SINGAPORE, June 30, 2001: In this entertaining New York Times article, we learn that the English language is in the process of splitting into Englishes, perhaps ultimately to spawn different languages, as Latin split into French, Italian and Spanish. Author Seth Mydans writes, ” ‘Wah! Government say Singlish no good, must learn how to speak proper English. It a bit the difficult. How can?’ In their latest initiative to perfect society, Singapore’s leaders have begun the Speak Good English Movement — a campaign to eliminate a rough-and-ready patois known as Singlish that has spread through their nation like a linguistic virus.” Today, 350 million people are native English speakers, but by some counts more than a billion speak at least some English as a second language. Most of them are in Asia.” Mydans cites experts who say the attempt to get Singaporeans to all speak good English is doomed.
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