(Originally posted at LinkedIn)

I’m teaching about NoSQL DataBases in Spanish and Basque. As part of the course, I have to explain the RDF triple (Subject-Predicate-Object) which fits with (Indoeuropean) widely used languages like spanish, french and obviously english: for example, the sentence “I live in Madrid” (“(yo) vivo en Madrid”) can be easily translated to RDF (“I”=subject; “live in”=predicate; “Madrid”=object). However, when I had to explain the same idea in the basque NoSQL class, the analogy breaks down, since in basque “I live in Madrid” would be “Ni Madrilen bizi naiz” which literally translated would equate to a Subject-Object-Predicate structure (“I Madrid(in) live”), not the hegemonical Subject-Predicate-Object.

So. Lets get political (I don’t buy the “technical things are not political” argument: every decision has politics behind, and language is no exception). I don’t think that the W3C should take into account the grammar of minorized languages when publishing recommendations (There is a thought though: why are programming languages in english? Translations for the reserved vocabularies should be super easy), but I do think that minorized languages deserve a bigger space in the public sphere, unless we want them to dissapear (Which a lot of linguistic supremacists undoubtly want in Madrid and Paris).

End of the rant: Palestina askatu!

I will leave you with the great Ruper Ordorika.

Lyrics translated by ChatGPT:

Mature opinions, highly esteemed, About our country. In the mornings and evenings, chatting About our country. I, too, would like To have such certainties. But, as things are, The accounts don’t come out right for me. Such is the luck Of those who are from anywhere! Above all the brambles They fly. No one told me How hard it is to be Basque, I would have been better off choosing To be a citizen of the world.

Soft songs I would like to set. The sun To those in the clouds. Take care of the one you love. That’s what they tell me: What are you doing in matters of love? In the game of coexistence And you, again, in tiny verses. Soft songs I would like to set. The sun To those in the clouds. Take care of the one you love. Take care of the one you hate. Take care…