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How words are picked
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The Oxford English Dictionary's (OED) embrace of the Singapore English term "Chinese helicopter", which refers to a Chinese- educated person who speaks little English, has had quite a few people - including some Singaporeans - scratching their heads. Even BBC News has reported on the bafflement.
It was among the 19 Singapore English terms added to the OED in its March quarterly update. The OED's world English editor, Dr Danica Salazar, makes it clear that it was no mere whim on her part. As she puts it to The Sunday Times: "It's not like I woke up in the morning and said, 'Hmm, why don't I add "Chinese helicopter" to the OED?' and then it's finished, done, it's there."
The process to include new words is "very exacting and rigorous", says Dr Salazar, 32, who graduated with a PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Barcelona in 2011 and has been with the OED for almost four years.
The Oxford-based Filipina adds that the organisation has "one of the biggest language monitoring programmes in the world", one which relies on internal and external databases of newspapers, books and magazines.
It takes months of research before a word gets into the dictionary. She did the research and wrote the definitions, which then went through etymologists, bibliographers, other editors and, finally, the chief editor of the OED.
In fact, The Straits Times is a key reference source. For "Chinese helicopter", two of the examples listed to support its inclusion are taken from the newspaper, one from 1981 and the other from 1997.
Also in support of the term's entry: a quotation from playwright Michael Chiang's Army Daze (1985): "The story goes that a recruit, when asked what school he came from, answered 'Chinese helucated (educated)', which went down in the army annals as Chinese helicopter."
Dr Salazar says: "I thought it was a really clever lexical innovation as it grew out of a mispronunciation."
Similarly, she says it is creative that "blur" is used to mean someone who is clumsy or a little stupid. "It not only gave another meaning to the word 'blur' but also changed it from a noun and a verb to an adjective. We don't think of these words as deficiencies, we think of them as creative innovations that enrich English.
"This shows that we are celebrating Singapore English and that we are willing to put in as much time doing research on it as we do on British and American English. "
But those who see an OED entry as legitimising usage of a word have got it backwards. She says: "The word gets into the OED because people use it. We wouldn't have put in the word 'ang moh' if we didn't find evidence of people using the word."
She has also worked with Singapore consultants, including assistant professor of law Jack Lee from Singapore Management University (SMU), who started www.singlishdictionary.com.
An early resource was The Coxford Singlish Dictionary (2001) by husband and wife Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen - a title which Dr Salazar found in a bookshop in Singapore in the humour section.
She is keen to dispel the notion that the OED is "a very closed organisation run by bearded old Englishmen" and wants to involve more Singaporeans in the lexicographical process.
Those interested can contact the OED at public.oed.com/contact-us/ to give feedback. Occasionally, the OED crowdsources information on the earliest record of a word at public.oed.com/appeals.
For example, it traced the usage of the word "sabo" back to 1977 in The Straits Times. But after publishing the entry, its staff found a reference to it in 1960 and believe there could be earlier evidence for its use and are now appealing to the public for more information.
A reason Dr Salazar is in Singapore is to "build bridges with Singaporeans" as she gave talks at institutions such as SMU and Nanyang Technological University.
Meanwhile, Singaporeans can expect "a lot more food words" to make their way to the OED as she has been working on "chicken rice" and "char kway teow".
When she is asked whether anyone apart from Singaporeans would care about Singapore English - as an Oxford newspaper recently did - she has her answer all around her in daily life.
When she was mulling over the question at lunch in Oxford, she opened the menu and saw an entry for char siew rice with no explanation.
"Language is becoming more and more global, places are becoming more and more interconnected and people are becoming more and more curious about the cultures of others," she says.
"You cannot predict where language goes. One day, any of these words could go global and we want to make sure we have given it its due."
Boon Chan