Falsehoods programmers believe about languages
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@2xsaiko @TehPers there's other examples too. E.g. Thai has no spaces between words but spaces between phrases/sentences. However the spaces between phrases involve style choices similar to comma in English and many other Latin script writing systems. Also, Thai may have spaces around abbreviations special characters.
I'm quite familiar with Thai so that's close at hand but I guess it's the same in a lot of other writing systems based on Brahmic scripts.
Interesting, thanks!
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I can’t believe nobody has done this list yet. I mean, there is one about names, one about time and many others on other topics, but not one about languages yet (except one honorable mention that comes close). So, here’s my attempt to list all the misconceptions and prejudices I’ve come across in the course of my long and illustrious career in software localisation and language technology. Enjoy – and send me your own ones!
The last three I think are especially important - many people don't really understand how political national flags can be and that they never really just represent a people/region/language in a completely unbiased way.
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I can’t believe nobody has done this list yet. I mean, there is one about names, one about time and many others on other topics, but not one about languages yet (except one honorable mention that comes close). So, here’s my attempt to list all the misconceptions and prejudices I’ve come across in the course of my long and illustrious career in software localisation and language technology. Enjoy – and send me your own ones!
"All languages (that use the Latin alphabet) have the same alphabetical sorting order."
oh this one is very unexpected to me. Does someone know an example? I'm curious -
"All languages (that use the Latin alphabet) have the same alphabetical sorting order."
oh this one is very unexpected to me. Does someone know an example? I'm curiousMany examples are listed on Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabetical_order#Language-specific_conventions -
Not sure about that one but the following one:
In each language, the words for yes and no never change, regardless of which question they are answering.
This is true in Danish actually. Example:
Kan du lide is? (Do you like ice cream?)
Ja
Kan du ikke lide is? (Do you not like ice cream?)
JoSo in Danish we have "ja" which means "yes" but "jo" is used instead when answering a negative question, so as to confirm what the negative question asked. This is kind of annoying in English cause if you ask "Do you not like ice cream?" then if you say "yes" does that mean "yes I like ice cream" or does it mean "yes I do not like ice cream"? That's what "jo" disambiguates.
I believe French does this as well. To answer in the affirmative to a negative question, you use "si" instead of "oui"
"Si" is also the word for "if", which has probably confused people.
(top search hit, not sure if good, but on a quick glance it looks correct https://www.commeunefrancaise.com/blog/si-in-french )
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"All languages (that use the Latin alphabet) have the same alphabetical sorting order."
oh this one is very unexpected to me. Does someone know an example? I'm curiousIn Denmark we have the digraph "aa" that is the same as "å". Since "å" is the last letter in the Danish alphabet, "aa" must be sorted likewise. Hence the ordering Aalborg -> Allerup -> Middelfart is incorrect and the correct ordering is Allerup -> Middelfart -> Aalborg.
The exception is if two a's end up besides each other due to compounding words: "ekstra" + "arbejde" gives "ekstraarbejde" but here it is not a digraph so ekstraarbejde -> ekstrabetaling is correct ordering as well
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_and_Norwegian_alphabet
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In Denmark we have the digraph "aa" that is the same as "å". Since "å" is the last letter in the Danish alphabet, "aa" must be sorted likewise. Hence the ordering Aalborg -> Allerup -> Middelfart is incorrect and the correct ordering is Allerup -> Middelfart -> Aalborg.
The exception is if two a's end up besides each other due to compounding words: "ekstra" + "arbejde" gives "ekstraarbejde" but here it is not a digraph so ekstraarbejde -> ekstrabetaling is correct ordering as well
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_and_Norwegian_alphabet
Middelfart?
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"All languages (that use the Latin alphabet) have the same alphabetical sorting order."
oh this one is very unexpected to me. Does someone know an example? I'm curiousIn German Ä comes after A, in Swedish Ä comes after Z
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Middelfart?
The great city of Middelfart
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middelfart -
Geolocation is an accurate way to predict the user’s language.
This makes me so angry. It really really really really really does.
Despite setting everything to English I still get my receipts in French. And all because my IP is CG-NAT to the capital which is marked as french speaking.
What is so hard about letting me decide. The absolute fucking arrogance thinking you as a company know better than me in which language I would like to be served.
Eat a dick Microsoft.
For real. I've seen the fingerprinting info, I know your website can see what language I've set, so display your website in that language!
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Not sure about that one but the following one:
In each language, the words for yes and no never change, regardless of which question they are answering.
This is true in Danish actually. Example:
Kan du lide is? (Do you like ice cream?)
Ja
Kan du ikke lide is? (Do you not like ice cream?)
JoSo in Danish we have "ja" which means "yes" but "jo" is used instead when answering a negative question, so as to confirm what the negative question asked. This is kind of annoying in English cause if you ask "Do you not like ice cream?" then if you say "yes" does that mean "yes I like ice cream" or does it mean "yes I do not like ice cream"? That's what "jo" disambiguates.
English used to have this! Yea/nay for positive, and yes/no for negative I believe. The former fell out of common use.
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I can’t believe nobody has done this list yet. I mean, there is one about names, one about time and many others on other topics, but not one about languages yet (except one honorable mention that comes close). So, here’s my attempt to list all the misconceptions and prejudices I’ve come across in the course of my long and illustrious career in software localisation and language technology. Enjoy – and send me your own ones!
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Arabic doesn't have a word for "yes".
(Yes) in Arabic is نعم pronounced as (Na'am) or ( Na ع m) & this is the word which most people use in all Arab countries . The Arabic dialect word for (Yes) is ايوة or ايوا pronounced as (Aywa)and also used by all Arabs.
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Middelfart?
It's not too smelly, but it's not completely benign either.
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And I always want the english version instead of the german version, despite me being german. Literally only google fucks that up. Every other site, even the small local german Uni website or the canteens meal site, respects my browsers setting. Google does not, and serves me german.
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Can they answer “not no”?
I don’t know any Vietnamese, but I suspect it would be as awkward of an answer as “not no” in English.
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I don’t know any Vietnamese, but I suspect it would be as awkward of an answer as “not no” in English.
I’m sure it would. But in many languages a double negative just reinforces the negative. Hence the question.
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