Re: Internationalizing Linux

Matthias Urlichs (smurf@noris.de)
14 Dec 1998 05:32:30 +0100

Horst von Brand <vonbrand@sleipnir.valparaiso.cl> writes:
> Whatfor? The de facto "Universal Network Language" (on the Internet, at
> least) is English, and nobody will be able to change that for quite some
> time to come. English has several virtues over artificial languages:
>
It has also the political disadvantage that some people have it as their
_first_ language while others have not.

Thus the development of Yet Another Language. If I would be doing it (which
I'm not) I'd use Loglan/Lojban, at least that one is a language which is
designed to be (a) computer parseable, (b) less suitable to doublespeak
than English...

http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/

> - English has a rather simple grammar (spelling is quite another matter :-)

English is rather difficult to parse without hard AI, its free-form grammar
lends itself to some rather creative uses. Granted that those are more
common in SF novels (I particularly like Douglas Adams when it comes to
creative usage of English ;-) than in UN documents...

-- 
Matthias Urlichs  |  noris network GmbH   |   smurf@noris.de  |  ICQ: 20193661


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