original_query: What is the global language system and how did Abram de Swaan define it in his book?
query: What is the global language system and how did Abram de Swaan define it in his book, Words of the World: The Global Language System?
answer: The global language system is a network of multilingual connections between language groups, not haphazard but a strong and efficient network.  De Swaan, in his book *Words of the World*, describes it as an 'ingenious pattern of connections between language groups' and a hierarchical system with four levels: peripheral, central, supercentral, and hypercentral languages.