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What is Monda?

Monda is an international language. It belongs to all mankind, and not to any one nation alone. At present there are thousands of languages in the world. Difference of language greatly hinders the exchange of information and understanding among nations. Along with the rapid development of globalization, the problem of the language barrier has been highlighted. The best way to solve this problem is to use an international language. Monda is not intended to supplant or replace any national language. Its purpose is only to be a common means of communication for people of different languages. The two advantages of Monda are neutrality and ease of learning. No national language (including English) possesses either of these advantages.

Does this mean that everyone will speak the same language?

No. Monda is not intended to replace any national language. We are proposing that people adopt a second language. Which means we won't have to learn three, four or more languages. We'll simply learn the International language which will be the common language. In fact, adopting Monda means that less prominent languages, who might otherwise disappear, would be saved from extinction.

Isn't English an international language?

English, as the most popular language at present, isn't suitable for use as an international language. The reasons are, first, that English is a national language. No national language is suitable for international use. Why? Because if we accept a national language as international, that gives enormous political and cultural advantages to the country or countries for which the chosen language is the native tongue. Consequently this solution is often unacceptable to the others. Secondly, learning English is very difficult for most Asian people. For example, many people in China learn English but few master it. At present, only 10% of the world's population understand English . It means if we take English as the international language, 90% of the people of the world have to learn English. Is this reasonable? Of course not!

Isn't English already the international language of the Internet?

Yes, English is the major language on Internet at present, and 28% of Internet users are English speakers. But the percentage of English users and English websites is going down rapidly as people from other countries, especially China, join the world wide web. Today Chinese is already the second language on the internet by number of users, with 22% of users.

But both English and Chinese are national languages. Monda is a neutral language.

A country with more English speakers is more modern, right?

No! Some countries, such as India, Pakistan, and Nigeria , as former colonies of UK , use English as their official language, but they aren't highly modernized. On the other hand, Japan, Germany , and Sweden , which do not use English as official language, are highly modernized.

But isn't Monda an artificial language?

Every language in the world is artificial. The word "artificial" means "made by human beings". The difference between national and constructed languages is that a national language is not made scientifically , but has many irregularities and unreasonable factors. A constructed language is made systematically and scientifically, absorbing the good points and removing the shortcomings of national languages. In fact, Indonesian is a constructed language made by a Dutch missionary in the 1920s on the basis of synthesizing some local languages. Now this language has become the national language of Indonesia , used by more than one hundred million people. Monda is constructed also by synthesizing Indo-European languages such as English, French, Spanish , etc.

There is already Esperanto, why do we need Mondlango?

This is because there are some defects in Esperanto:

1) Esperanto does not use the letters q, w, x and y, but does have the inconvenience of six accented letters --- c^, g^, h^, j^, s^ and u~ - which (with the possible exception of the last) are not used in any other language). Because they are peculiar to Esperanto they have to be specially provided just for printing Esperanto. Although the problems this causes are not insuperable, the accents remain a nuisance in various ways, and hinder acceptance of Esperanto. Theoretically the circumflex can be replaced by the letter h, but Esperantists themselves use this alternative very reluctantly, as the result looks very heavy and unattractive.

2) In Esperanto there is an ending -n for the accusative case. That makes the word order more flexible, but complicates grammar, and too much flexibility reduces standadisation . For example, some people like to use the word order of Subject+Verb+Object, others use S+O+V, still others use O+V+S or O+S+V or even V+O+S, etc. Then which word order is the standard word order?

3) Esperanto requires adjectives to agree in number and case with the nouns they qualify, so an adjective has four possible endings. There is no real need for this complication, as English--- with its invariable adjectives - shows.

4) In Esperanto, the construction of some words doesn't accord with the word-building rules. For example, "to federate" in Esperanto is "federi", but "federation" is "federacio", which should be "federo".

5) Most animal nouns in Esperanto aren't neutral, but masculine nouns. For example, in Esperanto, the word "bovo" means "bull", not "ox". In fact, when we say a thing, we usually needn't indicate its sex. As well as this, there are no neutral personal pronouns in Esperanto.

6) In Esperanto approximately 70% of words are derived from Latin. This is too big a percentage. Today, as more and more people understand English, it is necessary to absorb more words from English.

Esperanto has a history of more than 100 years, but because of its many defects, its influence is still too limited. Therefore, a new international language, which inherits the good points of Esperanto and overcomes its defects, has been constructed. This is Monda.

Does Monda have fixed word endings?

Yes. In Monda there are fixed word endings for nouns, adjectives, verbs and derivative adverbs. Nouns have the endings -o ; Adjectives have the ending -a; Derivative adverbs have the ending -e; Verbs have the endings -i for infinitive, -an for present tense, -in for past tense, -on for future tense, -uz for subjunctive, -ez for imperative mood.

What are the differences between and common points of Esperanto and Monda?

See the Monda vs Esperanto page for a comparison.

Why can't Monda be called "Reformed Esperanto"?

Monda has absorbed many good points from Esperanto, but the differences between them are great in terms of alphabet and grammar. The First Universal Congress of Esperanto adopted "The Manifesto of Esperanto" which stipulated that every Esperantist must conform to the grammar laid down in the book "The Foundation of Esperanto". No Esperantist will ever have the right to modify this book. That is why many Esperantists know of some shortcomings in Esperanto, but they fail to correct them. The tradition of Esperanto doesn't recognize "Reformed Esperanto". If the Constitution of the United States could never have been amended, then Americans could not have abolished slavery. So Monda is an independent language, not a "Reformed Esperanto".

Why do verb conjugations use -an, -in, -on instead of Esperanto's -as, -is, -os?

Because:

  • "-os" is the ending of a plural noun.
  • The present, past and future tenses of active participles end in -ant-, -int-, -ont-. Therefore, it is better to use -an, -in, -on to correspond with them.

How much time do I need to master Monda?

A person who knows English, can gain a basic knowledge of Monda in a few days, or even hours. A single day of study is enough to get a basic idea so that he or she can read and understand some texts.

Is it necessary to remember a large vocabulary?

No. Monda is more economical in this respect than most languages. The basic vocabulary is extended considerably by adding prefixes and suffixes. These can be used to make many more words, which therefore do not need to be remembered separately. This method reduces considerably the need to remember a large vocabulary. With the base of three thousand root words, one can combine roots and affixes to form over thirty thousand words in Mondlango. For example:

mediki = to medicate
mediko = medicine
medika = medical
medikoro = doctor
medikorulo = (male) doctor
medikorino = (female) doctor
medikeyo = hospital

Who created Monda?

Strictly speaking, in the realm of Monda, there are founders and followers, but there is no creator. Most vocabularies in Monda are not arbitrarily created, but are derived from the Indo-European language family (especially from English ). Zamenhof , being the author of Esperanto, was also the vanguard of Monda. Monda was born in July 2002. The major founder of Monda is HeYafu, the other founders are Wangli, Qijiaqin, Luoxinxing, Arbsemo, Kulturo, Chenruihua , Zangyuhai, Niyundong, Zhaozhonghua, Oscar Mifsud , David Curtis , Dominique Kuster , Matthew Martin and J Duke.

Why do the second person pronouns use "yi" and "yu" in Monda instead of "vi" as in Esperanto?

That's because in English, the first person plural pronoun is "we" which sounds very similar to "vi". To avoid confusion, it is better to use "yi" (singular) and "yu" (plural) in Monda. In English, both "ye" and "you" are second person pronouns.

In Monda, the prefix which denote opposite is dis-, why not use mal- as in Esperanto?

Because in English, Spanish and other languages, the prefix mal- indicates "bad". For example, maltreat, malnutrition, etc. In English, there are many words with the prefix dis- which indicate opposite, eg. disappear, disarm, disinfect, disconnect, disqualify, etc. Some other languages use similar prefixes (e.g. "des-" in Spanish).

In Esperanto, there are 16 grammatical rules. How many are there in Monda?

There are only a dozen grammatical rules in Monda. Rules 1 to 10 are about the article, the nouns, the verbs, the adjectives, the adverbs, the pronouns, the numerals, the prepositions, the conjunctions and the interjections respectively. Rule 11 stipulates that the pronunciation of each word corresponds with spelling, and the accent is always on the next to last syllable. The 12th rule stipulates that the basic word order is Subject+Verb+Object. If you know these rules, then you already know almost all grammar in Monda.

In Monda, does the pronunciation correspond with spelling?

It is a long-cherished goal but not yet achieved for centuries for the Europeans, that is to use one symbol to represent one pronunciation, and one pronunciation to represent one symbol (i.e. one sound one symbol, one symbol one sound). For example, in English the combination ea has got as many as 11 pronunciations such as [i:],[a:],[e], [ei], [iei], the phonetic symbol [o:] may also have 11 ways of spelling in words like "raw, form, sauce, chalk, floor, board, quarter, bought" and so on. French pronunciation is more regular than that of English, even so, a [k] may be spelt as "c, k, qu, ch, cc, ck" such kinds of forms. Esperanto has realized the "one symbol one sound" theoretically. However, due to some letters with "caps", it is often that two letters are used instead of one in the actual practice of language (e.g. ch takes the place of c^ ), so that it is not yet really "one symbol one sound". Monda has realized the dream of "one symbol one sound" both theoretically and practically.

Submitted by admin on Sun, 11/15/2009 - 18:58