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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Member since:2006-02-15
Ive read a few comments now where people have said things like genders and cases enrich the language, but to my mind it still makes things more complicated than they need to be and also to my mind, don't add anything.
Well, they DO enrich the language, but I do agree with you in that it doesn't add anything meaningful to it. It only serves to add confusion to any non-native speakers, and it takes a while to learn and memorize all the correct places where to use genders.
In Finnish we have no such thing, we use "hän" ("he"/"she", no gender associated) of people and "se" ("it") for everything else, and I don't feel like we're losing out on anything of value.
Anyways, merely wanted to add something to the discussion even if it is off-topic. Apologizes to anyone it may offend 
Member since:
2008-05-06
Ive read a few comments now where people have said things like genders and cases enrich the language, but to my mind it still makes things more complicated than they need to be and also to my mind, don't add anything.
To take a simple example with Russian.
She said - она сказала
he said - он сказал
I don't get why i need the additional 'a' at the end of "she said". It doesnt bring anything to the table. I know in Russian you can cheat a bit often and drop the pronoun, and thus loose the ability to determine gender... but anyway i'm using gender (language) = gender (sex) here, and for things like pen, pencil, paper then there is no sex gender.
Another example focusing on the word cat.
cat = кот
give me a cat = дайте мне кота
Again... why change the word? Why not?: дайте мне кот
(PS: Sorry to all native speakers of Russian... my Russian is pretty crap).
So... how do these things enrich the language?