Re: Perl culture, perl readabillity
Dunno--the older a language is, the more regular it seems to be. (The rough edges get worn off, I assume) While Latin had a reasonably complex set of rules, it was more regular than English. Japanese feels the same, though I'll grant I've little enough experience with it that my impression might be wrong or incomplete. Irregularity seems to come in with the new, and gets beaten down a bit with long usage. It's also worth recognising the extent to which English has absorbed elements of other languages inc Latin and French. At the same time, sometimes the desire to communicate (driven by political change, for example) outstrips the process of codification of a language. At the moment I'm working with a historian who is trying to process and analyse a huge pile of 17th C documents -political pamplets, army documents etc - from the period of the English Civil war - which use english, latin, french (from legal system, mainly) but in some cases are written entirely phonetically ... and even inconsistently within the same document. Ick. Coming soon! Lingua::parse17thcenturyenglish .
Re: Perl culture, perl readabillity
"Dan" == Dan Sugalski [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Dan Dunno--the older a language is, the more regular it seems to Dan be. (The rough edges get worn off, I assume) While Latin had a Dan reasonably complex set of rules, it was more regular than Dan English. Japanese feels the same, though I'll grant I've little Dan enough experience with it that my impression might be wrong or Dan incomplete. I'm fluent in Japanese (lived there for 6.5 years, married to a woman who didn't speak English until we moved to New York), and I'd have to say you are very wrong. But, your impression is only natural, if your experience with the language is limited. When you learn a new language, you start off by learning its regularities. Only when you start to approach a more advanced level of understanding do you begin to learn the really twisted irregularities that are an inevitable side effect of centuries of linguistic evolution. Japanese doesn't have the perverse spelling rules of English, for example, but it does have plenty of special cases and cultural oddities. Enough so that I would not say it is "regular". More so than English perhaps, given the relative cultural and geographic isolation under which it evolved. English, by comparison shows the effects of protracted foreign occupation of English speaking peoples by conquerors who spoke a foreign language. Japan, in contrast, has no "independence day" because until 1945, they had never been invaded and conquered. Even still, Japanese isn't immune to the effects of "foreign influence". Most of the vocabulary for technology and science are taken from English, and a number of Dutch and German terms have crept into the vocabulary as well. But most of this was introduced in teh last century, since the "Meiji Restoration" in the 19th century, when Japan realized that thay had better start paying attention to the rest of the world. The Dutch influence goes back a bit further, but it is not that deep.
Re: Perl culture, perl readabillity
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: English, by comparison shows the effects of protracted foreign occupation of English speaking peoples by conquerors who spoke a foreign language. And also of protacted occupation of foreign countries by English speaking conquerors. Witness the number of Indian loan words, especially in British English, and even more so in Army English. Japan, in contrast, has no "independence day" because until 1945, they had never been invaded and conquered. Remember, Britain hasn't been invaded or conquered since 1066. A remarkably large number of 'foreign' words have entered English since then. The rules seems to be "If it's a word for a concept we don't actually have a word for, and it's not a complete and utter bastard to pronounce/spell then nick it." -- Piers
Re: Perl culture, perl readabillity
"PC" == Piers Cawley [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: PC Remember, Britain hasn't been invaded or conquered since 1066. A PC remarkably large number of 'foreign' words have entered English PC since then. The rules seems to be "If it's a word for a concept we PC don't actually have a word for, and it's not a complete and utter PC bastard to pronounce/spell then nick it." shouldn't that last part be, don't change its spelling but definitely change its pronunciation? :) and a large part of the english language growth was not due to the unconquerable britain but the reverse, all the places that england conquered (or tried to). and the US is a large part of that with its gung ho culture and acceptance of new anything. so many modern english words (especially in the sciences and engineering) were/are just made up in america from various sources (acronyms, latin/greek roots, whims, etc.). english is so broad because of its history of borrowing and allowances for change. you don't get vocabularies of .5-1M words without a license to steal! uri -- Uri Guttman - [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- http://www.sysarch.com SYStems ARCHitecture and Stem Development -- http://www.stemsystems.com Learn Advanced Object Oriented Perl from Damian Conway - Boston, July 10-11 Class and Registration info: http://www.sysarch.com/perl/OOP_class.html
