Pandunia vs English
In this page Pandunia is compared to English. Our purpose is to show why Pandunia would be a better global second language than English for people who don't have a common language. We don't have anything against English as such, but we criticize its role as a global language. English is perfectly OK as a national language and as an international language between countries where it is already spoken.
Is Pandunia just a poor copy of English?
Pandunia is much more than just a copy of English.
English is a Germanic language and therefore it is related to other Germanic languages, which are in many ways similar to English but they are independent, separate and definitely not copies of English. Take a look at this comparison of the same sentence in English and other Germanic languages.
| Pandunia | mi es mi se pa se pikin e mi se ma se bebe. |
|---|---|
| English | I am my father's child and my mother's baby. |
| Scots | A am the bairn o ma faither an the babbie o ma mither. |
| Dutch | Ik ben het kind van mijn vader en de baby van mijn moeder. |
| Afrikaans | Ek is my pa se kind en my ma se baba. |
| German | Ich bin das Kind meines Vaters und das Baby meiner Mutter. |
| Yiddish | Ikh bin mayn fater's kind un mayn muter's beybi. |
| Danish | Jeg er min fars barn og min mors baby. |
| Norwegian | Jeg er min fars barn og min mors baby. |
| Swedish | Jag är min fars barn och min mors bebis. |
| Icelandic | Ég er barn föður míns og ungbarn móður minnar. |
Another example is the Universal Germanic Dialog by King Ming Lam. It is more or less recognizable in all Germanic languages. The Pandunia version is rather similar, too, because it borrows many basic words from Germanic languages.
| Language | "The Universal Germanic Dialog" |
|---|---|
| English | Come in my house, my friend. Welcome! Come here, sing and dance, eat and drink. That is my plan. We have water, beer, milk and warm soup! |
| German | Komm in mein Haus, mein Freund. Willkommen! Komm her, sing und tanz, iss und trink. Das ist mein Plan. Wir haben Wasser, Bier, Milch und warme Suppe! |
| Swedish | Kom in i mitt hus, min vän. Välkommen! Kom hit, sjung och dansa, ät och drick. Det är min plan. Vi har vatten, öl, mjölk och varm soppa! |
| Pandunia | Kom in mi se haus, mi se frende. Vel kom! Kom hir, gante en danse, yam en gul. Da es mi se plan. Vi hab sui, bir, milke en garme sup! |
It is clear that Pandunia bears reseblance to all Germanic languages. So English doesn't hold a special position in this regard.
Pandunia is an independent language that bears significant similarity to Germanic languages like English, German and Dutch but also to Romance languages like Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French and, to a lesser degree, also to many other languages. It is an independent language in the great global network of languages.
Now that this issue is settled, let's continue comparing Pandunia, the challenger, and English, the reigning world language.
Main Points of Comparison
| English | vs | Pandunia |
|---|---|---|
| Western | Global | |
| Many standards (British, American, Indian, etc.) | One standard | |
| Very irregular spelling | Regular spelling | |
| Irregular stress | Regular stress | |
| 12 vowels and 24 consonants | 6 vowels and 21 consonants | |
| Almost 200 irregular verbs e.g. speak, spoke, spoken |
Only regular verbs | |
| Inflected verbs e.g. talk, talks, talked |
Unchanging verbs | |
| Inflected nouns e.g. one life, two lives |
Unchanging nouns | |
| Inflected adjectives e.g. good, better, best |
Unchanging adjectives | |
| Huge vocabulary | Small vocabulary | |
| Duplicate words from Germanic, Latinate and Greek roots | Few duplicate words | |
| Complex and irregular word formation | Simple and regular word building | |
| Changing word order e.g. in questions | One fixed word order |
Why English is not a good world language?
English is not fair
International communication should be a situation where everybody meets halfway. That's not the situation with English. Native English speakers don't need to make any effort, while the others have to spend years learning English in school or on their own. Native English speakers have an advantage over the others. They are in a dominant position.
This is mostly a result of political history. Britain was successful at invading and submitting other territories in the age of colonialism and it imposed the English language on other peoples. Although the power of Britain waned eventually, its military, economic and cultural dominance was continued by another English speaking power, the USA, until today.
Native English speakers always have an advantage over non-native speakers because they speak English fluently and they are aware of all the cultural nuances. Native English speakers speak English perfecty by definition, whereas non-native speakers speak it almost always with an accent – and it's their job to lose that accent! They also tend to make mistakes in grammar and they often select their words poorly because English vocabulary is huge, layered, and nuanced.
English is hard
English is really a hard language to learn if you grow up in an environment where it's not the main language. This fact is evidenced by the huge number of mistakes that non-native speakers make when they try to speak or write it. Although non-native speakers can make themselves understood in English, they can rarely get to the same level where native English speakers are by birth.
There are over 200 irregular verbs in English, like go, went, gone, but there should be none the world language. English has a lot of odd phrasal verbs that don't make any sense, and often they can mean many things. For example to make up means:
- to compensate (ex. I will make up the time),
- to invent (ex. He made up a story),
- to apply cosmetics (ex. I make up my face),
- to resolve (ex. I made up my mind), and
- to become friends again (ex. They made up after the fight).
How can you learn all of them? Logic doesn't help, obviously, so you just have to memorize them one by one... And that's not a great method to learn a language! It should be the last resort when all else has failed, but you need to use the memorization method a lot when you are learning English.
There are definitely some very difficult aspects in the English language. It's not exceptionally hard, though, but it is about as hard as other European languages. The main point is that it's much harder than what the world language needs to be!
English has chaotic spelling
The English spelling is one of the hardest spellings in the world. It is complicated and often illogical. The same letter can represent different sounds in different words or, in case of silent letters, no sound at all! You don't say what you see.
There are many reasons for the chaotic state of the English spelling:
- The 26 letters of the English alphabet are simply not enough to represent around 36 sounds of the spoken language.
- Various invaders (Vikings, Romans and Normans) wanted to spell English in their own way.
- The spelling did not keep up with the changes in the spoken language. Many words are still spelled the same way as in the Middle Ages.
- English has borrowed words from many languages – and it has kept their original spelling!
There are too many irregularities to be listed here. A few rhymes are enough to show what's the matter: one - won, two - too - to, four - for - fore, eight - ate - great. For more examples, read The Chaos, a poem by Gerard Nolst Trenité.
Pandunia, on the other hand, is a regular language. Each letter (or combination of letters like ch and sh) is pronounced in the same way in every word. If you hear a word, you can always spell it. If you read a word, you can always pronounce it.
In addition, the Pandunia spelling system is quite similar to other languages. In fact, Pandunia spelling is very much like the international norm.
Let's compare the pronunciation of the word "nature" in selected European languages and Pandunia.
| Language | Written word | Spoken word |
|---|---|---|
| English | nature | /neɪtʃə/ |
| French | nature | /natyʁ/ |
| Italian | natura | /natura/ |
| Spanish | naturaleza | /natuɾalesa/ |
| Portuguese | natureza | /natuɾezɐ/ |
| German | Natur | /natuʁ/ |
| Polish | natura | /natura/ |
| Russian | натура | /nɐturə/ |
| Pandunia | nature | /naturə/ |
Every language has a pure ah vowel and a normal t consonant except English. This is typical. Many English words are similar to their international counterparts only in their written form, which is more conservative than the spoken form. Therefore it is no surprise that Pandunia words resemble written English more than spoken English.