Globish is a name for a subset of the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

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 In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "global" and "English." The first attested reference to the term as Global 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 both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

'' in 1997:''Among the New Words'', 2007, American Speech 82.1 Georgia College & State University. Nerrière's project differs from a controlled language of the same name devised by Madhukar Gogate six years earlier.

Usage

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 (a backronym for British American Scientific International and Commercial English) is a controlled language based on standard English, but with a greatly simplified vocabulary and grammar. It was created by the linguist and philo ...

'' 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 A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

."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, literary editor of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'', 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 Barbara Cassin (; born 24 October 1947) is a French philologist and philosopher. She was elected to the Académie française on 4 May 2018. Cassin is the recipient of the Grand Prize of Philosophy of the Académie française. She is an emeritus ...

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 October 19, 1959, and still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America (VOA). World news and oth ...

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 an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

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 Learning English (previously known as Special ...

is a controlled subset of the English language derived from Special English by 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, 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 (also cultural colonialism) comprises the culture, cultural dimensions of imperialism. The word "imperialism" describes practices in which a country engages culture (language, tradition, ritual, politics, economics) to creat ...

, 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's ''

The World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a Reference work, reference resource produced by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The off ...

'', 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 Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

; 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>

Usage

Development

Promotion and publications

Related systems

Criticism

See also

References

External links