HG420 Language Contact. Singapore s Linguistic Landscape A Comparison between Food Centres Located in Central and Heartland Singapore

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1 Student Paper HG420 Language Contact Singapore s Linguistic Landscape A Comparison between Food Centres Located in Central and Heartland Singapore By Neo Wanting Samantha Soon Sze Min 2012 Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies School of Humanities and Social Sciences Nanyang Technological University

2 Contents Abstract Introduction Multilingualism in Singapore Research Questions and Hypotheses Methodology Results Languages Used Official Signs Language Prominence Discussion Conclusion References Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C P age

3 Abstract Singapore is a multilingual and multicultural society, where many ethnic groups and languages are commonly seen to coexist. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the trends and motivations on the construction of Singapore's linguistic landscape, given its unique background. Food centres are used as the location of study for this paper as they are public domains frequently visited by people from all walks of life in Singapore. A comparison between a centrally located food centre, Lau Pa Sat, and a heartland food centre, Boon Lay Hawker Centre is made, thus proving that the extent of multilingualism and the variation of language used in Singapore is highly related to its geographical demographic. Keywords: Singapore, Multilingualism, Linguistic Landscapes, Languages in Contact 3 P age

4 1. Introduction Linguistic landscapes are defined as linguistic tokens that mark the public sphere (Landry and Bourhis, 1997), and is a new interdisciplinary field of study that reveals linguistic diversity. With the rise of globalization, the increase in the number of languages used in the public domain such as billboards, street signs, and public notices has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of multilingualism and language contact. This is because the presence of any language poses a number of questions with regards to the language's function, the motivation, and its reflection of the community (Ryan, 2011). Therefore, through the study of linguistic landscapes, it is believed that linguistic tokens would be able to reflect the local language policies and language usage. Previous studies on linguistic landscapes have investigated the impact of English on local languages, such as Huebner s (2006) study on the Bangkok neighborhood and Backhaus s (2006) study on central Tokyo. There were also studies that looked at the reflection of linguistics landscapes on language policies and political changes, such as Kotsu and Plessis s (2010) paper Xhariep, Africa. This paper attempts to examine the language used in central and urban Singapore through the investigation of linguistic landscapes as defined by Landry and Bourhis (1997) Multilingualism in Singapore Since Singapore's independence in 1965, English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Tamil have been selected as the country's official languages. Under the Bilingual Education Policy implemented in 1966, English is promoted as the language of instruction in schools, and students were to learn their 'mother tongue', Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil, as a language subject (Dixon, 2005). Due to the country's multiethnic nature, English has become the lingua franca between different races and thus the default working language. It is therefore common to see more than one language on the signs in Singapore. In addition, Singapore also enjoys a rich linguistic diversity from the 1.4 million foreigners (about 27 %) out of its population of 5.18 million (Singapore Census of Population, 2010), and these includes foreign students, expats and foreign workers. Few studies have worked on the linguistic landscape of such a highly multilingual and multicultural society like Singapore, therefore this paper aims to investigate the trends and motivations on the 4 P age

5 construction of Singapore's linguistic landscape. Firstly, we have chosen to focus on food centres in Singapore as the linguistic tokens found there are largely non- official, as it is mentioned in Backhaus's (2006) Tokyo study that non- official signs are most accurate in reflecting local trends. As these food centres are visited by people from various backgrounds and working classes, the linguistic landscapes would also be able to reveal underlying power relations and notions that have encouraged the choice of languages. In order to provide a more holistic picture of Singapore's linguistic landscape, we have chosen two food centres from different parts of Singapore that are usually frequented by people of different demographics, one from the central business district and one from the western heartlands. We believe that from the linguistic landscapes examined in these two locations, our data would be able to show us to what extent is multilingualism reflected in Singapore. Also, the prominent language used in non- official signs would be able to give us insights on the motivations on language usage in Singapore Research Questions and Hypotheses Therefore, by comparing and contrasting the linguistic landscape of central and heartland Singapore, this paper aims to illustrate the usage and vitality of Singapore's official languages and also other foreign languages, if any are present in the course of study. This paper will hence be presented by addressing the following research questions: 1. What are the languages that are prominently used and displayed in Singapore's linguistic landscapes? 2. What are the motivations behind the use of these languages in the linguistic landscapes? Our hypotheses in answering the research questions are: 1. The English language will have a more dominant presence as compared to the other official languages, as it is the lingua franca and working language known to all citizens of Singapore, especially so in the linguistic landscape of central Singapore. Mandarin Chinese will also have a significant presence, as the Chinese population makes up the majority of the nation, especially so in the linguistic landscape of heartland Singapore. 2. The motivations behind Singapore's linguistic landscape are due to the language's symbolic functions and demographic composition of the area. 5 P age

6 2. Methodology For this study, the two food centres chosen for the survey were: 1) Lau Pa Sat, Raffles Quay, Singapore 2) Boon Lay Hawker Centre, Block 221A Market, Boon Lay Place, Singapore It is predicted that the data collected from both sites will reflect the demographics of the customers and their linguistic repertoire. The 1 st centre was chosen due to its location, which is in the center of Singapore. Since its reopening in 1991, it serves mostly office workers from the business buildings around it and has also attracted tourists because of its historical location and the building's status as a heritage site. There are 120 hawker stalls in the centre. Figure 2.1 shows the location of Lau Pa Sat on a map of Raffles Quay. Figure 2.1 Map of Raffles Quay showing Lau Pa Sat in the middle of the business district (Source: 6 P age

7 In contrast, the 2 nd centre, Boon Lay Hawker Centre is located in the western heartlands of Singapore; in near proximity to the HDB (Housing Development Board) apartment neighborhoods of Jurong West, and is mostly frequented by local Singaporeans staying nearby. There are 70 hawker stalls in the centre. Figure 2.2 shows the location of Boon Lay Hawker Centre on a map of the Boon Lay neighborhood. Figure 2.2 Map of Boon Lay showing the Boon Lay Hawker Centre in the middle of the HDB area (source: Two cameras, Sony Cybershot DSC- T70 and Canon Powershot S95 were used for data collection. All languages that were found in the food centres and in each operating shop were recorded, while the signs were photographed at random at each stall to provide a sample representation of the linguistic landscapes in both sites. A sign is regarded as any written text in a determinable frame (Backhaus, 2007). A total of 411 photographs were taken for the 1 st site, and a total of 262 photographs were taken for the 2 nd site. In addition, for language classification, both Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia were coded as Malay; and Chinese signs included those written in the traditional script and the simplified script. Signs are classified as parallel (signs that have its equivalence in another language), monolingual (signs with 1 language only), bilingual (signs with 2 languages used in a code mixed/switched (i.e. not parallel) manner), and trilingual (signs with 3 languages used in a code mixed/switched (i.e. not parallel) manner). All recorded signs include signboards that bear stall names, store's food menus, advertisements, signs by government agencies or area committees and other signs including store notices and certificates. 7 P age

8 3. Results 3.1. Languages Used The number of signs in which each language appeared in was analysed and English and Chinese were found to be used in most of the signs than other languages (Table 3.1a). However, identical copies found in Boon Lay Hawker Centre were treated as one sign and were excluded from this analysis. They were excluded to allow a better illustration of the languages present in the linguistic landscapes. They will be further discussed in the next section. Table 3.1a Percentage of use of languages in Lau Pa Sat and Boon Lay Hawker Centre Languages Number of Signs at Lau Pa Sat Percentage (%) Number of Signs at Boon Lay Percentage (%) English Chinese Malay Tamil Japanese Others Total Results showed that English is used in most of the signs in both food centres. However, English is used in the majority of signs (91.3%) in Lau Pa Sat while Chinese is used in the majority of signs in Boon Lay (85.8%). As shown in the table, the other official languages are also used in both food centres in small percentages. There is also significant number of signs in foreign languages (Japanese: 14%; others: 5%) in Lau Pa Sat but not in Boon Lay hawker centre (Japanese: 0%; others: 0%). As shown in Table 3.1b, monolingual (LPS: 52.9%; BL: 28.7%) and parallel (LPS: 36.8%; BL: 61.7%) signs made up most of the signs in the respective food centre, particularly the English and Chinese monolingual signs and English- Chinese parallel signs. Mother tongue signs are more dominant in Boon Lay hawker while English signs are more dominant in Lau Pa Sat. 8 P age

9 Table 3.1b Languages used in Signs in Lau Pa Sat and Boon Lay Hawker Centre Lau Pa Sat Boon Lay No. of signs % No. of signs % Monolingual English One of the Mother Tongues A foreign language Parallel Signs English and 1 Mother Tongue English and 1 foreign language English and 2 Mother Tongues English, 1 Mother Tongue and 1 foreign language English, 2 Mother Tongues and 1 foreign language English and 3 Mother Tongues Mother Tongues Parallel/ Monolingual English, 1 Mother Tongues and 1 foreign language English, 2 Mother Tongues and 1 foreign language Bilingual English and 1 Mother Tongue English and 1 foreign languages Mother Tongues Trilingual English and 1 Mother Tongue English and 2 Mother Tongues Multilingual English and 3 Mother Tongues Total Monolingual signs are the most common type of signs found in Lau Pa Sat (52.9%) and the monolingual English signs made up the majority of the signs (44.4%). The parallel signs made up the second largest number of signs (36.8%) and all of them include English. A further analysis showed that most of the parallel signs are English- Chinese signs and they made up the second largest number of signs (18.5%) in Lau Pa Sat (see Appendix A). On the other hand, parallel signs 9 P age

10 are the most common signs in Boon Lay (61.7%) and parallel signs, comprising of English and a Mother Tongue language, are more commonly found (60.3%). A further analysis showed that the majority of these signs are English- Chinese parallel signs and they made up 48.8% of the total number of signs in Boon Lay food centre (see Appendix A). Unlike Lau Pa Sat, signs in Chinese simplified script (14.4%) and Chinese traditional script (0.8%) made up the majority of the monolingual signs in Boon Lay, as compared to English (12.6%). Additionally, as shown in the Table 1b, there are comparably fewer bilingual, trilingual and multilingual signs in Boon Lay Official Signs As compared to the bottom up signs (signboards, menu, advertisements, etc) owned by the stall vendors or advertisers, there are fewer top down signs (official signs) put up by the government or authority (Table 3.2a). There are low percentages of unique official signs in Lau Pa Sat and Boon Lay food centres (7.4% and 5.9% respectively), as compared to the non- official signs, and these signs are only available in the four official languages of Singapore (English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil). Table 3.2a. Unique Official Signs Signs Number of Signs Percentage (%) Number of Signs Percentage (%) at Lau Pa Sat at Boon Lay Official Non- official Total However, these excluded the additional identical copies of three types of official signs (see Appendix B) that are found in Boon Lay Hawker Centre. These signs serve as reminders for the public and they can be seen around the food centre. In particular, the sign that says Do Not Leave Your Belonging Unattended is available in the four official languages and almost each table has two of this sign in different languages. Tables near the Chinese food stalls are more likely to have the English and Chinese version of the sign (Figure 3.2), whereas tables near the Malay/ Tamil food stalls are more likely to have the English and Malay/ Tamil version of the signs. 10 P age

11 Figure 3.2 Examples of the Do Not Leave Your Belonging Unattended sign on the table The quantity of these three signs is tabulated in Table 3.2b and similarly, English monolingual, Chinese monolingual or English- Chinese parallel signs are more prevalent. The number of Malay and Tamil signs is low and they are not unavailable for one of the official sign that had identical copies - the No Crime doesn t mean No Crime sign. Table 3.2b. The Three Official Signs with Identical Copies Title of the Sign Image ID Languages No. of Signs No Not Leave Your BL_G2 Monolingual Belongings Unattended English 89 Chinese 73 Malay 7 Tamil 7 My Pledge BL_G4 Parallel English and Chinese 28 English and Malay 3 No Crime doesn t mean No Crime BL_G5 English and Tamil 1 Parallel English and Chinese 30 Including the additional number of identical signs from Table 3.2b, the percentage of official signs found in Boon Lay (43%) is significantly larger than that of Lau Pa Sat (8.5%). 11 P age

12 Table 3.2c. Official and Non- official Signs Signs at Lau Pa Sat (Quantity) Percentage (%) Signs at Boon Lay (Quantity) Percentage (%) Total Number of Non- official Official Signs (unique) Official signs (identical signs) Total Number of Official Signs Total As expected, all official signs are found in the four official languages. Although most of the official signs are monolingual signs, they can be found in some or all of the four languages (see Appendix C). It is not surprising that more official signs are found in the food centre located in the heartland as the signs are designated for the local people, rather than in Lau Pa Sat where there are more foreigners Language Prominence The language prominent, if any, on each of the signs is tabulated and summarized in Table 3.3. It is showed that Chinese, particularly the signs in simplified Chinese character, are more prominent on signs than any other languages in both food centres. Unexpectedly, signs in traditional Chinese character are found to be third most prominent language in Lau Pa Sat with 5.5% and second in Boon Lay Hawker Centre with 16.7%. It is also more prominent than English in the latter. Additionally, there are prominent signs in all the official languages except Tamil. Table 3.3 Language Prominence Languages Lau Pa Sat Boon Lay No. of Signs Percentage (%) No. of Signs Percentage (%) English Chinese (Simplifed) Chinese (Traditional) Malay Total P age

13 4. Discussion From the results presented in Table 3.1a, we can see that our hypotheses is proven as English has the highest percentage of usage in Lau Pa Sat with 91.3%, while Chinese has the highest percentage of usage at Boon Lay Hawker Center with 85.8%. English is also proven to be present in almost all of the signs that have more than 1 language present. Figure 4a An example of a food menu where English is present with other local and foreign languages at Lau Pa Sat While a shop owner reported that this was due to restrictions issued by government policies, it also reflects the significance of the English language in Singapore, as it serves as a common language accessible to Singaporeans of all ethnic backgrounds, uniting the different ethnic groups in Singapore who speak different mother tongues. This is evident on the food menu signboards as English is used to provide supplementary information describing or explaining the food content, especially at stalls that sell ethnically related food (see Figure 4b). 13 P age

14 FIgure 4b A food menu presented in a Filipino food stall where English is offered to explain the dishes available at Lau Pa Sat. Besides, English also serves as a lingua franca between the locals and foreigners, as we can see from the higher presence of English in the central based Lau Pa Sat as compared to Boon Lay Hawker Centre from Table 3.1a. This may be due to Lau Pa Sat's location in the central business district where many foreign expats work in the multi- national companies there. Also, as mentioned earlier, Lau Pa Sat is known to be a popular tourist stop, hence the presence of an international language can be seen as welcoming and accommodating to the tourists. This is because the tourism industry is seen as important revenue for the country's economy, with 14.8% increase in number of tourists in the last quarter of 2011 (Singapore Quarterly Tourism Focus, 2011). This is further proven by the strong presence of the Japanese language in Lau Pa Sat (Figure 4c). It is reported in the Singapore Tourism Board 2011's Third Quarterly Tourism Focus that Japan is the third country that has provided the largest number of tourists with 29.8%, just behind China and Taiwan. Therefore, the prominent use of Japanese in Lau Pa Sat actually reflects the high frequency of Japanese tourists to Singapore. 14 P age

15 Figure 4c A notice in both English and Japanese on a food stall in Lau Pa Sat Although Malay is considered an official language of Singapore, it is observed that Malay is more frequently used in Lau Pa Sat as compared to Boon Lay Food Centre, even for stalls that do not offer Malay food or non- halal food that cannot be consumed by Malays (Figure 4d). It is speculated that the higher presence of Malay is to accommodate to tourists from Singapore's neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Indonesia. Figure 4d A food menu at a non- halal stall at Lau Pa Sat that features Malay On the other hand, the other official language Chinese is found to be present more prominently as compared to the other official languages other than English, and more significantly so in the Boon Lay Hawker Centre. The prominence of the Chinese language on signs in food centres reflects the 15 P a g e

16 demographic of the Chinese population in Singapore, as they make up 74.1% of the population according to the 2010 Census, which is much bigger than the other two ethnic groups Malays (13.4%) and Indians (19.2%). The significantly high presence of Chinese in Boon Lay Food Centre as evident from the results presented in Table 1a also reflects the vitality of the Chinese ethnic group in the western heartlands. From our data collection, we have also observed that there is a mix in the use of traditional and simplified Chinese script in the signs (Figure 4e). This is unusual as the Simplified Chinese script has been adopted as the official way of writing for Singapore Chinese since the Ministry of Education decreed it in 1969 (Chia, 1997). It is speculated that this is a reflection of the age group that lives in the area, as the people that own these stores or frequent the food centre are possibly of the older generation that used to learn and write in traditional Chinese script before Singapore's independence. This is supported by the 2010 Census that reported that Jurong West (where Boon Lay Food Centre is located) is ranked 7 th in terms of the country's planning area with the most residents aged 65 and above. Figure 4e A food stall signboard featuring the stall name in traditional Chinese and small prints in simplified Chinese at Boon Lay Hawker Centre 16 P age

17 For future research, we could include surveys and interviews with the store owners of the food centres to better understand their motivations under the language used in store signs and food menus. We could also extend these surveys and interviews to the people that visit the food centress to investigate their attitudes and reception towards the different language use, whether they are indifferent to the different language use or if they feel more attached to their mother tongues. It would also be interesting to study streets or neighborhoods as a whole for future research on Singapore's linguistic landscape so that a more holistic picture could be presented. 5. Conclusion Our results show that multilingualism is reflected to a greater extent in central Singapore as compared to the heartlands of Singapore, where it is largely monolingual or bilingual with the use of English and Chinese. This also shows that language usage in Singapore's linguistic landscape is largely motivated by its target audience and driven by economic means, like how Lau Pa Sat's food stalls use more languages in their signs to attract and accommodate to tourists. This paper hence provides data for future research on language policies and language vitality in Singapore. 17 P age

18 References Backhaus, Peter. (2006). Multilingualism in Tokyo: A Look into Linguistic Landscape. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3 (1), Chia, Shih Yar. (1997). Review and Prospect of Standardization of Chinese Characters in Singapore. Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Chinese Characters, Suzhou, China. Retrieved from XP.htm Dixon, L. Quentin. (2005). The Bilingual Education Policy in Singapore: Implications for Second Language Acquisition. In Cohen, James, Mc Alister, Kara, Rolstad, Kellie and MacSwan, Jeff (ed.), ISB4: Proceedings of the 4 th International Symposium on Bilingualism, Somerville:Cascadilla Press. Huebner, Thom. (2006). Bangkok s Linguistic Landscapes: Environmental Print, Codemixing and Language Change. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3 (1), Kotze, Chrismi- Rinda and Plessis, Theodorus. (2010). Language Visibility in the Xhariep A Comparison of the Linguistic Landscape of Three Neighbouring Towns. Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa, 41 (1), Landry, Rodrigue and Bourhis, Richard Y. (1997) Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An Empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16 (1), Ryan, David. (2011). A Comparison of the Linguistic Landscapes of Manchester. Manchester: University of Manchester Bachelor Dissertation. Retrieved 5 April, 2012 from: Singapore Census of Population (2010) Advance Census Release. Retrieved 5 April, 2012 from Singapore Quarterly Tourism Focus. (2011). July to September. Retrieved 5 April 2012 from 18 P age

19 Appendix A Languages used in Signs in Lau Pa Sat and Boon Lay Hawker Centre No. of Signs in Lau Pa Sat Percentage (%) No. of Signs in Boon Lay Percentage (%) Monolingual English Chinese Chinese (Traditional) Malay Tamil Japanese Tagalog Filipino Parallel English and Chinese English and Chinese (Traditional) English and Malay English and Tamil English and Japanese English and Vietnamese Malay and Tamil English, Chinese and Malay English, Chinese (Traditional) and Tamil English, Chinese and Japanese English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil English, Chinese, Malay and Japanese Parallel/ Monolingual English and Chinese English, Chinese, Malay and Japanese Bilingual English and Chinese English and Chinese (Traditional) English and Malay P age

20 English and Japanese English and Filipino English and Tagalog English and Italian Chinese (Traditional) and Korean Trilingual English, Chinese and Malay English, Malay and Tamil English, Chinese and Japanese Multilingual English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil Total Note: All percentages are rounded off to 1 decimal place. *Chinese (Traditional) refers to signs in traditional Chinese characters and they are differentiated from Chinese signs in simplified Chinese characters,. **Malay refers to both Bahasa Indonesian and Bahasa Melayu. 20 P age

21 Appendix B Three official signs that had identical copies pasted around the Boon Lay Hawker Centre 1. Do not leave your belongings unattended sign 21 P age

22 2. My Pledge sign 22 P age

23 3. Low Crime doesn t mean No crime sign 23 P age

24 Appendix C Languages Used in Official signs No. of Signs in Lau Pa Sat Percentage (%) No. of Signs in Boon Lay Percentage (%) Monolingual English Chinese Malay Tamil Parallel English and Chinese English and Malay English and Tamil Malay and Tamil English, Chinese and Malay English, Chinese (Traditional) and Tamil English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil Bilingual English and Chinese English and Chinese (Traditional) Trilingual English, Chinese and Malay English, Malay and Tamil Multilingual English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil Total P age