I think the more relevant language was PL/M (actually PL/M-86) since it was available for 8086 early on. I don't think PL/M had any of these features, and C for the 8086 was better than it so that was the end of it.

Maybe if IBM chose 68K for the PC, we would have gotten the full blown PL/I.

Edit, well actually I found this "X3.74, PL/I General Purpose Subset (Subset G)" from 1983. This version at least has strings.

Look at manual disk here:

https://winworldpc.com/product/digital-research-pl-i-compile...