The author and journalist Robert McCrum talks about his new book, Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language (Doubleday, 2010), with Joseph Planta.

Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language by Robert McCrum. (Doubleday, 2010) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Globish

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line. This is THECOMMENTARY.CA.

An endlessly fascinating book is Robert McCrum’s Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language. The book documents English’s roots to where it is today, the world’s lingua franca. It is the tongue of technology, ubiquitous on the internet, on our cellular phones, and elsewhere. Four billion people have a functional knowledge of English. Robert McCrum joins me now. We’ll talk to him about the book, some of the people responsible for the development of English over some one thousand years, and where English, or Globish is headed. Will it usurp or subsume our other languages? Will English be dumbed-down? Where will technology take us and how we communicate? Robert McCrum is the associate editor of The Observer. He was previously its literary editor. He is the author of Wodehouse: A Life and My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke. He lives in London, but joins me from Toronto today. He was a writer of The Story of English, its award-winning television series and book. Globish is published here in Canada by Doubleday. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Robert McCrum; Good morning, Mr. McCrum.

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