Globish
How the English Language Became the World's Language
2 of 2 copies available
In this provocative and compelling new look at the course of empire, Robert McCrum, coauthor of the bestselling book and television series The Story of English, shows how the language of the Anglo-American imperium has become the world's lingua franca. In fascinating detail he describes the ever-accelerating changes wrought on the language by the far-flung cultures claiming citizenship in the new hegemony. In the twenty-first century, writes the author, English + Microsoft = Globish.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 7, 2010 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781400197439
- File size: 286576 KB
- Duration: 09:57:01
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- Lexile® Measure: 1290
- Text Difficulty: 10-12
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Reviews
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The word "globish" refers to the spread of English around the world as an evolving language of business and pop culture. Before listeners learn about how English has been transformed in contemporary China, India, and Singapore, among other places, McCrum provides a history lesson on the language itself. James Langton makes the lesson interesting, even doing believable voices for key figures such as Winston Churchill. Still, there are points when the book slows down, and it takes a long time for it to get to the contemporary era, when the word "globish" was coined. While the history is important, some listeners may be disappointed by the lack of focus on the central topic, the spread of English since the Cold War. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine -
July 26, 2010
McCrum explores why English has become dominant in the modern world, and, more significantly, how English is manipulated, reconceived, and negotiated by different cultures—and why. (according to the author) native English speakers no longer control the language. James Langton projects his crisp English accent with rhythm and command that keep listeners engaged, shifting dialects, accents, and vocal manipulations with ease. Listening to Langton's performance allows for a fuller understanding of the verbal differences analyzed in the book. A Norton hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 15). -
March 15, 2010
Britannia may not rule, but it still presides over the world's discourse, according to this sketchy, triumphalist chronicle of the English language. McCrum (The Story of English
), associate editor of Britain's Observer,
surveys the latter-day apotheosis of English as the international language, observing Chinese English-language boot camps, Bangalore call centers, and the takeover of Britain's Man Booker prize by non-British novelists. But most of the book is a historical pageant of the English-speaking peoples as they assimilated, conquered, or enslaved foreigners and expropriated words and dialects under the leadership of statesmen/wordsmiths from King Alfred to Churchill and literary geniuses like Shakespeare and Twain. McCrum makes a pragmatic, happenstance case for the international popularity of English: the British Empire and American hegemony spread it around the planet, making it the obvious choice for a globalizing world's lingua franca. But he also advances a grander and less coherent brief for English as the language of individual freedom, democracy, and capitalism, contrasting its “contagious, adaptable, populist and subversive” spirit with the snobby elitism of French. That's a bit of language chauvinism that no linguistic analysis, especially one as cursory as McCrum's, can sustain.
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