Mondilange

Overview

=Introduction=

What's Mondilange?
Mondilange is an engineered language.

Mondilange is made of words from all linguistic groups of the Earth.

Mondilange is politically correct.

Mondilange learning must be instructive on world cultures.

Mondilange is as easily pronounceable as Tokipona.

Mondilange can be as logical as Lojban.

Mondilange has most of its words' functions identified by its ending, like Esperanto.

Mondilange is not designed to be untouchable. People are encouraged to contribute, to make variations or to use its concepts in their own conlangs. If Mondilange got widely used someday, the speakers will have to create an organization to state official rules.

Building rules
(1) Take into account words from as many languages as possible.

As European international languages, we already have Interlingua, Esperanto, and, naturally, English. Naturally, many words will have their form much modified in order to fit Mondilange patterns.

(2) Equilibrate analogy and differentiation.

For instance, "I" should have in its form some similarity to "you", but the differences must make them clearly distinguishable.

(3) Try to make more common phonetic errors not much important to comprehension.

Some people can't distinguish /f/ from /v/, /l/ from /r/, /ua/ from /wa/, /old/ from /owd/, etc.

Frequently asked questions
Is Mondilange intended to be a Science Fiction Language?

Not primarily, but feel free to use it in your book. And let me be aware of it by sending me an e-mail: leolucas1980@yahoo.com.br.

Is Mondilange intended to be an International Auxiliary Language?

English is already the IAL de facto. Anyway, if someday humanity decides to use an engineered language, I am not against Mondilange being one of the candidates.

Why do you think choosing roots from all these obscure languages make your language easier?

No. It's a way of celebrating language diversity. Mondilange has a simple phonetic structure, so difficult latin words as stricto or even non-widespread consonantal encounter as lf in wolf are not possible, then it's a natural step to get the most suitable words from each language. Learning Mondilange should always be a virtual cultural tour.

=Sounds=

Mondilange has relatively few sounds, and there are five pairs of interchangeable consonants, so that many alphabets (Latin, Greek, Cyrilic, etc.) or syllabaries (Japanese, Amharic, etc.) can be used to represent its sounds.

Vowels
a, e, i, o, u: basic vowels, pronounced approximately as in Spanish, Japanese, etc.

Diphtongs
ai, ei, oi, au, ou, eu: each one pronounced as diphtong or hiatus, whichever you want;

iu, ui: idem;

ia, ie, io, ua, uo, ue: idem;

Consonants
h: as in house (but it can be similarly pronounced as the Spanish "j" as well);

l: as in long (if some Japanese can't pronounce it, they can use Japanese "r");

m: as in mother;

n: as in no, but before "g" it is a velar nasal stop;

t/d: as in table or dice; you can pronounce t as d and vice-versa, but preferably without the common aspiration of table;

p/b: as in pig or big; you can pronounce p as b and vice-versa, but preferably without the common aspiration of pig;

k/g: as in kart or girl; you can pronounce k as g and vice-versa, but preferably without the common aspiration of kart;

f/v: as in five or vanilla; you can pronounce f as v and vice-versa; those who speak Spanish (and others language which doesn't have sound /v/) should never pronounce v as b or w: you'd better use /f/;

x/j: as sh in share or s in measure; it is used to abbreviate or omit sounds; that is to say: it corresponds to the English apostrophe;

Note: These five pairs above are "unvoiced/voiced consonant pairs". Each two consonants of a pair have exactly the same articulation, with the only difference that the first one is pronounced without vibration of the vocal folds. To realize it, pronounce "tah" and "dah" with your finger in your throat and note that your throat vibrate before you pronounce the vowel only in "dah". In mondilange, you should preferably use unvoiced consonants (t, p, k, f, x) in the word begining and the voiced ones in the middle.

'ng, nd, mb: only these three consonantal encounters are possible;

=Making words=

Rules for making words
In general, every word in mondilange ends in one of the forms (1), (2), (3) or (4) below, where

"C" is for consonant,

"V" is for the vowels a, e and o,

"v" is for vowels i and u,

"w" is for any vowel, and

"X" is either for x or for j:

(1) CCw: memba, tongo, penimbu, etc.;

(2) vVCw*: nuova, lievo, tiede, toliedi;

(3) vVX: miex, tuox, honioj, etc.;

(4) CVv: holai, sai, kalei, nau, etc.

*: The consonant in (2) is never "n" nor "m", where they have to be substituted by "nd" and "mb", representing so case (1).

Making compound words
Compound words may be created linking two single words of types (1-2) by means of choosing "i" as the final vowel of the first one. For instance, suade means "water", while lande means "land". So, suadilande is a word created from them. Its meaning depends on context and should be defined by its creator, but it might mean "land of water".

If the first used single word is in form 3 or 4, an additional "i" is used after it. For example, if you join the words sai and suade, you would have saiisuade. That's the only possible way of putting two equal vowels together, so you should pronounce each one separately: "sai-i-suade" (hyphen is always optional anywhere).

Stress, tone and rhythm
Mondilange has no defined stress, tone nor rhythm. This means that you can choose which syllable you want to stress, which you want to speak treble or bass, and the speed you want to speak.

Exercise
Try to form some words following these rules.

=Making sentences=

Verbs
Mondilange sentences are based on the verbs.

liova: to love

Who loves?

mieme tai: "I do" = "I love."

Who do you love?

tiode hoi: "You are" = "It's you I love."

liova mieme tai tiode hoi

I love you.

Well, tai is a particle that follows the subject and hoi follows the direct object. Anyway, If you don't like particles, feel free to omit them, but keep in mind that the subject must always be before the direct object:

mieme liova tiode

OR

mieme tiode liova

OR

liova mieme tiode

OR

miex liova tiox (abbreviations)

Choose which looks more romantic for you.

=Some vocabulary=

Greeting
halohai: hi!

Hawaiian "aloha" (love, peace, etc.) - English "hello" - Spanish "hola"

tigabai: bye!

Yorùbá "ogábò" - Italian "ciao" - Portuguese "tchau"

Pronouns
mieme: I/me;

Proto-indo-european "-mi", European "me", "mi", "mia", etc.

tiode: you/thou;

Proto-indo-european "-te", South-American Tupi "nde", English "thou", "thee", Thai "than" (polite) and "thoe" (informal), Spanish/Portuguese "tu" and "ti", Spanish "usted", Portuguese "você", etc.

liale: he/she/it;

Swahili "a-", "wa-", Spanish "él" (m) and "ella" (f), Portuguese "ele" (m) and "ela" (f), etc.

Sex
Few wolds in Mondilange are exclusive for males or females. If you want to make clear the sex, use the following words:

hiane: female/woman

Hebraic "hannah", meaning something like "grace".

Also Japanese "hana/ohana" for flower.

tuoge: male/man

Nordic "Thor", English "thunder + rock".

liale hiana

''It's a female. = She's a female.''

mieme tuoga liova liale hiana

I-man love her-woman. (In case you want to be clear.)*

or, for women,

mieme hiana liova liale tuoga (Idem.)

Alternatively, you can use tuogimieme instead of mieme tuoga:

tuokimieme liova hianiliale


 * mieme tuoka liova liale tuoga and mieme hiana liova liale hiana are also possible, but, for non-sexual love (son/dad, daughter/mom) you'd better not specify the sex.

Verbs
liova: to love

Hawaiian "aloha", English "love".

monka: to eat/to drink

Latin "manducare", Old French "mangier", Tokipona "moku", Esperanto "mangxi",

nenda: to go

Swahili "nen.da": to go.

Nouns
tiehe: soil, ground, earth

Spanish "tierra". Besides, affricate sound of "t" reminds me earth. Please confirm it! :-D

suade: water

Arabic "sawāhil", English "water", onomatopoeia "shwah...".

huahe: air

Greek-European "aer", onomatopoeia (aspiration ~ wind).

fuege: fire

Spanish "fuego", onomatopoeia "fffff...".

kuoge: rock

English, onomatopoeia ("k" reminds rock breaking, don't you think?).

miade: wood

Spanish "madera", Portuguese "madeira".

lande: place, region, territory, earth

English.

lohiane: flower

Japanese "ohana", Latin "florum", Proto-indo-european "bhlo-".

=Regency=

As Lojban, Mondilange is centered in the verbs (in Lojban, they don't really say "verbs"). Each verb has a structure of "slots" that may be filled with words. For instance, the verb liova ("to love") has two slots: the subject and the object. Other verbs may have more slots: when you say the verb "to give", you have to specify a subject, a direct object and an indirect object.

mieme tiala suade tou tiode

I give water to you.

This could be written more completely as

tiala tai mieme hoi suade tou tiode

So, the verb tiala (to give; Latin "dare") has three slots identified by three particles (technally they are adpositions [prepositions or postpositions]) that must be followed by their "arguments" (words). You can always omit the particles tai and hoi by putting the subject always before the direct object. If you want to use Mondilange as a logical language, the other particles can be omitted only if

(1) the order of the "arguments" must be left unchanged;

(2) the "arguments" of distinct verbs must be separated by conjunctions or appropriate particles.

An "argument" of a verb can be another verb. For instance, the verb sanga means "to be on [some surface]"

Chinese mandarim postposition "shàng": on.

lohiane sanga tuabe

The flower is on the table.

Latin "tabula": table

The verb kieda, from spanish "queda", means to stay, to lie,

lohiane kieda sanga tuabe

[The] flower lies on the table.

piage piena suade

[The] fish is in [the] water.

piage: Tupi pira, Latin piscis.

piena: Guarani postposition "pe". Latin and many european languages "in", "en", "em", etc.

=Changing word positions=

Cases can be made by prepositions as well:

sangu tuabe lohiane kieda.

Note that the same word sangu is a preposition now, as it came before the noun.

'''So... How can I know where to put it?'''

In truth, sangu is neither a prepositon nor a postposition: it is simply a case particle. The rule is quite simple:

The noun is always between its verb and its case particle.

It is look like an equation. Imagine that you have right-hand and left-hand sides, and the verb is the sign = ("equal to"). In the equation, when you get a term from a side and put it into the another side, you change its sign.

a = b + c

a - c = b

Pretend that the "verb" kieda is the equal-to sign, so

lohiane kieda tuabe sangu

maybe written as

LOHIANE = TS (tuabe sangu)

so

LOHIANE - TS = 0 (nothing)

Now, accept that the minus sign only change letters, i.e., -TS = ST, so

LOHIANE + ST = 0

or

ST + LOHIANE = 0

Translating into Mondilange:

sangu tuabe lohiane kieda

If you asked yourself if you could translate LOHIANE + ST = 0 directly, you got the point:

lohiane sangu tuabe kieda

=Family=

miame: mom, mother

"Mama" in so many languages around the world.

puabe: dad, father

"Baba" or "bapu" in many African and Indian languages. "Padre" in Spanish, "pai" in Portuguese, etc.

membe: child (son/daughter)

South-american Guarani word "memby" for son or daughter. In Guarani, the mother says "memby" (y=vocal gutural), but the father says "rajy" for daughter and "ra'y" for son.

nonge: brother/sister

Thai "nong" for younger brother or sister.

=Conjunctions=

Conjunctions are used to connect phrases. By default, conjunctions end in "o".

kondo: on the contrary, however, but

kuazo: because

=Modifiers, Specifiers, Negation and Tenses=

Modifiers and specifiers are similar to adverbs: they change or restrict the sense of a verb.

Negation
mieme handa

I'm handsome/beautiful.

handa is the "verb" to be beautiful.

mieme nionau handa

I'm not handsome.

Negation is made by the modifier nionau (it means "no", naturally) before the verb.

handa looks both like handsome and like hannah (hebraic "female" grace).

Tenses
mieme sai handa

I'm handsome now.

I'm beautiful in the present.

The specifier sai indicates the time: present.

mieme nau-sai handa

I'm beautiful right now.

The specifier nau means "precisely", "just a point in time"...

tiode piehi-sai handa

You were beautiful.

liale pondi-sai handa

She will be beautiful.

tiode hei handa

You have been beautiful. [from an undetermined past moment to an undetermined future moment]

tiode piehi-hei handa

You had been beautiful. [from an undetermined past moment to some past moment]

tiode pondi-hei handa

You will have been beautiful. [from an undetermined past moment to some future moment]

tiode fou handa

You starts being beautiful.

tiode piehi-fou handa

You have started being beautiful.

tiode pondi-fou handa

You are going to start being beautiful.

=Articles=

Definite article: lai

Indefinite article: neu

=Plurality=

Plural can be formed by the modifier hoi before the noun.

lohiane: flower

hoi lohiane: flowers

Other similar useful words for countable things are sohoi (some), lehoi (a little of), nihoi (few, "not enough") pahoi ("enough") and tahoi (a lot of).

=Intensity=

There are particles to specify intensity of the words:

lai hiane handa

The woman is beautiful.

lai hiane tadau handa

The woman is very beautiful.

lai hiane ledau handa

The woman is a little beautiful.

lai hiane nidau handa

The woman is not beautiful enough.

lai hiane padau handa

The woman is beautiful enough.

lai hiane nionau handa

The woman is not beautiful.

lai hiane kondau handa

The woman is the opposite of beautiful.'

OR

The woman is ugly. (You'd better never use this sentence.)

It's an evolution in relation to the Esperanto prefix "mal-". In Esperanto, "bela" is "beautiful" and "malbela" is "ugly". "Varma" is "hot" and "malvarma" is "cold". "Alta" is "tall" and "malalta" is "short". However, some physicist can argue that "cold" is not really the opposite of "hot", but it's only "few hot". "Short" could be "few tall" as well. To avoid all these discussions, Mondilange has precise modifiers to be more specific if you want to.

=Comparatives=

'''hokieu ... kieu'''

''as ... as''

'''lenieu ... kieu'''

''less ... than''

'''tadieu ... kieu'''

''more ... than''

Examples:

lai lohiane hokieu handa kieu lai piege

The flower is as beautiful as the fish.

lai lohiane lenieu handa kieu lai piege

The flower is less beautiful than the fish.

lai lohiane tadieu handa kieu lai piege

The flower is more beautiful than the fish.

Usage of comparatives are quite general for verbs:

tiode hokieu kieda kieu mieme

You stay like I do.

=Numbers=

1: hionu

Proto-indo-european /*Hoi(H)nos/, English "one", Latin "unnus"; Dravidian languages: Tamil /onru/, Tulu /onji/, Kannada /ondu/, Malayalam /onnu/, Kurukh /oṇṭa/.

2: tuobu

Proto-altaic /tybu/. Proto-indo-european /*duoh₁/.

3: tiezu

PIE (Proto-indo-european) /*treies/.

4: kuadu

PIE /*kʷetuōr/.

5: kiegu

PIE /*penkʷe/. Japanese "go".

6: suazu

PIE /*s(w)eḱs/. Sound "a" is in 7 in most Dravidian languages.

7: siebu

PIE /*séptm/.

8: huogu

PIE /*oḱtou/.

9: niobu

Latin "novem", Italian and Portuguese "nove", Spanish "nueve", PIE /*(h₁)néun/.

10: pandu

Telugu "padi".

11: pandu hionu

12: pandu tuobu

(...)

20: tuobu pandu

21: tuobu pandu hionu

22: tuobu pandu tuobu

(...)

30: tiezu pandu

40: kuadu pandu

(...)

100: kendu

Latin "centum".

200: tuobu kendu

300: tiezu kendu

(...)

1,000: pandu kendu (ten hundreds, naturally 10,00)

2,000: tuobu pandu kendu

(...)

10,000: mombu (1,0000)

Japanese "man". It could be "mandu", but it would be too similar to "pandu" (10).

100,000: pandu mombu (10,0000)

1,000,000: kendu mombu (100,0000)

(...)

This system is much more beautiful than the West's scheme, but, OK!, I'm going to give you some options anyway:

1,000: milielu

2,000: tuobu milielu

(...)

1,000,000: milionu = hionu milionu

2,000,000: tuobu milionu

3,000,000: tiezu milionu

(...)

1,000,000,000: bilionu

1,000,000,000,000: tilionu

1,000,000,000,000,000: kalionu

1,000,000,000,000,000,000: kilionu

It's enough! If you want more, use scientific notation.