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0 pointsYeGoblynQueenne9y ago0 comments

>> I know of no other language that invented new words when computers came to the market (ordinateur)

Greek also: υπολογιστής ('ypologistis', literally "computer").

Greek universities teach computer science courses in Greek so a lot of the terminology is translated over. When I speak to fellow Greeks who have studied CS in Greek, there's always a bit of mental gear shifting needed before we can be sure we're on the same page.

A few examples: μεταγλωττιστής (compiler; lit. someone doing voice-overs of foreign language speech)

λειτουργικό (σύστημα) (operating system; lit. functional system)

πολυπλέκτης (multiplexer; lit. multi-knitter. Note that "plex" is possibly from the Greek for 'knitting', 'pleximo')

σφάλμα κατάτμησης (lit. segmentation fault)

περιηγητής (web browser; lit. explorer or sightseer)

μητρική (motherboard; lit. maternal (card))

And my personal favourite:

αντικειμενοστραφής προγραμματισμός (object oriented programming, literally, in the sense of "oriented" used to denote physically orienting one's body towards a given direction; in other words "programming that is facing objects")

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Al-Khwarizmi9y ago

In Spanish OOP is "programación orientada a objetos", which suffers from the same mistranslation as in Greek. It also means "programming that is facing objects", in a quite physical sense.

Max_Mustermann9y ago

But in Spanish you can use "orientar" in a figurative sense. I fail to see the problem.

Al-Khwarizmi9y ago

I don't really think you could do that in Spanish, at least until we started copying English terms.

Yes, now we also use "orientar a" to translate other English buzzwords like "orientado a resultados" (result-oriented), "orientado a la productividad" (productivity-oriented), etc. But outside of linguistic calques of modern English expressions and buzzwords, I've never heard or read anyone using "orientar a" for anything else than facing a direction.

I might be wrong, of course, as language is very complex and has a lot of regional variations (in particular Spanish, which changes a lot between Spain and the various Latin American countries); but my perception as a Spanish speaker from Spain is that the term originated from a bad translation of English, and something like "programación centrada en objetos", "basada en objetos", etc. would have been better.

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0 pointsYeGoblynQueenne9y ago0 comments

>> I know of no other language that invented new words when computers came to the market (ordinateur)

Greek also: υπολογιστής ('ypologistis', literally "computer").

A few examples: μεταγλωττιστής (compiler; lit. someone doing voice-overs of foreign language speech)

λειτουργικό (σύστημα) (operating system; lit. functional system)

πολυπλέκτης (multiplexer; lit. multi-knitter. Note that "plex" is possibly from the Greek for 'knitting', 'pleximo')

σφάλμα κατάτμησης (lit. segmentation fault)

περιηγητής (web browser; lit. explorer or sightseer)

μητρική (motherboard; lit. maternal (card))

And my personal favourite:

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Al-Khwarizmi9y ago

In Spanish OOP is "programación orientada a objetos", which suffers from the same mistranslation as in Greek. It also means "programming that is facing objects", in a quite physical sense.

Max_Mustermann9y ago

But in Spanish you can use "orientar" in a figurative sense. I fail to see the problem.

Al-Khwarizmi9y ago

I don't really think you could do that in Spanish, at least until we started copying English terms.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse