When thinking of colors, it’s normal to assume that our vision is what impacts our color perception. While vision is definitely a huge part of how we see colors, there are other aspects that can alter our perception, many of which don’t involve our sense of sight.
One aspect that could change how our brains perceive colors is the language we speak. Several studies have examined this concept, and many have concluded that people who speak different languages often recognize colors differently. The differences are usually minor, but it’s a fascinating topic to explore.
How Do Different Languages Perceive and Describe Colors?
There are millions of colors out there, but we don’t have names for every single color. We simplify those colors by dividing them into categories. For example, English speakers usually place a color into one of 11 broad categories: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, gray, black, or white. So, even if a person doesn’t know the name of an exact color, they can explain that it’s a type of blue, for instance.
However, other languages often categorize colors differently. Some have more than 11 categories. That might seem like too many if you grew up with the categories mentioned above, but for people of certain languages, it’s all they’ve ever known. The color names we know through our languages impact our color perception more than we realize.
For example, in English and Spanish, light and dark versions of blue all fall under the same category. Yet, in Russian, there are separate words for light blue and dark blue. Greek also has different names for different types of blue. While English speakers can easily tell the difference between light and dark blue, they don’t have specific names for those color categories, so they’re both just blue to them.
In certain cultures, there isn’t even a name for the color blue. Instead, the same name is used to describe blue and green. People who view blue as a type of green in their language find it harder to distinguish the two colors. It may take them longer to find a blue object among green items because their brains think of the same name for both colors.
Another example is the color pink. Technically, pink is just light red, so some languages don’t have a separate color for pink. Yet, English speakers perceive red and pink as two different colors because that’s what they were taught. So, English speakers may have an easier time distinguishing pink from red than those who define both colors as red in their language.
By categorizing colors differently, people speaking different languages may perceive colors in unique ways without realizing it. Of course, all cultures can see the same colors, but we may sort colors differently or have a harder time distinguishing certain colors based on what we call them.
Some Languages Have Barely Any Color Categories
Most of the commonly spoken languages in the world have lots of color categories, resulting in excellent color perception. However, some lesser-known languages haven’t changed their color names much over the years.
Some languages, such as the Dani and Bassa, only have two color categories. Languages with two categories usually split them up similarly to how people referred to colors before color names: light and dark. This could mean tints are all considered light and shades are dark. It could also mean that light colors like yellow are in one category and dark colors like purple are in the other. Even though people who speak these languages can see all the colors, they find it easier to simplify the categorization.
Then, some languages don’t have any color names. Mursi, Kalam, and Warlpiri are just a few languages that don’t have any color terms. Instead of describing something by color, they focus on other qualities of that item, such as its texture, shape, and brightness. Even though they can perceive the color of something, people of those languages prefer to use other words for descriptions.
Not all languages have a wide range of color names because it’s not essential for every language. Each language is structured differently, so while colors are a big part of languages like English and Spanish, they may not seem important for other languages. Every language is unique.
Studies Help Prove That Language Affects Color Perception
Researchers were curious to see how language affected people’s color perception, so they conducted some studies to find supporting evidence. A 2007 study focused on color perception for English and Russian speakers since the two languages categorize colors differently.
During the study, participants had to look at a stack of colored blocks. All the blocks appeared as one of twenty different colors, all of which English speakers would define as shades of blue and Russian speakers would call light or dark blue. The top block was the exact same blue as one of the other blocks, and participants had to see how quickly they could match the two blocks that were the same.
The results found that Russian speakers could distinguish the different types of blue 10% faster than English speakers. The Russian language has more specific color categorization, and this likely played a role in the results.
Another study from 2019 focused on a similar concept in Chinese (Mandarin) and Mongolian languages. Like Russian, Mongolian divides blue into two different color terms, but Mandarin doesn’t. However, both Mongolian and Mandarin only have one term for green.
The study required participants to sort colors, which resulted in Mongolian and Mandarin speakers sorting blue differently. However, they both sorted green hues the same. Both Mongolian and Mandarin speakers reacted faster to organizing green colors than blue ones. These results could further support the idea that having different color categories affects how our brains perceive colors.
Warm Colors May Be Easier to Perceive Than Cool Colors
One thing that seems consistent among all languages is that warm colors are easier to perceive and label than cool colors. Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow, are usually bold and stand out, while cool colors like blue, green, and purple often blend into the background. So, asking someone to locate orange in a group of colorful objects may be easier than asking them to find green.
An MIT study found that warmer colors were more consistently labeled by people of a variety of languages. While this could simply be because they’re more noticeable, it could also be because they have more consistent color names across different languages, unlike blue and green.
Can Our Color Perception Change as We Learn New Languages?
While people who speak different languages likely perceive colors differently, what happens if someone is bilingual? Does learning a second or third language impact their color perception, or is your first language the one that has the biggest impact? Research indicates that a new language often changes things.
A study focused on a group of Greek speakers who moved to the UK. Greek and English speakers categorize some colors differently; for example, Greek has two categories of blue, while English lumps them into one. So, this study wanted to find out if learning English after knowing Greek would influence how the participants perceived colors.
The 20 individuals in the study were native Greek speakers but were now proficient in English, too. Researchers split them into groups based on how long they lived in the UK. This study found that among the group of people, the longer they lived in the UK, the harder it became for them to distinguish certain colors, such as two different kinds of blue. This is likely due to them becoming more comfortable with English, which categorizes both light and dark blues as just “blue.”
So, if someone speaks two languages, that could affect how they perceive colors. Even if they’re native to one language, they could become more used to color categories in a different language if that’s the one they learned more recently.
How Color Names Evolved Over Time
Color names haven’t been around forever. They have appeared and evolved and have done so differently among various languages. The timeline for color names differs depending on the region, but in nearly every culture, the first color names were black, white, and red. Of course, this didn’t mean people couldn’t see other colors. It just meant they categorized all colors under one of those three color names (typically separating dark from light colors).
Green, yellow, and brown commonly came next, but the order varied slightly for different languages. From there, other color names emerged, such as blue, purple, and pink. Some color names originated from the items they represent, like orange and violet. More unique color names appeared to describe specific versions of these colors. As the list of color names grew, most languages developed more advanced ways to categorize colors.
The color names we know today weren’t always around, even though we could easily see the colors. Yet, naming them makes it easier to describe hues and distinguish two similar colors. That’s why people speaking languages with more specific color categories often have better color perception.
