Member-only story
Are There Any Non-English Programming Languages?
Programming syntax has been dominated by the English language but there are some exceptions.
Programming languages have been around since nearly the beginning of the information age. Since most advancements and early tech companies were in western English-speaking countries, it’s no surprise that the English language has been embedded into the syntax of the more popular coding languages. This inclusion of English words in programming languages has been something that has always interested me. If English is not a developers first language then surely it becomes much harder to grasp the fundamentals when they first learn it. This also made me wonder if there were any programming languages that are popular in the non-English speaking world.
If you want a more in-depth view on all the languages discussed check out my video above.
Programming Languages Created in Other Countries
The list of programming languages that weren’t developed in the west is actually quite long. In fact some of them are even industry standards. Python is the most popular programming language according to the PYPL ranking index. However, what most people don’t know is that it was developed in the Netherlands. Similarly, Ruby which is gained popularity for its extremely simple syntax and has a PYPL ranking of 16, was developed in Japan. If you’re in the game development industry then you’re probably familiar with the Lua programming language which was originally developed in Brazil. What each of these programming languages have in common though is that all of them use English Words in their syntax. There are many reasons for doing this such as the tech industry having a quite distinct English-speaking base. Even in foreign countries that have large tech industries, English is used as a lingua franca for communicating with developers across the world. For these reasons it makes sense if the goal is to gain large-scale adoption.
