Unicode based programming language

Question

This is a curiosity more than anything: Does there exist a programming language that allows variables, functions, and classes to be named using using Unicode rather than ASCII (except, of course, for special characters such as '+')? Do any popular languages have support for this?

Also, related to this, if any common language supports Unicode, then is there any way to convert an existing API into a language of the user's own choice? It seems like it would be helpful to give a programmer the ability to learn an API in their own language. I imagine downloading a standard API (for instance boost) and then downloading the standard translation mapping and then being able to program in my native language.

Answer 1

Consider Swift, introduced by Apple in 2014. Here is a code snippet:

var 国 = "美国"

Good Luck with your search for the best one!

Answer 2

As you can see from other answers, most modern languages allow this, including Perl, Python, Go, Ruby, Java, C♯, variants of lisp, Fortess, ADA, and many more. C and C++ do not, but those aren’t modern.

Regarding C♯, from MSDN:

The rules for identifiers given in this section correspond exactly to those recommended by the Unicode Standard Annex 15

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As for converting an API to a chosen language - this is not feasible. You would require a translator that understands the nuances and meaning of every method, variable and class name and translate those correctly - this is not the same as being able to use the characters of a chosen language in code.