Non-English-based programming languages are computer programming languages that, unlike most well-known programming languages, do not use keywords taken from, or inspired by, the English vocabulary.

Prevalence of English-based programming languages

Further information: English in computing

There has been an overwhelming trend in programming languages to use the English language to inspire the choice of keywords and code libraries. According to the HPOL online database of languages^[1], out of the 8500+ programming languages recorded, roughly 2400 of them were developed in the United States , 600 in the United Kingdom, 160 in Canada, 75 in Australia.

Another way to say it is that almost half of all programming languages were developed in an English-speaking country. This does not take into account how widely used each language is, nor situations where a language was developed in a non-English-speaking country but used English to appeal to an international audience (see the case of Python from the Netherlands) or because it was based on another language which used English (see the case of Caml, developed in France but using English keywords).

Based on non-English natural languages

• Aheui – An esoteric programming language similar to Befunge but using Hangul (Korean)
• [1] AMMORIA (ARAB) - Open source object oriented Arabic programming language, designed especially for Arabs.
• ARLOGO – The first open-source Arabic programming language, based on the UCB Logo interpreter
• Chinese BASIC – Chinese-localized BASIC dialects based on Applesoft BASIC; for Taiwanese Apple II clones and the Multitech Microprofessor II
• Fjölnir – An Icelandic imperative programming language of the 1980s
• FOCAL – Keywords were originally English, but DEC produced versions of FOCAL in several European languages
• 4th Dimension – On local versions, its internal language uses French or German keywords
• Jeem – Arabic programming language, based on C++ with simple graphics implementation
• Glagol – A Russian-based programming language similar to Oberon and Pascal
• GOTO++ – A french esoteric programming language loosely based on French and English [2]
• Hindawi Programming System – Indian language set of equivalents for C, C++, lex, yacc, assembly, BASIC, logo, Ada and others for languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, Assamese, and Bangla (with the BangaBhasha version)
• Hindi Programming Language – A Hindi language programming language for the .NET Framework
• hForth – A Forth system with an optional Korean keyword set
• HPL – Hebrew Programming Language
• Lexico – A Spanish OO language for teaching .NET programming
• LSE – Langage Symbolique d'Enseignement, a French, pedagogical, programming language designed in the 1970s at the École Supérieure d'Électricité. A kind of BASIC, but with procedures, functions, local variables, like in Pascal.
• MS Word and MS Excel – Their macro languages used to be localized in non-English languages
• Rapira – A Russian-based interpreted procedural programming language with strong dynamic type system
• Robik – A simple Russian-based programming language for teaching basics of programming to children
• SAKO – A language created in the 1950s and nicknamed the "Polish FORTRAN"
• Superlogo – A Dutch creation for computer-aided instruction, based on Logo
• TI-Calculator BASIC – The 68000 version is localized. Unfortunately, various configuration strings are localized too, preventing direct binary compatibility.

Not based on any natural language

Many of them are esoteric programming languages.

• APL – A language based on mathematical notation and abstractions
• Brainfuck – A minimalist esoteric programming language, created for the purpose of having a compiler fit in fewer than 256 bytes
• FALSE – Another minimalist esoteric programming language with syntax consisting mainly of single non-alphanumeric characters
• Piet – An art-based programming language
• Plankalkül – An early language developed by German computer pioneer Konrad Zuse; using a symbolic tabular notation
• var'aq – A language based on the constructed Klingon language of Star Trek
• Whitespace - A language based on whitespace characters.

Modifiable parser syntax

• ChinesePython – A complete translation of the Python scripting language into Chinese
• HyperTalk – The programming language used in Apple's HyperCard; allows translation via custom resources
• Macintosh AppleScript – once allowed for different "dialects" including French and Japanese; however, these were removed in later versions
• Perl – While Perl's keywords and function names are generally in English, it allows modification of its parser to modify the input language, such as in Damian Conway's Lingua::Romana::Perligata module which allows programs to be written in Latin.

References

Sources

Pigott, Diarmuid (2006). "HOPL, the History of Programming Languages". Retrieved on 2008-04-14.

External links

• Brainfuck homepage
• HPL homepage at Sourceforge
• hForth homepage
• La Saga du LSE et de sa famille (LSD/LSG/LST)
• SAKO information page at HOPL – By Diarmuid Pigott
• RoboMind homepage