I asked on Twitter for where to start on considering programming languages as languages . Here are some of the best recommendations: Binder, Jeffrey M., ‘Romantic Disciplinarity and the Rise of the Algorithm’, Critical Inquiry , 46.4 (2020), 813–34 https://doi.org/10.1086/709225 Chartier, Roger, ‘Languages, Books, and Reading from the Printed Word to the Digital Text’, trans.