“WAH OMO OMO”: THE EMERGENCE OF A KOREAN-ORIGIN INTERJECTION IN THE TEXTING LANGUAGE OF SINGAPORE ENGLISH YOUTH

Abstract

This paper presents a corpus study of the Korean-origin interjection ‘omo’ in Singapore English. ‘Omo’ in Korean is typically used in speech by middle-aged women to express surprise, disbelief, or a feeling of awfulness. However, based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of ‘omo’ data found in the Corpus of Singapore English Messages (CoSEM), we do observe that ‘omo’ is used by women in their twenties similarly to the Korean use. Yet, we also observe that ‘omo’ is additionally used to express excitement, uncertainty, and awkwardness or embarrassment. ‘Omo’ can also function as a negative politeness strategy or as a verb meaning ‘to express disapproval’. Singapore English speakers thus use ‘omo’ differently and innovatively in terms of position in a text, semantic meaning, and functions. Furthermore, the use of ‘omo’ is not necessarily linked to a speaker’s desire to express their affinity for Korean culture, but it is used practically for communicative purposes with other Singapore English speakers. Thus, I argue that while Korean popular culture may have exposed Singapore English speakers to the Korean language, including interjections like ‘omo’, while ‘omo’ continues to spread in the local texting ecology, the term is potentially undergoing localization that may result in the eventual dissociation of ‘omo’ from its Korean origins.