Sun 27 Aug 2006 @22:10
There are something in the neighborhood of 7000 languages and dialects in the world. (Quick, how many can you name?) Last Friday, I read an AP story on Wired News announcing the release in Bolivia of Microsoft Windows translated into Quechua, a Native American language spoken in parts of South America. (I wonder who is it at Microsoft that gets to decide which language to translate the software into next?) While there are over 10 million Quechua speakers, relatively few of them have regular access to computers. But, as a result of this translation, Microsoft “recently won a contract from the Peruvian government for 5,000 Quechua-equipped computers”.
The translation process incorporated many traditional words with new concepts, of course, and introduced some new terms. According to the article,
file = kipu, an Inca practice of recording information with knotted strings
Internet = Llika, a spider web
My Documents = Documentoykuna
Quechua, like many indigenous languages, was officially discouraged for many years. Even the Internet has been disparaged for its anglocentric view of the “World Wide Web”. (English is a first language for less than 5% of the world population, but accounts for 30% of web usage — steadily decreasing from its near total domination.) I happen to think we need to do more to encourage diversity in our world, so I’m glad to see these steps toward inclusion of less common languages, even though this inclusion necessarily changes those languages.
The article continues,
Such borrowed words “are one way that a language evolves,” said Serafin Coronel-Molina, a linguist at Princeton University and native Quechua speaker. “But you can’t just fill up a language with borrowed words, because then what have you got?”
Hmm. I’m no linguist, but I think you’ve got English.
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August 27th, 2006 at 23:51
Does Ebonics count as one of the 7000?
Because I have been speaking that all evening.
August 28th, 2006 at 06:53
Your last line cracked me up!!!!
You should hear ‘Chinglish’ that is spoken here - a mixture of Cantonese with loads of English words thrown in - supposedly indicating a ’superior’ command of both languages but to me it’s nothing but a mish-mash of both.
And intolerably annoying to listen to!!
August 28th, 2006 at 13:25
LOL, i read that same article and had just about the same thought. great minds think alike…..great, warped, it’s all semantics
August 28th, 2006 at 23:53
“English is a first language for less than 5% of the world population, but accounts for 30% of web usage ” — you think that % (or close to it) also applies to programming?
vb:
dim i as integer
c#
int i;
I’ve often wondered if other countries write code in their language or English….