Globish

From a review of Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language by Robert McCrum in The Economist.

The big shift is towards a universally useful written Globish. Spellchecking and translation software mean that anyone can communicate in comprehensible written English. That skill once required mastery of orthographical codes and subtle syntax acquired over years. The English of e-mail, Twitter and text messaging is becoming far more mutually comprehensible than spoken English, which is fractured by differences in pronunciation, politeness and emphasis. Mr McCrum aptly names the new lingo “a thoroughfare for all thoughts”.

This seems a very important insight to me. There is a debate now as to whether human language began in gesture or in sound, perhaps both. Certainly the human mind can comprehend both spoken and signed languages. Many people, number in the billions, can communicate in more than one language. Many people can use any of several grammars according to the language in which they are communicating.

Communicating by means of symbols seems a relatively recent human accomplishment, but the large majority of people can now do so. Some written language is based on symbols that correspond to the sounds of speech, some on pictures which correspond to ideas. And of course we all are familiar with symbols such as those on road signs and in airports which convey meaning by stylized images.

I suppose the Information Revolution is creating a new way of communication which already is accessible to a billion or so people, based on the written English. I note that I read French with sounds in my mind's ear that would not be comprehensaibles to a Frenchman. So too we can communicate across language barriers via the Internet, each hearing with his mind's ear a language which would be incomprehensible to the other.

I am reminded of an old friend who is fluent in Japanese and who was sent as a translator to Korea during the Korean war. Of course he spoke no Chinese and the Chinese prisoners he was to interrogate spoke no Japanese. He told me that they could communicate via the characters used in writing both languages.

Something of the sort will occur more and more as translation software gets better and better (because in part, personal computers continue to get more and more powerful). Two people will be able to communicate on the Internet, each writing in his/her own language and reading the translation of the other's postings.

Perhaps we will be able to communicate universally by such means at the end of the century!