Mondlango (also known as Monda) is an artificial constructed language based on Esperanto grammar and English vocabulary. Its name is derived fomr the Mondlango words for "world" (mondo) and "labguage" (lango").

Like Esperanto, the language has a simple yet robust grammatical structure that allows root words to take on different meanings and forms by adding regular affixes and suffixes. For example, in Esperanto the word "sana" (healthy) can be converted into "malsana" (unhealthy), "sane" (healthily) or "malesane" (unhealthily) simply by adding parts of speech to the beginning or end of the word. Mondlango uses a similar approach (though for example, in Mondlango the affix "dis-" is used instead of "mal-"). The bits that are added to the root word never change, so that it is possible to quickly build a large vocabulary and achieve a complex range of expression by simply learning a relatively small core vocabulary and then building on these root words.

In Esperanto, as in many other constructed languages which aim at universality such as Interlingua or Ido, the vocabulary was drawn from many different languages. The intent was to be inclusive and also to make the language easier to learn. If the constructed language contained some vocabulary from the learner's native language, the learner would have the advantage of already knowing or at least being able to recognize some of the words in the new constructed language.

The choice of which words to import into the new constructed language has always been a key factor in shaping the constructed language. Esperanto has been criticized for being Eurocentric because it borrows primarily from European languages, such as French and Italian and therefore is not that easy for students whose native language is, for example, Chinese.

Mondlango adopts most of Esperanto's grammar but rejects Esperanto's attempt at inclusivity. Rather than borrowing words from various (primarily European) languages, Mondlango's vocabulary is derived entirely from English. Mondlango has a basic vocabulary of about 5,000 root words which can be then adapted by adding regular suffixes and affixes to form more words.

The advantage of Mondlango's approach is that it is very easy to learn by anyone who speaks English. They already know the entire vocabulary, and just have to learn some basic grammatical rules.

Mondlango's reliance on English as its source for vocabulary has been criticized as being incompatible with a universal language. One might also ask why one would need to learn Mondlango as opposed to using English. However, it must be acknowledged that even though the word list is taken from English, these English words are themselves in most cases derived from Latin, French, and Spanish so that there is an element of cross cultural and linguistic inclusiveness despite the emphasis on English. Moreover, Mondlango is not English. It might be regarded as a close relative in the same way that French and Italian resemble each other and share many words, but have completely different grammars. For this reason, even though Mondlango is similar to English in some ways, the use of a standard and very regular grammar instead of the rather complex and irregular English grammar, makes it possible for Mondlango speakers to create a new linguistic heritage. The added advantage is that unlike English, Mondlango is not a national language and therefore can be used by people all over the world without any cultural or nationalistic baggage.

Mondlango is easy to learn especially if you already know English. Someone who is fluent in English can acquire a basic knowledge of Mondlanga in just a few days, and sometimes even less. If you also know Esperanto you can probably understand texts written in Mondlanga right away, without any instruction at all.


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