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Panglobish vs English

In this page Panglobish is compared to English. The goal is to show why Panglobish would be a better global second language 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 Panglobish just a poor copy of English?

Panglobish 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 (from Quora) of the same sentence in English and other Germanic languages.

English I am the son of my father and my mother.
Scots A am the son o ma faither an ma mither.
Dutch Ik ben de zoon van mijn vader en mijn moeder.
Afrikaans Ek is die seun van my pa en my ma.
German Ich bin der Sohn meines Vaters und meiner Mutter.
Yiddish Ikh bin der zun fun mayn foter un mayn muter.
Danish Jeg er søn af min far og min mor.
Norwegian Jeg er sønnen til faren min og moren min.
Swedish Jag är son till min far och min mor.
Icelandic Ég er sonur föður míns og móður minnar.
Panglobish mi is da boi of mi's patre en mi's matre.

The same sentence in Panglobish is also somewhat similar with all Germanic languages.
So English is nothing special in this regard.

Panglobish 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 Panglobish, the challenger, and English, the reigning world language.

Main Points of Comparison

English vs Panglobish
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.

Panglobish, 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 Panglobish spelling system is quite similar to other languages. In fact, Panglobish spelling is very much like the international norm.

Let's compare the pronunciation of the word "nature" in selected European languages and Panglobish.

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/
Panglobish nature /naturə/

Every language has a pure ah vowel and a normal t consonant except English. Written English is more international than spoken English. That's why Panglobish is often closer to written English than to spoken English.