Words that Change the Colours we See

Following on from one of my last posts, Language Affects the Way we Think!!!!, I was inspired by a comment from @headchange (on the fact that some languages don't have words for certain colours), to write something on language and colour perception.

image:jigsaws4all.com.au

Apparently, everybody sees colours in a different way: OK, some are colour blind, but due to differences in the cells in our eyes, all people experience colours in slightly different ways.

Apart from these biological differences, our brain can interpret colours in different ways, and this is a very subjective process. Our language influences this perception of colours. The way we use colours and the way we talk about it, has an impact on this perception.

To give some examples: there are languages that do not have a word for 'colour'; there are languages that only have words for 'dark' and 'light' and not for individual colours; some languages have the same word for 'blue' and 'green', and some languages have different words for the same colour.

If the word for blue and green is the same, your brain will not provide you with very clear distinctions between these two colours.

In the Greek language, there are two different words for dark blue and light blue and the brain will then be trained to see clear differences between these two shades.

For more info: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180419-the-words-that-change-the-colours-we-see

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