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Studying and mapping place histories through streets in Singapore – ST graphic article 2019

Aug 23, 2019 ~ Leave a Comment ~ Written by singapurastories

by Imran bin Tajudeen

On 29 June 2019, The Straits Times published a wonderful way to present one aspect of the urban morphological history of Singapore – its linguistic dimension. Through the mapping of the language used on Singapore street names and colour coding them, we get a sense of their distribution. The graphic article (or “data STory” as the Straits Times calls it), written by journalist Rebecca Pazos, was produced by Aloysius Tan, Alyssa Karla Mungcal, Bessa Nicoletta, Goh Yan Han, Hannah Yan, Lee Sujin, Raihanah Ruslan, Rebecca Pazos, Trinity Tan, and Yu Sheng Sin. An accompanying article by Ng Huiwen was written on 10 July 2019.

SG Streets Linguistic Map _ST 29 Jul 2019

 

Here is a very short review of the graphic:

Within the scope of this present mapping attempt that focuses on existing streets and their linguistic dimension, some possible further work that can be done are:

  1. Adding the time dimension: mapping when the existing streets were named (and of course when they were first built), and
  2. Specifying which of the current (existing) street names are outcomes of renaming, and when this took place.

What lies beyond the scope of this exercise, which is focused on the linguistic dimension of existing streets, are

  1. the expunged and severed / shortened streets – specifically
    • where the expunged streets were,
    • when the expunction happened, and
    • what was lost.
  2. There are also streets with alternative Malay and Hokkien/Cantonese/Teochew names, and these too are not included in this article. But those are aspects for another work (the present author’s, hopefully, when there is time for this next year!)

(Disclosure: the present author of this review is currently working on a research project to address precisely the two aspects just stated above, on areas in the historic districts within old Singapore Town! More soon with links here when the articles are ready.)

The shape of the street network and the histories of settlements / places and their names (through their streets) are not static and, particularly for Singapore, a lot has been dramatically transformed. For instance, take a look at the transformations in the street networks at Kampong Gelam and the expunged network of streets at one of its sub-divisions at Kampong Rochor, an area of shophouses and compound houses that was formerly the Bugis Town of Singapore, published in Singapura Stories in 2015 and 2017.

There is a lot to be done for the streets that were expunged, as they tell a very different story.

A note on the sources used for the ST graphic story:

There are also several pioneers in the compilation and discussion of street names and toponymy (place names) in Singapore as I list briefly below, but none have attempted to map the streets in this manner.

The most crucial source used for this graphic story by ST seems to be an online work:

“Linguistic Street Map of Singapore” by Michelle Fullwood, which presents the graphic story to street names by language, upon which much of this ST graphic story seems to be based. https://michelleful.github.io/code-blog/2015/04/24/sgmap/

The key published works cited are:

“Toponymics: a study of Singapore street names” by Victor R. Savage & Brenda S.A. Yeoh (2003, 2004, republished in 2014 as “Singapore street names : a study of Toponymics”),

“What’s in the name? : how the streets and villages in Singapore got their names” by Ng Yew Peng (2018).

However, two pioneers who published compilations on Singapore street names are not cited specifically in this article: Durai Raja Singam S. (1940 and 1980) and Peter Dunlop (2000).

Enjoy this great graphic story / article! Links below:

The graphic story:

“On a little street in Singapore… A road map of history, culture and society.” By Rebecca Pazos. The Straits Times. dataSTories. JUNE 29, 2019. https://graphics.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/Interactives/2019/06/singapore-street-names/index.html

As Singapore celebrates its bicentennial, we take a look at how its past is quietly preserved in the names of its streets. They reveal throwbacks to British colonial times, a stunning array of Malay words and other surprising references.

Source:  Google Street View, Linguistic Street Map Of Singapore (reproduced with permission from Michelle Fullwood), NLB Infopedia, remembersingapore.org, Roots.SG, Singapore Street Names: A Study Of Toponymics by Mr Victor R Savage and Ms Brenda S A Yeoh, What’s in the Name? How the Streets and Villages in Singapore Got Their Names by Mr Ng Yew Peng, Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Handbook On Guidelines For Naming Of Streets

Produced by: Aloysius Tan, Alyssa Karla Mungcal, Bessa Nicoletta, Goh Yan Han, Hannah Yan, Lee Sujin, Raihanah Ruslan, Rebecca Pazos, Trinity Tan, and Yu Sheng Sin.

The accompanying article by The Straits Times:

“ST traces the road to Singapore’s storied past.” By Ng Huiwen. The Straits Times.  JUL 10, 2019, 5:00 AM SGT. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/st-traces-the-road-to-spores-storied-past

Interactive graphic on names of over 3,000 roads taps data from 2015 linguistic street map.

——————————————————————————————————

Published sources cited by the data story:

Ng, Yew Peng. What’s in the name?: how the streets and villages in Singapore got their names. Singapore: World Scientific, 2018.

Savage, Victor R. and Brenda Yeoh. Singapore street names: a study of Toponymics. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2013.
[with older editions in 2003, 2004]

Older published sources not cited by the data story:

Dunlop, Peter K. G. Street names of Singapore. Singapore: Who’s Who Publishing, 2000.

Durai Raja Singam S. Malayan* street names: what they mean and whom they commemorate. Foreword by W. Linehan; Introduction by Victor Purcell. Ipoh: Mercantile Press  c.1940.

* Malayan includes Singapore, as is well-known.  😊

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