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Falsehoods programmers believe about languages (www.lexiconista.com)

submitted 22 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

57 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

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 happens 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?)
Jo

So 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.

[–] MirthfulAlembic 3 points 5 hours ago

English used to have this! Yea/nay for positive, and yes/no for negative I believe. The former fell out of common use.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

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 )