ORCID iDI asked on Twitter for where to start on considering programming languages as languages. Here are some of the best recommendations:
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Binder, Jeffrey M., ‘Romantic Disciplinarity and the Rise of the Algorithm’, Critical Inquiry, 46.4 (2020), 813–34 https://doi.org/10.1086/709225
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Chartier, Roger, ‘Languages, Books, and Reading from the Printed Word to the Digital Text’, trans. by Teresa Lavender Fagan, Critical Inquiry, 31.1 (2004), 133–52 https://doi.org/10.1086/427305
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Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong, ‘On “Sourcery,” or Code as Fetish’, Configurations, 16.3 (2008), 299–324 https://doi.org/10.1353/con.0.0064
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Gobbo, Federico, and Helena Durnova, ‘From Universal to Programming Languages’ https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2104716/149299_main.pdf
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Nofre, David, Mark Priestley, and Gerard Alberts, ‘When Technology Became Language: The Origins of the Linguistic Conception of Computer Programming, 1950-1960’, Technology and Culture, 55.1 (2014), 40–75 https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2014.0031
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Prat, Chantel S., Tara M. Madhyastha, Malayka J. Mottarella, and Chu-Hsuan Kuo, ‘Relating Natural Language Aptitude to Individual Differences in Learning Programming Languages’, Scientific Reports, 10.1 (2020), 3817 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60661-8
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Temkin, Daniel, ‘Interview with Jon Corbett’, Esoteric.Codes, 2021 https://esoteric.codes/blog/jon-corbett [accessed 23 August 2021]
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Wall, Larry, ‘Perl, the First Postmodern Computer Language’, 1999 http://www.wall.org/~larry/pm.html [accessed 23 August 2021]
The work of Yorick Wilks may also be of interest. The Esoteric Codes project that I learned about from this thread is also excellent!
With many thanks to everyone who contributed.