Quantifying Manglish Creole Continuum and Its Correlation with Formality Factor

Abstract

Under the backdrop of multi-cultural, multi-ethnicity and multi-lingual Malaysia, the Malaysian English or more commonly known as Manglish has bloomed into a broad creole spectrum. Bearing the features of distorted language and creative communication at the same time, the Manglish creole continuum can be categorised into acrolect, mesolect and basilect Manglish. To map this continuum, a sampling study was taken on Malaysians of various age, ethnicity and educational background. An assessment model based on mathematical and computing theory was then developed to quantify the level of mixture with local languages and culture. A number of formulation models were also proposed to translate corresponding environment affecting Manglish creole into numeric scales. Pearson Correlation Coefficient between various scales were computed and compared with the proposed models. Finally, hypotheses were derived on the existence of Malaysian creole continuum and predictions made of its future development.