I notice SIngaporeans pronounce the words "both, with, bath..." as?

Question

boff, wiff, baff,...... Why ? Although they can prounce
"Th"...for example..thunder, thesis, Thomas...etc

If like that, will they pronounce
WIFFOUT for WITHOUT and
DEAF SENTENCE for DEATH SENTENCE?

Answer 1

This is so called Singlish....it a culture here lar :P

Answer 2

It's due to the following reasons:

1. The predominant race here is Chinese and there isn't any "th" sound in Mandarin and other Chinese dialects. So there is no phonological representation of the "th" sound in those languages. Don't know about Bahasa melayu ( Malay) and Tamil ( S. Indian) though.

Also, many use a ' t' sound for thunder, think, thought, etc and sometimes it's a 'd' sound too as in mother, father, brother
(so it sounds like mudder, farder, brudder).

2 .It's just also alot easier to use a ' t ' or 'd' or 'f' instead of a 'th' too. Harder to speak very fast ( as most Singaporeans tend to do) with your tongue in between your teeth. Try it yourself.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

you're right! the thing is that we were not taught the right way of pronouncing those words. i didn't realise my mistakes either until i lived in australia few yrs back & they told me about these things. to all s'poreans out there, c'mon... try say those words that have "th" in them & you'll soon realise that you can't pronouce them correctly. let's say "birthday" now... i bet you'll end up saying "biffday"... don't worry... i used to be like that too but with a little practice & effort, i can now say them correctly & by the way people, this mispronouncing IS NOT called singlish at all! singlish means combining different types of local dialects/langguages (in this case chinese/malay/tamil) in one sentence. an example of a singlish phrase would be: "alamak... her english is so rojak liao!!!"

Answer 4

Singapore is a multi-culture society. All races are staying in harmony. Thus, you can see most Singaporean are bilingual. In fact, most can speak more than two languages. In fact, I don't see any problem with Singaporean pronounce the words, did you able see a Western able to pronounce words in Mandarin or Malay perfectly?

Answer 5

Well, I wouldn't say I'm an expert with the language of Singapore, but I suppose it's just habit. I doubt many words end with the "th" sound, so they have trouble using it.

Answer 6

You are a British tourist, I presume? We can speak Queen's English perfectly fine, but we may choose not to.

It's called Singlish. It's an informal way of communicating.

Anyway, I've lived in the US for years, so I speak American English. However, I can switch back and forth from American English to Singlish in a second. When I'm in the US, I speak American English. However, among my relatives, I will speak in Singlish.

Answer 7

yes i accept your question people in singapore speak like that this is called singlish ,but now its changing a lot ,people have started to improve the standard of there english,the govt also are promoting starting a movement like speak good english etc .,in next 10 years people in our country will speak good english.
for more details visit this site
www.goodenglish.org.sg/SGEM \

Answer 8

It's pure laziness.

Also, maybe they weren't taught/corrected when young.

And like mentioned above, THAT IS SO NOT SINGLISH. Stop using Singlish as an excuse for bad english.

Answer 9

Really?? Well i m a singaporean.. I do pronounce bath and both with TH...

Answer 10

I think That's just with your click buddy !!!


Or if your a brit tourist, which i suspect you are, they were all probably just taking the piss,

Silly U