Chinese language romanisation in Singapore

The romanisation of the Chinese language in Singapore is not dictated by a single policy, nor is its policy implementation consistent, as the local Chinese community is composed of a myriad of dialect groups. Although Hanyu Pinyin is adopted as the preferred romanisation system for Mandarin, the general lack of a romanisation standard for other Chinese 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.

The surname Zheng (simplified Chinese: 郑; traditional Chinese: 鄭) 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 in Malaysia, Chang, Chung or Cheng from Hong Kong, and Zeng or Zheng normally from Mainland China.

Since the founding of modern Singapore in 1819 and with large numbers of migrants predominantly from Southern China, Chinese placenames began to enter local vocabulary in place of traditionally Malay-based names mostly given by the Orang 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, therefore, 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 in western Singapore and taken after a village by the same name, is now more commonly spelt as Choa Chu Kang after the new town by the same name took its spelling from Choa Chu Kang Road, itself an anomaly as the village and the surrounding cemeteries were then spelt in the old way. Today, the village no longer exists, but the cemeteries continue to be referred to as Chua Chu Kang, while all placenames in Choa Chu Kang New Town take on the newer spelling.

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