It isn't uncommon to find german variable names in codebases that predate web 1.0 or linux.
Now that I think about it, german is especially good at creating words by concatination. So "arrival time" should just be the single word "Ankunftszeit" - "ankunftZeit" feels a bit off.
Yup. If languages were characters in a computer RPG, they'd have "special skills" listed on their character cards. Off the top of my head:
- English: verbing and nouning. All languages have ways of introducing new words, but only in English I've seen it accepted as something anyone can casually do in a throwaway manner. Have a noun but want to talk about the (contextually) default action related to the noun? No big deal, just stick an "-ing" or "-ed" to its end and carry on. I adore this feature.
- German: word concatenation you mention, it's a killer feature. And then there's the peculiar grammar that puts the most important verb at the very end of a sentence, giving you stuff like "Gegen die hohen Preise für Gas, Strom und Treibstoff will die Regierung etwas machen", meaning "The government wants to do something about the high prices for gas, electricity and fuel", but structured as "<tone> <stuff> <blah> <blah> <subject> <stuff> do something". So not only you need to listen to the end of a sentence to know what it's about, but you can actually zone out a bit early on, catch the last few words, and still recover the meaning. I'm sure one could write an interesting signal processing take on this.
(If anyone knows examples of such unique/special "skills" for other languages, I'd love to hear about them!)
> And then there's the peculiar grammar that puts the most important verb at the very end of a sentence
An American woman visiting Berlin - intent on hearing Bismarck speak - obtained two tickets for the Reichstag visitors' gallery and enlisted an interpreter to accompany her.
Soon after their arrival, Bismarck rose and began to speak. The interpreter, however, simply sat listening with intense concentration. The woman, anxious for him to begin translating, nudged and budged him, to no avail.
Finally, unable to control herself any longer, the woman burst out: "What is he saying!?" "Patience, madam," the interpreter replied. "I am waiting for the verb."
'Aan die hoge brandstofprijzen zal de regering iets gaan DOEN'.
If I say it in my local dialect, it will sound a lot like German.
Speaking of unique skills, I find French very unique as well. "His life" translates to "sa vie" because vie happens to be female. "what is it" translates to "qu'est-ce que c'est", a _seemingly_ random concatenation of shortened words, in spoken form it is only 3 syllables!
