in reply to The Germanic language form

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!

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Re^2: The Germanic language form
by Not_a_Number (Prior) on Jun 01, 2007 at 10:55 UTC

    I'm sorry, this is way off-topic, but I just can't let so many misconceptions go unremarked:

    It all started with sanskrit

    No it didn't. Sanskrit is one of the earliest known Indo-European languages, but this does not mean that it was the ancestor of them all.

    Celtic was not an Indo-European language

    Yes it was (and still is).

    Finnish (...) can be said to be lying the other side of the great Indo-European vs. Slavonic language divide

    Huh? The Slavonic languages are Indo-European!

[reply]
      When looking for other references in regard to your first point, I only found support for the idea that Sanskrit is the ancestor of English, in particular, this article, which describes the history and proof of the proposition. However, your 2nd and 3rd points do check out and I have updated my post accordingly, thanks! __________________________________________________________________________________

      ^M Free your mind!

[reply]
        I only found support for the idea that Sanskrit is the ancestor of English

        That's strange. See, for example, the wikipedia article on the 'Out of India theory', which clearly states that 'This theory is deprecated in mainstream scholarship'.

        Update: I found that there is actually a wikipedia article about The Adventure of English, the TV series upon which Lord Bragg's book (which you cite as your source above) was based. Here's an extract:

        Critics of the programme have pointed out that it contains factual errors: for example, it asserts unequivocally that the Indo-European languages stem originally from India
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Re^2: The Germanic language form
by girarde (Hermit) on Jun 01, 2007 at 13:34 UTC
    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?

    I think so. I also think it's also a result of Larry having a linguistic background.

[reply]

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