It all started either as sanskrit, the classical language of India, which became the origin of the Indo-European languages (most of the European languages in fact).

Update: or it could be that some other proto-indo-european language was the origin of both Sanskrit and the Indo-European languages - the evidence I have read is as yet not definitive in my opinion and I am by nature skeptical of everything!)

Finnish is one of the few exceptions and can be said to be lying the other side of the great Indo-European vs. Slavonic language divide being apparently neither slavic or germanic. Celtic was not an Indo-European language and Early English was formed out of a battle between early Fries (a northern Dutch language of Indo-European origin) and Celtic. Fries sort of won with some heavy casualties and absorptions and forming a brand new language that was the early English of about 1500 years ago. Since then, French influence and continuous evolution has made it what it is today *.

The main difference between natural and programming languages hitherto is that natural languages may be ambiguous and may break rules faster than they are made with long-standing popular mistakes often changing the official spelling of the words (e.g. "give a dam" (a low-valued Indian coin) being the origin of "give a damn" (should be meaningless - would have to be "a damnation"). A programming language bears no real resemblance to a natural language, it is usually a formal instruction language with a simple grammar. Perl does not have a simple grammar and has potential ambiguities that are context-resolved and so begins to take steps in the direction of a natural language. I wonder if that has been a factor in its increasing popularity?

(* ref. The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language, by Melvyn Bragg, pub. Hodder & Stoughton, 2003)

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^M Free your mind!

In reply to Re: The Germanic language form by Moron
in thread The Germanic language form by Win

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