Bon Wen ('good language' or 'easy language', from French bon 'good' and Chinese wen 'language') is a minimalistic language designed for global communication. It is designed to express complex concepts by using about 200 root words, so that even the most complex concepts are understood. This process of building words was influenced by both Western AND Eastern languages, unlike Esperanto and Ido.
Bon Wen was influenced by many languages, including Toki Pona. Roots are taken from Mandarin Chinese, Indonesian, Spanish, Tagalog and Latin among others. Bon Wen uses eleven phonemes, chosen for ease of learning by people whose native languages have small phonologies. Therefore, many words imported from other languages have to be modified. Bon Wen aims to be as easy as possible and to have the number of words to the smallest extent while making it a complete language.
The verbs never change, but the words ante and wela may be added before the verb to indicate the past and future tenses (respectively). The word na is added after adjectives to show that they are adjectives (it can sometimes be translated as ('s) as in "the person's hand"), and the word te indicates possession. "no" is the negative particle, "jo" is the imperative and addressing particle and "ne?" is used at the end of the sentence to turn it into a question.
Bon Wen was made because the creator felt that the other languages weren't as good. He felt Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua were too European. Also he believed Lojban and Sona too hard. When he discovered Toki Pona, he believed it was a great language but needed more words for saying complex things and Toki Pona isn't supposed to be an International Auxiliary Language nor a complete language . So Bon Wen was therefore created.
|
