophisticated to deal with) and enquiring ( students and teachers of a school ).

3.0 Results and Discussion
3.1 Greetings of different ethnics regardless of age and gender

Table 1 displays the greetings of different ethnics in Malaysia regardless of their age and gender. 7 out of 12 Malay subjects (58.33%) being observed used Manglish whereas the proper usage of the language is 41.67% . As for the Chinese, 14 subjects were observed and 8 were found using broken English .This gives a percentage of 57.14% . The Indian subjects displayed a 40% of Manglish usage meaning that there are 3 out of 10 Indians speaking in broken rojak English.
This observation shows that greeting or the most essential part of communication in English among Malaysians are mangled with local loan words and phrases. There is no significant differences between ethnics and the style they greet each other. For example, the percentage of Malay using Manglish as compared to Chinese is almost the same. Indian community shows a smaller percentage of Manglish usage but this is not enough to prove that they are less influenced due to the subjects were only randomly picked. Clearly, it appears that Malaysians despites of their own diversities of ethnic cultures, share, speak and interact well in a local colloquial variety of English , that is the Manglish. As presented in the transcription of greetings , linguistics features like grammar ,morphology and phonology also have undertaken a severe variation which implicated the emergence of the colloquial variety.
Table 1
Greetings of different ethnics regardless of age and gender.
|RACE |MALAY |CHINESE |INDIA |
|1 |Morning! |Hi, morning! |Hey, brother.How is the business |
| | | |today?Ok? |
|2 |Morning! |Hi! |Hello, Leong, you so early come ya, |
| | | |today. |
|3 |Huh, the weather is terrible hot , isn’t? |Hello, what made you go so fast? |Hi,morning ! |
|4 |Hi,bro! Long time no see, busy ke? |Hi,your hubby not with you wan? |Hello boss, could someone please |
| | | |help clean the table? |
|5 |Hey,you know ar, the bench there cacat,I duduk saja |Sien lah,everytime so many people, wan |Good afternoon,Sir. |
| |terus collapse. |to go fast also cannot. | |
|6 |Good morning, Puan Zarina.Can I help you with the |Walau,Boss, so crowded.School holiday |Hi,good morning. |
| |books? |already meh? | |
|7 |Jom,go makan.Kau dah makan?I hungrylah. |Good morning.Can help to find seat ah? |Since when you perm you hair?What a |
| | | |new look! |
|8 |Good morning, sis.Can I borrow your handset? Sekejap|Good Morning, Sir. |Hi, gorgeous! |
| |je… | | |
|9 |Hey, rilek je! Sir is in the classroom already lah. |Good Morning Sir. Sir,you want me to |2)Hey you,last night you shopping at|
| | |help ah? |Jusco right? |
|10 |Hi! Sir! |Hey,you think you smile like this every|Eh,Meng, yesterday you didn’t |
| | |handsome isn’t? |come.Mana pergi ar? |
|11 |Hello, morning! Good news? |Fuiyoh, why so in a hurry. Still got | |
| | |time what, bell also haven’t ring! | |
|12 |Hi,eat already?Later mamak with us! |Hi! How is everything going? | |
|13 | |Hi,like cannot see us only! People now | |
| | |school de prefect liao wei. | |
|14 | |Hi dear,sorry.I am late again! | |

3.2 Greetings in relation to age and ethnics regardless of gender

Table 2 shows greetings in relation to age and ethnics regardless of gender. The greetings in brown are classified as Manglish. From the race of Malay, the data shows that 3 out of 7 Manglish greetings are produced by 3 youngsters (aged below 20) and 3 youth (aged from 20 to 30) and 1 from speaker in 40s.All the 4 subjects ranged from 50 to 70 years old used proper English in their greeting to their friends and acquaintances.
As for Chinese, out of the 8 wrong usages, 4 produced by speakers below 20 years old, The table also present a number of 3 Manglish greetings from speakers in the range of 30 years old and 1 from speakers aged 40 above. As for Chinese subjects aged 50 and above, the spoken form used are quite standard.
Indian ethnic as shown in the table manifests the least usage of Manglish relatively. The subjects being observed might have a better education background but not a coverage of all the Indian society as the whole. As displayed in the table, 1 out of 2 teenagers used proper English . One Manglish usage come from the youth and 1 from the 40s respectively. As the only early 50 used the standard form English. From the finding, it is clear that Manglish is the most commonly spoken by Malaysian Anglophone speakers, who are in the range of twenties regardless their ethnics diversities.
Table 2
Greetings in relation to age and ethnics regardless of gender
| |RANGE OF AGE |
|RACE | |
| |20 |30 |40 | 50 |
|MALAY |1)Good morning, Puan Zarina.Can| 1)Hi,bro! Long time no see, |1)Huh, the weather is terrible|1)Morning! |
| |I help you with the books? |busy ke? |hot , isn’t? |2)Morning! |
| |2)Jom,go makan.Kau dah makan?I | | |3)Hi,Sir! |
| |hungrylah. |2)Hey,you know ar, the bench | |4)Hello, morning! Good news?|
| |3)Good morning, sis.Can I |there cacat,I duduk saja terus | | |
| |borrow your handset? Sekejap |collapse. | | |
| |je… | | | |
| |4)Hey, rilek je! Sir is in the |3)Hi,eat already?Later mamak | | |
| |classroomalready lah. |with us! | | |
| | | | | |
|CHINESE |1)Good Morning, |1)Hi,your hubby not with you |1)Hello, what made you go so |1)Hi, morning! |
| |Sir. |wan? |fast? |2)Hi!What’s up? |
| |2)Good Morning Sir. | | |3)Hi! How is everything |
| |3)Sir,you want me to help ah? |2)Sien lah ,every time so many|2)Walau,Boss, so |going? |
| |4)Hey,you think you smile like |people, wan to go fast also |crowded.School holiday already| |
| |this every handsome isn’t? |cannot. |meh? | |
| |5)Hi,like cannot see us only! | |3)Hi dear,sorry.I am late | |
| |People now school de prefect |3)Good morning.Can help to find|again! | |
| |liao wei. |seat ah? | | |
| |6)Fuiyoh, why so in a hurry. | | | |
| |Still got time what, bell also | | | |
| |haven’t ring! | | | |
|INDIAN |1)Good afternoon, Sir. |1)Hello, Leong, you so early |1)Hi,morning ! |1)Hey, brother.How is |
| |2)Hey you,last night you |come ya, today. |2)Hello boss, could someone |today’s business?Ok? |
| |shopping at Jusco right? |2) Hi,good morning. |please help clean the table? | |
| | |3)Since when you perm you |3)Hi, gorgeous! | |
| | |hair?What a new look! | | |
| | | |4)Eh,Meng, yesterday you | |
| | | |didn’t come.Mana pergi ah? | |
| | | | | |

3.3 Greetings in relation to age and gender

Table 3 shows Greeting in relation to age and gender. Greeting transcriptions which are highlighted in brown are identified as Manglish. It is very obvious that most of the broken colloquial form of English are used by Male. 6 of the 7 greeting transcriptions produced by the male aged 20 and below are Manglish. To the contrary, only 40% of the greeting by female of this age range are Manglish. 2 subjects had been noticed to use proper form of greeting in English. As for the male aged within 30s, all of their daily greetings are manifested in Manglish. One of the 3 females of this age range has shown mangled usage of English. All the female subjects between their 40s used a proper form of English in daily greeting. Anyway, all the male subjects within the same age range produced greeting in Manglish. Those subjects who were in their 50s , both male and female ,used proper forms of English in greeting. Overall, the male and female subjects show a significant difference in the use of Manglish. Female subjects generally used a more standard form of English while male subjects were reported to be too acquainted in the usage of Manglish. Female language perhaps will be one of the domains researchers have to look into seriously in relation to this finding.
Table 3
Greetings in Relation to Gender and Age
|AGE |GENDER |
| |MALE |FEMALE |
|20 |1)Jom,go makan.Kau dah makan?I |1)Good morning, Puan Zarina.Can I |
| |hungrylah. |help you with the books? |
| | | |
| |2)Hey, rilek je! Sir is in the classroom |2)Good morning, sis.Can I borrow your |
| |already lah. |handset? Sekejap je… |
| | | |
| |3)Sir,you want me to help ah? |3)Good Morning, Sir. |
| | | |
| |4)Fuiyoh, why so in a hurry. Still got |4)Good Morning Sir |
| |time what, bell also haven’t ring! | |
| | |5)Hey,you think you smile like this |
| |5)Hi,like cannot see us only! People |every handsome isn’t? |
| |now school de prefect liao wei. | |
| | | |
| |6)Good afternoon, Sir. | |
| | | |
| |7)Hey you,last night you shopping at Jusco right? | |
|30 |1)Hi,bro! Long time no see, busy ke? |1)Hi,your hubby not with you wan? |
| | | |
| |2)Hey,you know ar, the bench there cacat,I duduk saja terus |2) Hi,good morning. |
| |collapse. |3)Since when you perm you hair? |
| | |What a new look! |
| |3)Sien lah ,every time so many people, | |
| |wan to go fast also cannot. | |
| | | |
| |4)Good morning.Can help to find seat | |
| |ah? | |
| | | |
| |5)Hello, Leong, you so early come ya, | |
| |today. | |
| | | |
| |6)Hi,eat already?Later mamak with us! | |
|40 |1)Huh, the weather is terrible hot , isn’t? |1)Hi dear,sorry.I am late again! |
| | | |
| |2)Walau,Boss,socrowded.School |2)Hello, what made you go so fast? |
| |holiday already meh? | |
| | |3)Hi,morning ! |
| |3)Eh,Meng, yesterday you didn’t | |
| |come.Mana pergi ah? |4)Hello boss, could someone please help |
| | |clean the table? |
| | | |
| | |5)Hi, gorgeous! |
| | | |
|50 |1)Morning! |1)Hi! How is everything going? |
| | | |
| |2)Morning! | |
| | | |
| |3)Hi,Sir! | |
| | | |
| |4)Hello, morning!Good news? | |
| | | |
| |5)Hi, morning! | |
| | | |
| |6)Hi!What’s up? | |
| | | |
| |7)Hey, brother.How is today business?Ok? | |

3.4 Greetings in Relation to Degree of Solidarity between Speakers and Addressees and Gender

Table 4 shows how do greeting discourse vary in relation to degree of solidarity and gender. From the data shown, it is obvious that both female and male subjects used standard variety of English when they spoke to their superiors. Similarly to that, language spoken to subordinates were also in line with the standard form. When female subjects spoke to people they do not really close to or acquaintance, they expressed themselves using a relatively more standard form of English. In contrary to that, half of the male subjects were quite stick to their colloquial form even when interacted with acquaintance. Half of the male subjects used standard form to communicate with friends who they did not know intimately. While towards classmates and inmates, both female and male subjects spoke in colloquial form except two female subjects who greeted their intimates using Briton style of greeting which was a standard form of English. As Janet Holmes argued in “An Introduction to Socialinguistics” (p236) “ The better you know someone, the more casual and relax the speech style you will use to them. People use considerably more standard forms to those they don’t know well, and more vernacular forms to their friends”. Thus, solidarity dimension has proved relevant in accounting for patterns of linguistic interaction among Malaysians.
Tables 4
Greetings in Relation to Degree of Solidarity between Speakers and Addressees and Gender
|DEGREE OF SOLIDARITY |GENDER |
|BETWEEN SPEAKERS AND | |
|ADDRESSEE | |
| |MALE |FEMALE |
|Superior |1)Good afternoon, Sir. |1)Good morning, Puan Zarina.Can I |
| |2)Hi,Sir! |help you with the books? |
| | |2)Good Morning, Sir. |
| | | |
| | | |
|Subordinate | |1)Hi dear,sorry.I am late again! |
| | |2)Hello, what made you go so fast? |
|Acquaintance |1)Hi,bro! Long time no see, busy ke? |1)Good Morning, Sir. |
| |2)Hey,you know ar, the bench there | |
| |cacat,I duduk saja terus collapse 3)Good morning.Can help|2) Hi,good morning. |
| |to find seat |3)Hi,morning ! |
| |ah? |4)Hello boss, could someone please |
| |4)Hello, Leong, you so early come ya, |help clean the table? |
| |Today? | |
| |5)Huh, the weather is terrible hot , isn’t? | |
| |6)Walau,Boss,so crowded.School | |
| |holiday already meh? | |
| |7)Morning! | |
| |8)Morning! | |
| |9)Hello, morning!Good news? | |
| |10)Hi, morning! | |
| |11)Hi!What’s up? | |
| |12)Hey, brother.How is today | |
| |business?Ok? | |
|Classmates |1)Fuiyoh, why so in a hurry. Still got |1)Good morning, sis.Can I borrow |
| |time what, bell also haven’t ring! |your handset? Sekejap je… |
| |2)Hey you,last night you shopping at | |
| |Jusco right? | |
| |3)Eh,Meng, yesterday you didn’t | |
| |come.Mana pergi ah? | |
|Intimates |1)Jom,go makan.Kau dah makan?I |5)Hey,you think you smile like this |
| |hungrylah. |every handsome isn’t? |
| |2)Hey, rilek je! Sir is in the classroom |3)Since when you perm you hair? |
| |already lah |What a new look! |
| |3)Hi,like cannot see us only! People | |
| |now school de prefect liao wei. |5)Hi, gorgeous! |
| |4)Sien lah ,every time so many |1)Hi! How is everything going? 1)Hi,your hubby not with |
| |people, wan to go fast also cannot. |you wan? |
| |6)Hi,eat already?Later mamak with | |
| |us! | |

4.0 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

A special variety of English, which is referred as Manglish, evolved in Malaysia in the second half of 20th century and prevailed across different ethnics. The variety refers to a colloquial, informal spoken form of Malaysian English. A study was carried out to gather data about the use of Manglish or Malaysian English and the factors which have incurred the emergence of this local variety. The relationship between variables like ethnic, age, gender and degree of solidarity in informal context were the core domain of this study.
A qualitative research was done through observation on 36 subjects who were picked randomly as the samples. The technique used to gather information were observation ,eavesdropping and interview. The findings was recorded down by the researcher including the demography data. The observation was carried in spontaneous situation in several public places and a secondary school. The instruments utilized were the data collection forms and a mobile phone with a recording device. Information jotted down was unplanned discourse.
The findings of this study provided enough proofs to reject our first hypothesis that there is a relationship of different ethnics and the usage of Manglish. The information gathered shows that Malaysians despites of diverse ethnic culture speak proudly and interact very well in one shared variety that is the Malaysian English. However, the second hypothesis that the usage of informal variety varies according to age and gender was not rejected. The finding shows that the younger age the speaker is the stronger the tendency to speak the colloquial variety .Does the special linguistic features like grammar and morphology in informal spoken form indicate the solidarity between the interlocutors? The finding from the study also has indicated that the use of informal variety was influenced by the social distance or solidarity between interlocutors It accounted to the argument by Janet Holmes that “That the better you know someone, the more casual and relaxed the speech style you used to them(p.236).Thus, we can make a conclusion that relative social distance/ solidarity is one important dimension reflected in the greeting of the members in a particular speech community.

The purpose of this study was to understand the influence of indigenous culture of different ethnics on the greetings discourse and the influence of age ,gender and the solidarity between speakers and addressees on the greeting discourse in English among Malaysians. It is also meant to say this topic was identified as being importance to Sociolinguistics in specific and generally to Malaysians to investigate the phenomenon of polyglossia in our speech community. Further studies have to be carried out to find out the reasons account to these phenomenon so that the authority can implement relevant measures to help undermining the improper usage of English Language among Malaysians.

References

References

• Saville-Troike,M.(2006).Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Janet Holmes (2008) An Introduction to Socialinguistic .University of New England

• Chan Swee Heng & Ain Nadzimah Abdullah(2008) Research Method In English.University Putra Malaysia

• Robert Weissberg and Suzanne Buker(1990) Writing Up Research .Experimental Research Report Writing for Students of English Pearson Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

• Josephine Lourdunathan, & Sujatha Menon. (2005). Developing skills through interaction strategy training. The English Teacher, XXXIV. (Online) Retrieved September 26,2009, from

http://www.melta.org.my/ET/2005/DEVELOPING%20SPEAKING%20SKILLS

%20THROUGH%20INTERACTION

• Che An Abdul Ghani(2010) Writing Research Report . University Putra Malaysia

References: • Saville-Troike,M.(2006).Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Janet Holmes (2008) An Introduction to Socialinguistic .University of New England • Chan Swee Heng & Ain Nadzimah Abdullah(2008) Research Method In English.University Putra Malaysia • Robert Weissberg and Suzanne Buker(1990) Writing Up Research .Experimental Research Report Writing for Students of English Pearson Malaysia Sdn Bhd. • Josephine Lourdunathan, & Sujatha Menon. (2005). Developing skills through interaction strategy training. The English Teacher, XXXIV. (Online) Retrieved September 26,2009, from http://www.melta.org.my/ET/2005/DEVELOPING%20SPEAKING%20SKILLS %20THROUGH%20INTERACTION • Che An Abdul Ghani(2010) Writing Research Report . University Putra Malaysia