> It had nothing whatever to do with COBOL

Except for the name, which IIRC was an intentional dig at an early COBOL standard that defined how you pronounced 'COBOL'. 'SNOBOL' can sound like 'snow-ball', analogous to a US accent where COBOL can be pronounced 'CO-ball'.

[Edit] I used SNOBOL briefly in the 80s at Uni. It was one of the first 'odd' languages we were introduced to after Pascal, along with APL.

Americans wouldn't say "Uni" so I assume you're from the UK.

By "US accent" do you mean that "COBOL" would be pronounced "snowball" in the UK? That's really news to me.

I think the accents here were exaggerated for comedic effect. You are a right, I’m a Brit and would personally pronounce the ‘BOL’ to sound like ‘doll’ rather than ‘ball’. Unfortunately I can’t now find a reference to the original standards

too late to edit, but what I meant was "so-ball" (as opposed to "ko-ball")

I thought I knew almost all the differences between US & UK English, but this would be a new one on me, if true.