Substrate Influence on the Grammar of Singlish and Indian English: a Comparative Linguistic Analysis
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Singapore Colloquial English (Singlish) and Indian English are two of the most widely studied New Englishes, yet they emerged in contact settings dominated by typologically different substrate languages. This article examines how far the grammatical features of the two varieties can be linked to substrate influence. Using a qualitative comparative-descriptive method, it classifies features reported in published grammatical descriptions according to the proposed substrate source and the strength of the supporting evidence. The analysis shows that Singlish grammar is shaped most visibly by Sinitic and Malay patterns in tense–aspect marking, predicate structure, topic prominence and discourse particles, whereas Indian English shows substrate-related patterns mainly in article use, tag questions, focus marking, reduplication and echo formation. Several features, notably non-inverted questions and topicalisation, occur in both varieties and are compatible with both substrate and universal explanations. The article argues that substrate influence is best understood as one factor within a feature pool, and that conclusive attribution requires quantitative corpus-based testing.
Author: Berdiyeva Shahodat Xayrullayevna
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225683509