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"The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) added 19 Singaporean terms and 13 Hong Kong terms in its latest update."  So reports BBC News in "Singapore terms join Oxford English Dictionary" (5/12/16)

Here are the lists:

Singapore:

• ang moh
• blur 
• char siu
• chilli crab
• Chinese helicopter
• hawker centre
• HDB
• killer litter
• lepak, n.
• lepak, v.
• lepaking
• shiok
• sabo, n.
• sabo, v.
• sabo king
• sotong
• teh tarik
• wah
• wet market

Hong Kong:

• char siu
• compensated dating
• dai pai dong
• kaifong
• guanxi
• lucky money
• sandwich class
• milk tea
• shroff
• sitting-out area
• siu mei
• yum cha
• wet market

At a glance, it is easy to tell that they come from a variety of sources, including Cantonese, Hokkien, Malay, Persian, Arabic, Hindi-Urdu, and English.

I will not define or comment on each of these items individually, since one can readily look them up in the OED itself, where the entries include etymologies when they are known.  What I shall do, however, is provide notes on a few terms that have special significance for me or perhaps for certain segments of the Language Log readership.  In some cases, when I know them off the top of my head, I will also provide the MSM pronunciations for words that actually derive from other Sinitic topolects

1. ang moh — from Hokkien; MSM hóngmáo 红毛 ("red hair", i.e., originally referred especially to the Dutch, but later was applied to Europeans in general)

2. char siu — from Cantonese caa1siu1; MSM chāshāo 叉燒 (lit., "fork-roast", i.e., "barbecued pork")

3. wah — I love this exclamation.  Around 1969 in Seattle, I learned it from Pinky Wu, granddaughter of Wang Ching-wei (1883-1944), head of state of the Reorganized National Government of China based in Nanjing during WWII.  Pinky would use it to express admiration, surprise, amazement, or delight, and it was just wonderful to hear her say it with so many different intonations and nuances.  (Pinky seemed to say "wah" about every tenth word, so tickled was she by almost everything.)  I picked "wah" up from Pinky and still to this day I use it where most Americans would probably say "wow!"  The reason I think "wah" is so effective in expressing the emotions that Pinky used it for is that the syllable does not close at the end; it just lingers on and on:  wahhhhh! — but it can also be brief and terse when called for.  Although I do think that "wow" looks nicer on the page than "wah", the intrinsic nature of "wow" is that, when spoken, it closes off at the end:  wow!  So it's hard to prolong your feeling of astonishment, stupefaction, and so forth.  Wahhhhhhhh!  N.B.:  This is a totally different "wah" from the Dartmouth Indian cheer (also picked up by Virginia):  wa-hoo-wa.  For other aspects of the Dartmouth topolect, see:

"Schlump season" (3/21/15)

4. Chinese helicopter — "a derogatory term referring to a Singaporean whose schooling was conducted in Mandarin Chinese and has limited knowledge of English"

5. compensated dating — "the practice of teenage students providing companionship or sex in exchange for money or gifts"; seems to be a euphemism for something else

6. guanxi — MSM guānxì 關係 ("connections")

7. milk tea — Cantonese naai5caa4; MSM nǎichá 奶茶; I first fell in love with this type of tea during the mid-60s in South Asia, where it was called doodh / dudh patti / ki chai.  I love drinking milk tea as much as I love saying "wah".  After taking a sip of fantastic milk tea (as from the best estates in Darjeeling or on Alishan (Taiwan), I will exclaim with satisfaction, "wahhhh…".

8. shroff — detailed discussion about 3/4s of the way down in the o.p. here.

9. siu mei — Cantonese siu1mei2 / MSM shāo wèi 燒味 ("meats roasted on spits over an open fire"), not to be confused with Cantonese siu1maai6*2 / MSM shāomài 燒賣 (pork and mushroom dumplings served as part of dim sum [see here]; N.B.:  the next edition of the American Heritage Dictionary will have an excellent new etymology for "shumai"

10. yum cha — from Cantonese; in MSM that would be yǐnchá 飲茶 (lit., "drink tea"), but it signifies something different in Cantonese, where it is pronounced jam2 caa4 and means "go out for dim sum"; for "drink tea", Mandarin speakers would say "hēchá 喝茶" or, in some colloquial varieties, "chīchá 吃茶" (lit., "eat tea"), for which see "Don't eat the water" (3/17/15).

For "yum cha", see here (passim) and here, here

"[F]or a visual timeline of Southeast Asian words in the OED, including words from or about Singapore, dating from 1555 to the present", click here.

[h.t. Carmen Lee]

Update: "Chinese helicopter" under attack (5/28/16)

May 12, 2016 @ 7:12 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Borrowing, Lexicon and lexicography

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