How Computers Are Changing Language
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 27th Oct 2009 00:37 UTC
Features, Office In the comments on our editorial about language purism and the Psystar case, it became quite clear that language is a subject almost everyone has an opinion on - not odd if you consider that language is at the very centre of what makes us "human". Since this appears to be a popular subject, let's talk about the influence computing has had on two very minor aspects of the Dutch language.
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JacobMunoz
Member since:
2006-03-17

I believe the reason is mostly caused by the word(s) "Por que":

http://spanish.about.com/od/writtenspanish/a/porque.htm

It's a horrible little pair of syllables that take the place of "why is/are", "because", "for what/which", "that", and sometimes "for the reason". It can be one or two words, with or without accent.

English is less compact and tends to make a question's syntax more obvious towards the end. I once had a Spanish teacher point out that English is also more suspenseful than most Latin-based languages and causes the reader to reach the end of the sentence before it can be fully digested by the brain. Alternatively, in Spanish you know the subject/noun first and adjectives come later, making the beginning of the sentence more significant - perhaps worthy of an upside-down question mark. But it's still ugly if you ask me.

English: "red rubber ball"
Spanish: "pelota de goma roja"

Reply Parent Score: 2

elmimmo Member since:
2005-09-17

Funny, for me as Spaniard it was the closing question mark always that looked upside down (I do know the opening one is called "inverted", it just does not match my impression of it).

Reply Parent Score: 1