| Transliteration of Chinese |
|---|
| Mandarin |
| Wu |
| Yue |
| Min |
| Gan |
| Hakka |
| Xiang |
| Polylectal |
| See also |
Theromanisation of the Chinese languages in Singapore is not dictated by a single policy, nor is its policy implementation consistent, as the localChinese community is composed of a myriad of topolect groups. AlthoughHanyu Pinyin is adopted as the preferredromanisation system forMandarin and the standard of Chinese education, the general lack of a romanisation standard for otherChinese varieties results in some level of inconsistency. This may be illustrated by the many variants for the same Chinese characters often found in surnames such as Low, Loh, Lo; Tay, Teh; Teo, Teoh; Yong, Yeong.
For example, the surnameZheng (traditional Chinese:鄭;simplified Chinese:郑) alone has several variations including Teh, Tay, Tee, Chang, Chung, Cheng, and Zeng. The variations Tay or Tee come from Singapore, while Teh or Tee normally have roots inMalaysia, Chang, Chung or Cheng fromHong Kong, and Zeng or Zheng normally fromMainland China.
Since the founding of modernSingapore in 1819 and with large numbers of migrants predominantly fromSouthern China, Chinese placenames began to enter local vocabulary in place of traditionallyMalay-based names mostly given by theOrang Laut communities. These names, however, are usually referred to in the dialects of whichever group accords that place a certain name, with some places having entirely different names for the same feature. In most places, however, the same name is used but referred to by an individual's dialect.
When there was a need to record place names by the British administration, Chinese place names were anglicised using an almost ad hoc means of finding the closest set of letters reflecting local pronunciations of these names; a situation which often spawned conflicting spellings, some of which still persist to this day. The older spelling of Chua Chu Kang (Chinese:蔡厝港;pinyin:Càicuògǎng;Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Chhoà-chhù-káng), a suburban area and village in western Singapore, is now more commonly spelled asChoa Chu Kang after thenew town by the same name took its spelling fromChoa Chu Kang Road, itself an anomaly as the village and the surroundingcemeteries were then spelled in the old way. Today, the village no longer exists, but the cemeteries continue to be referred to as Chua Chu Kang, while all place names inChoa Chu Kang New Town take on the newer spelling.
From the mid-1980s, the drive to encourage the use of Pinyin filtered down to place names, resulting in some amendments. Aukang (also spelled "Aokang") isTeochew for Hougang (traditional Chinese:後港; simplified Chinese:后港; pinyin:Hòugǎng), but was romanised asHougang when theHougang New Town was built. Some changes met with popular opposition, particularly over the English spelling ofYishun (traditional Chinese:義順; simplified Chinese:义顺; pinyin:Yìshùn), which has been well known asNee Soon in Hokkien (Min Nan) until the government tried to introduce pinyin whenYishun New Town appeared. The disagreements led to "Nee Soon" retaining its presence inNee Soon Road, as well as some place names such asNee Soon Camp and in the names of political subdivisions.
In contrast, pinyin was generally welcomed inBishan (Chinese:碧山; pinyin:Bìshān), named after what was popularly known as "Peck San" inCantonese. The popularity was not over the pinyin system itself, but over the fact that Peck San was well known for its association with thePeng San Cemetery, which has since been exhumed to buildBishan New Town. To the local Chinese, Bishan, although actually similar in name to Peck San in Chinese, is as good as a different name by virtue of its different romanisation spelling alone.
Another controversy surrounded the renaming ofTekka Market (derived from HokkienTek Kia Kha (Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tek-á-kha), literally meaning "foot of the small bamboos"[1]), then one of the largest wet markets in Singapore located at the junction of Serangoon and Bukit Timah Road. When the old market was torn down and rebuilt across the road, the new multi-use complex was namedZhujiao Centre, which is the pinyin version of that name. However, to locals, especially non-Chinese, the new word was both hard to read and pronounce and bore no resemblance to Tekka. Eventually, the complex was officially named Tekka Centre in 2000 after two decades of public pressure.
A large majority of Chinese people in Singapore areHokkien (Min Nan speakers), and a lesser numberTeochew. Hokkien and Teochew share manyphonemes to the point that they are mutually intelligible. Thus the romanisations are similar and surnames such as Tan (traditional Chinese:陳; simplified Chinese:陈; pinyin:Chén), Chua (Chinese:蔡; pinyin:Cài), Koh (traditional Chinese:許; simplified Chinese:许; pinyin:Xǔ), etc., are very common.[2]
