The Art of the 'Lah'

I had the most ear-tearing-out-able experience today. Coming up with me in the lift this afternoon was a tall German guy. He was accompanied by a couple of his local Chinese colleagues, and in his attempt to fit in and sound cool and act like a localised expat, he was liberally peppering his speech with the word 'Lah'.

Ok, that's not too bad - people who know me know that I do it too; but it wasn't the fact that he was doing it, it was the way he did it that made me want to plug some parsley into my ears. Examples:

• I think lah, that he should ask for a transfer lah.
• Are you going up to the 18th floor also lah?

All this in a thick German accent. And two women he was with were lapping it up, undoubtedly impressed by how hard an 'angmoh' was trying to fit in here and speak Singlish (Singaporean English).

All of which irritated me (and my delicate ears) to no end. Having spent a substantial amount of time in this country and having worked (and played) with countless Singaporeans, I have done some small amount of research on the word 'Lah' (and its many cousins) and their usage in contemporary Singlish.

I present: "The Art of the 'Lah'".

Singlish is a curious mix of English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese and Hokkien. With an English base, it borrows words liberally from all of these languages, adds in the Chinese (lack of) grammar, all rendered in a lovely Singaporean twang. The beauty of Singlish lies in its brevity. When we would normally say, 'Have you eaten your meal yet?', locals here say, 'Got makan onnot?', resulting in a grand saving of 3 syllables. Or better still, 'Are you sure it is possible?' becomes an elegant 'Can meh?'.

Not going into details, there are 4 'words' which are most expressive. These (of which 'lah' is the most common by far) serve to add nuances and punctuation to the brief Singlish sentences.

• 'Lah' - a statement of assertion or encouragement. For example, "Ok lah, enough of standing downstairs, let's go upstairs!"
• 'Leh' - expressing irritation or impatience. For example, "I press press press, still the lift never come down leh!"
• 'Mah' - somewhat explanatory. For example, "Naturally the lift will not come down, you never pressed the correct button mah..."
• 'Meh' - an enquiry, or 'are you sure?'. For example, "Wrong button meh? You sure or not?"

All combined together, and with the addition of some nice interjections, they produce a beautiful symphony of pleasing sounds:

"Ok lah, enough of standing downstairs, let's go upstairs!". "Aiyoh, I press press press, still the lift never come down leh!". "Alamak, naturally the lift will not come down, you never pressed the correct button mah...". "Wrong button meh? You sure or not?"

Aah.

And that, my friends, is the Art of the 'Lah'.