FINDING ONE'S WAY : PLACE NAMES IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Places are given names to enable people to find their way. To be useful, place names must be functional, that is. the names must be easy to write, pronounce and perceive and be unique in their geographical reference. Place names must also meet cultural-historical demands and take into account historical and social factors. This study hopes to find if the present place names in Singapore meet functional and cultural-historical demands in the following areas: (1) unofficial names. (2) hanyu pinyin names, and (3) the proposal of having bilingual signs. The area of unofficial names is examined because there is more than one unique reference for a particular place. The issues of hanyu pinyin names and bilingual signs are explored to see if they are easy to write, pronounce and perceive. The hypotheses are that (1) unofficial names are still in use, (2) people do not like pinyinised names because of its difficult pronunciation, and (3) people would like to have bilingual signs. These hypotheses are affected by age, race and language stream. Therefore, six groups were investigated to test the hypotheses in two studies. The Descriptive Study is a questionnaire-cum-interview study which aims to discover people's opinions on the three areas. The Statistical Study complements the Descriptive Study by evaluating its tentative findings on pinyinised names numerically. The findings of both studies reveal that the hypotheses are confirmed. The implications of the findings are (1) unofficial names can be used in the naming of future place names due to cultural-historical considerations. (2) new place names must be easy to pronounce and thus. must preferablv not be pinyinised, and (3), the proposal of having bilingual signs must be seriously considered.