ICA ascribes to a child the dialect of the father upon the child’s birth, in our national registration database. All individuals can subsequently change his or her dialect registered with the Government via a written declaration to ICA. This means that an individual can have a different registered dialect from his/ her father, or even both parents.

Individuals are allowed to register the language or dialect that they speak, or dialect by lineage. This has been a longstanding practice since the 1970s, and is also specified in our law, i.e. the National Registration Regulations.

Individuals can check their registered dialect via their Singpass, which is the authoritative source of the latest registered dialect information.