Malaysian English

In general Malaysians do speak English well when compared to our neighbors like the Thais, Indonesians, Cambodians etc. However to the ears of an Englishman, I think, we sound quite funny or at times incomprehensible or maybe even menacing. This is due to our pronouciations which are thickly influenced by our mother tongues. A well-intentioned word may sound offensive to the uninitiated ears of a white gentleman. Anyway in reality, many Malaysians do not want to sound exactly like an Englishman for fear of being labelled 'a synthetic orang puteh (white man)' by their friends and foes.

For a start we do not elongate the sound of 'ea' in a word or syllable but instead pronounce it as an 'i'. So the word 'beach' sounds similar to what an Englishman expects the word 'bitch' to be pronounced. So please picture out a situation where a generous-hearted Malaysian offers an Englishman, "Let's go and enjoy the beach (pronounced 'bitch')". Surely he will wetting all over with excitement and of course he will be fuming mad when he ends up on a sea shore with no god's creation to hug and kiss but only coconut trees.

Many of us will read 'S-T-E-A-K' as 'stick'. You may do well to get a serving of nice juicy steak at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur but try that in London. You probably will end up being shown the way to Sherwood Forest to gather some sticks from the woods or maybe kicked to some old folks home to sample some walking sticks.

In Malay language there is no plosive sound in the pronounciation of words ending with alphabets like 'k', 't', 'd' etc. So word like 'bank' will sound more like 'bang' when spoken by most Malays. What will an English tourist perceive when a Malay Policeman tells him that, "There's a bank (pronounced 'bang') at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport". I am sure that he will conclude, "Must be Al Qaida, must be Al Qaida!".

'Th' sound is normally pronounced without the 'h'. It is reduced to only the sound of 't' just like the phrase 'thank you' which is reduced to 'tank ewe'. Just visualise how happy a visiting Minister of Defence from an African country feels when he hears our minister announces, "...we offer you lots of tanks for your friendship..." but will be deeply disappointed when he learns later that what was offered was just "lots of thanks".

Finally the sound of an 'x' is never easy to the Malaysian English speakers' tounge. 'Income tax' comes out sounding 'income tack". An Englishman will be dumbfounded to hear a newly wed Malaysian saying that, "....I wish in future I could have sick children...", when what he actually wished for is to have 'six children'.

Actually I can go on blabbering about this unendingly till the cows come home. However I am sure you will get bored in no time at all. So I will end here by wishing you 'tank ewe belly much for leading my belog'. Bye