In Ceylon even local variables must be explicitly annotated `variable`. The reason for that is that a local variable could be captured by an anonymous function

In Ceylon even local variables must be explicitly annotated `variable`. The reason for that is that a local variable could be captured by an anonymous function or nested function, and escape from the local scope, so it's exactly the same situation with a local variable as for an instance variable of a class: both kinds of variable break referential transparency.