History and education
Brunei was a BritishVariation
There is, of course, substantial variation in the English spoken in Brunei. Two sources of variation are mentioned here: education and ethnicity. There is rather a wide educational divide. Those who attend private schools and the best government schools usually achieve an excellent standard in English; but those who go to less fashionable schools often end up with only rudimentary skills in English. There is also some variation in Brunei English arising from the ethnicity of speakers. Recent research has shown that undergraduates at the University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD) can identify whether a fellow undergraduate is Malay or Chinese on the basis of 10 seconds of spoken English with an accuracy of about 74%, which suggests that the English pronunciation of the two ethnic groups differs to some extent.Pronunciation
Some of the salient features of the pronunciation of English in Brunei are: * The consonant at the start of words like ''thin'' and ''thank'' tends to be pronounced as rather than . * The vowel in function words such as ''of'' and ''that'' tends to be a full vowel rather than . * Pairs of long and short vowels are merged by some speakers, with the result that ''beat'' and ''bit'' may be homophones, and similarly ''fool'' and ''full'' often sound the same. In an investigation of the speech of 53 undergraduates, 14 were found to have the same vowel quality in ''feast'' and ''fist'', but the proportion of speakers who merge these two vowels is almost certainly higher for less well-educated speakers. * Spelling pronunciation affects some words, so ''salmon'' tends to have an in it, and the first syllable of ''company'' has rather than for about half of undergraduates at theGrammar
A few of the salient features of Brunei English grammar are: * Logically plural nouns are found with an −s suffix, even if they are uncount nouns in other varieties of English. Examples are 'equipments', 'infrastructures' and 'jewelleries'. This is found in a wide range of other New Varieties of English around the world. * ''one of'' is often followed by a singular noun, so one finds utterances like 'one of the queen were beheaded' and 'he is one of the main character'. * Use of the −s suffix on verbs to indicate a third-person singular subject is variable. *''would'' is often used to indicate something tentative.Lexis
There is widespread borrowing of words from Malay into Brunei English. These include ''titah'' (a speech by the Sultan), ''sabda'' (a speech by another member of the Royal Family), ''tudung'' (a head-dress worn by women) and ''puasa'' ('fasting'). Words for local food are often borrowed from Malay, such as ''kuih'' ('a local cake'), as in 'A variety of Malay kuih and sliced fruits will also be served'. Use of Malay terms in the English spoken in Brunei can sometimes lead to loss of intelligibility, such as ''Ugama Schools'' ('religious schools') being misunderstood as 'government schools' by someone from the Maldives. Many initialisms are found, including: * UBD : Universiti Brunei Darusslam * BSB : Bandar Seri Begawan (the capital of Brunei) * PTE : Pusat Tingkatan Enam ('Sixth Form Centre') * OGDC : Oil and Gas Discovery Centre * GOFR : General Order Financial Regulations Acronyms (where the letters create a word) are not so common, but we find: * RIPAS : Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (the Hospital in BSB, named after the Queen) * MOFAT : Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade * SHBIE : Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education There are some idiosyncratic expressions in Brunei English, such as ''dry season'' to refer to the period just before payday when people are short of money, as in 'I cannot pay now: dry season bah!'Mixing
Mixing of English and Malay is widespread in informal discourse in Brunei. An investigation of the language used in an English-medium discussion forum showed that nearly half of all postings were partly or completely in Malay. In data involving a map task, where one participant has to guide a second participant along a route, a speaker said:uh so ''jalan saja'' uh continue ''macam ada'' a bit corneringwith four words of Malay in the English utterance: ''jalan'' (walk), ''saja'' (just), ''macam'' (like) and ''ada'' (there is). This utterance means 'just go and continue, like there's a bit of cornering'.
Conclusion
It is hard to know whether English in Brunei is following an established pattern and emerging as a distinct variety of English or not. Many of the trends found, including the use of plural nouns such as ''equipments'' and the variable use of the 3rd person singular −s suffix on verbs, seem to be similar to the ways English is used as a lingua franca around the world. Furthermore, the avoidance of vowel reduction in unstressed syllables is consistent with the way English is spoken elsewhere in South-East Asia. So Brunei English may be contributing to the ways that English is evolving around the world today.Deterding, D. (2014). The evolution of Brunei English: How it is contributing to the development of English in the world. In S. Buschfeld, T. Hoffmann, M. Huber, & A. Kautzsch (Eds.), ''The Evolution of Englishes. The Dynamic Model and Beyond'' (pp. 420–433). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.References
{{Brunei topics Bruneian culture Dialects of English