The vocabulary of Singlish consists of words originating from English , Malay ( mainly Bahasa Melayu rather than Indonesian ) , Hokkien , Teochew , Cantonese , Tamil and to a lesser extent various other European , Indic and Sinitic languages , while Singlish syntax resembles southern varieties of Chinese . The vocabulary of Singlish consists of words originating from English , Malay , Hokkien , Teochew , Cantonese , Tamil , Bengali , Punjabi and to a lesser extent various other European , Indic and Sinitic languages , while Singlish syntax resembles southern varieties of Chinese .