[Zak]

I find it a little surprising that while we have hundreds of languages for writing software, and several options with a modicum of popularity in almost any describable paradigm, one database schema and query language remains so dominant.

[Tainnor]

A lot of people use ORMs, though, which (though often poorly) translate the SQL model to one more familiar to most programmers. An unfortunately less popular alternative is query builders (such as jOOQ for the JVM) which, especially in statically typed language, provide a degree of safety against basic typos, SQL injections, etc., while still keeping the mental model of SQL intact.