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submitted 5 months ago by qaz@lemmy.world to c/196@lemmy.blahaj.zone

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[-] smiletolerantly@awful.systems 9 points 5 months ago

...no?

I think what plays into this is also language. In English / to you, I presume it makes perfect sense to say "Pi is approximately three point one four". In other languages (for me, German) the literal translation "Pi ist ungefähr drei Punkt eins vier" sounds awful and wrong. We say "Pi ist ungefähr drei Komma eins vier" ("Pi is approximately three comma one four") so we also write it like this 🤷🏼‍♀️

[-] HKayn@dormi.zone 4 points 5 months ago

Not language directly, but rather force of habit.

It sounds wrong to you because you grew up saying it another way.

There is no one way that objectively makes more sense than the other, each language simply has its own habits. If everyone in Germany said "drei Punkt eins vier", it wouldn't sound awful to you at all.

[-] smiletolerantly@awful.systems 2 points 5 months ago

Sure, but if everyone said it differently, than that would also be part of the language. I don't disagree with you, I just think you've described language (in this context) 😄