> Why does this difference exist?
replySame reason why there are different date formats, weeks start on Sundays/Mondays (or Saturdays), long/short scale numbers, drives on left/right, different wall sockets and plugs, different train gauges, and of course metric/imperial.
It's a mix of tradition, conventions, inertia.
Because in English you say "three dot two", whereas in German it is "Drei-Komma-Zwei".
replyIt just reflects the spoken language. And having the unused symbol then be the thousand separator is natural.
Interesting, I did not know this, but a little bit doubtful. Wouldn't it be the other way around? Explicit spoken language coming from being written that way.
replyMaybe at some point originally, but now you can't change it. Spoken language resists attempts to shape it by committee, and written language has to begrudgingly follow its lead.
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