English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
formalized in 2004 by Jean-Paul Nerrière. It uses a subset of standard English grammar and a list of 1500 English words. Nerrière claims that it is "not a language" in and of itself,"Parlez vous Globish? Probably, even if you don't know it" ''Toronto Star'', March 7, 2009. but rather it is the common ground that non-native English speakers adopt in the context of international business.
"Globish," a trademark, is a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsGlobal English, i.e., to refer to a set of dialects of English spoken outside of traditional English-speaking areas, was in an issue of ''
The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
'' in 1997:''Among the New Words, 2007, American Speech 82.1
Georgia College & State University
Georgia College & State University (Georgia College or GC) is a public liberal arts university in Milledgeville, Georgia. The university enrolls approximately 7,000 students and is a member of the University System of Georgia and the Council ...
Jean-Paul Nerrière uses the term Globish for his subset of the English grammar and vocabulary. He claims that the language described in his books is naturally occurring. He has marked his codification of that language by acquiring trademark protection on the term, similar to I.A. Richards who trademarked ''
Basic English
Basic English (British American Scientific International and Commercial English) is an English-based controlled language created by the linguist and philosopher Charles Kay Ogden as an international auxiliary language, and as an aid for teach ...
'' in order to prevent dilution and misrepresentation of his work.Basic English and Its Uses, W.W. Norton, 1943 Instances of attested prior usage, it can be seen, were incidental or not intended for the same purpose.
Development
As an IBM executive and as a result of his vast travels, Jean-Paul Nerrière realized that a new global language was becoming more and more important. While serving as vice president of international marketing at IBM, Jean-Paul Nerriere first observed patterns of English that non-native English speakers used to communicate with each other in international conferences.McCrum, Robert "So, what's this Globish revolution?" ''The Observer'', December 3, 2006. In 1989, he proposed Globish as an international language focussing most of his efforts to its promotion. He developed rules and training in the form of various publications to help non-native English speakers better communicate with each other by using Globish as a lingua franca."New lingua franca upsets French" ''BBC News'', January 23, 2009. He conducted dozens of interviews and wrote or co-authored 6 books about Globish in four different languages."Parlez vous Globish? Probably, even if you don't know it" ''Toronto Star'', March 7, 2009.
Promotion and publications
Nerrière formulated his ideas in two books he authored, ''Découvrez le globish'' (meaning Discover the Globish) and ''Do Not Speak English, Parlez Globish''. Both books have been translated into a number of international languages. In French, he has published ''Parlez globish!: l'anglais planétaire du troisième millénaire'' and co-authored with Philippe Dufresne and Jacques Bourgon, the instruction book ''Découvrez le globish: l'anglais allégé en 26 étapes''.
Nerrière's 2004 codification work began to legitimize the language purpose to the extent it drew some press attention. Clearly, and with much subsequent reference, the term ''Globish'' has grown increasingly as a generic term since the date of his first publications. Nerrière trademarked Globish as a subset of the English language formalized by him. He also launched the website globish.com to promote his ideas.
In 2009, intending to demonstrate that "Good Globish is correct English", Nerriere and David Hon published ''Globish the World Over'', the first book written entirely in Globish-English.
Robert McCrum
John Robert McCrum (born 7 July 1953) is an English writer and editor, holding senior editorial positions at Faber and Faber over seventeen years, followed by a long association with ''The Observer''.
Early life
The son of Michael William McC ...
, literary editor of ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'', is quoted as supporting the efficacy of the language. By 2011, ''Globish the World Over'' had been translated into 12 languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Hungarian, Slovakian, Uzbek etc. It was a best seller in Japan.
In 2011, the Globish Foundation was formed as a non-profit organization in Australia, for the purpose of maintaining and promulgating the standards of Globish. By 2013, the Globish Foundation had 8 national affiliates and an online Globish Communications Test available 24/7.
Barbara Cassin claims that Globish is not a language of culture, but a language of service. Robert McCrum wrote the book ''Globish: How the English Language Became the World's Language'' (), describing Globish as an economic phenomenon, unlike " global English" whose uses are much more diverse than just business.
Related systems
Special English
Learning English (previously known as Special English) is a controlled version of the English language first used on 19 October 1959, and still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America (VOA). World news and othe ...
is also a controlled subset of the English language with about 1500 words, short sentences, and slower delivery than traditional English. Special English was first used on October 19, 1959, and is still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
.
Specialized English
Specialized English is a controlled version of the English language used for radio broadcasting, easier for non-native speakers of English. It is derived from Voice of America (VoA) Special English.
Specialized English was developed initially by ...
is a controlled subset of the English language derived from Special English by
Feba Radio
Feba Radio is a British-founded broadcasting network. It is driven by Christian values rather than by government or commercial aims.
It was established in 1959 in the UK as the Far Eastern Broadcasting Associates (FEBA, later known as Feba Radio) ...
. It also has about 1500 words, with some differences in the word list from Special English.
Criticism
Critics of ''Globish'' either feel that its codifications are not sufficiently clearly rendered, or that an
artificial language
Artificial languages are languages of a typically very limited size which emerge either in computer simulations between artificial agents, robot interactions or controlled psychological experiments with humans. They are different from both constr ...
is preferable to any natural one.
* Although Nerrière claims that the Globish described in his book is a natural language, he has never published any statistical evidence of his observations.
Joachim Grzega
Joachim Grzega (born 9 September 1971) is a German linguist. He studied English and French at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Paris-Sorbonne University and the University of Graz. He has tau ...
, a German linguist, has even gone as far as to state "Obviously, it is not based on any empirical observations, neither on native–non-native nor on non-native–non-native discourse."Globish and Basic Global English (BGE): Two Alternatives for a Rapid Acquisition of Communicative Competence in a Globalized World? by Dr Joaquin Grzega, a German linguist.
* Globish is suspected of
cultural imperialism
Cultural imperialism (sometimes referred to as cultural colonialism) comprises the cultural dimensions of imperialism. The word "imperialism" often describes practices in which a social entity engages culture (including language, traditions, ...
, because it spreads only one language from which the subset of words is taken: this criticism is often by the speakers of other "neutral" languages, meant as languages not spoken in any nation. Clearly, derivative forms which have "English" in their titles are doubly suspect. According to
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
's ''
The World Factbook
''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is availabl ...
'', native English speakers represent only 4.68% of the world population, including native and non-native speakers the total proportion of all English speakers is estimated to be 10–15%.
* Globish is criticized for having an ulterior economic motive. It is a registered trademark and some marketing is done with it, since its owner did not renounce his rights to it (as for example L.L. Zamenhof did for Esperanto; on the other hand, I.A. Richards discussed why he trademarked Basic English, in order to prevent dilution and misrepresentation).
*The Globish Text Scanner accepts some 2000 extra words.GLOBISH ? WHICH GLOBISH ? /ref>
Controlled natural language
Controlled natural languages (CNLs) are subsets of natural languages that are obtained by restricting the grammar and vocabulary in order to reduce or eliminate ambiguity and complexity. Traditionally, controlled languages fall into two major types ...
*
Engrish
''Engrish'' is a slang term for the inaccurate, nonsensical or ungrammatical use of the English language by native speakers of Japanese, as well as Chinese and other Asian languages. The word itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to ...
*
Globish (Gogate)
Globish (also known as Parallel English) is a constructed language created by Madhukar Gogate that attempts to simplify English, including the use of phonetic spelling, and the removal of most punctuation and capital letters. It was presented to ...
Newspeak
Newspeak is the fictional language of Oceania, a totalitarian superstate that is the setting of the 1949 dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', by George Orwell. In the novel, the Party created Newspeak to meet the ideological requirements ...
*
Simple English (disambiguation)
Simple English may refer to:
* Basic English, a controlled language, created by Charles Kay Ogden, which only contains a small number of words
* Learning English (version of English), used by the Voice of America broadcasting service
* Plain Engl ...