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Not in the least, language goes on to influence culture, national ideas and mores (and vice versa). That then goes on to influence who, and what, you are. It'

Not in the least, language goes on to influence culture, national ideas and mores (and vice versa). That then goes on to influence who, and what, you are. It's common for multi lingual people to feel more direct in one language over another, or for it to influence them in other ways of both mood and thought. To give, perhaps a somewhat clichéd example, consider the Himba tribe who rather famously do not distinguish linguistically between blue and green[1], only having half the colour groups we do. They do not have words to shape a simple view, and go on to have difficulty telling apart colours we would have no difficulty at all differentiating. But if you were to show them 20 different shades of green that we'd struggle to tell apart they'd clearly see differences. I'd say that's a reasonable case that language, and use or otherwise of the concept it conveys, can make a rather dramatic difference. [1] http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/its-not-easy-seeing-green/?_r=0 http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/its-not-easy-se...

paulddraper 10y ago
Paint stores have lots of English indistinguishable names for colors, with people who take 20 shades of green very seriously. If you need an idea, that affect language far more than language affects ideas.
tedunangst 10y ago
Another cliched example is Eskimos and their 300 words for snow, which turns out to be not entirely correct.
- laretluval 10y ago
  Not just not entirely correct, it turns out to be entirely false, with each person who repeats the myth making up a new number each time.
laretluval 10y ago
The effects of color terms on Himba color perception are vastly exaggerated in the media. The actual papers found very small and subtle effects, not dramatic differences. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=18237 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=18237
- anexprogrammer 10y ago
  Thanks for the 30 minute link hole. :) It was the BBC Horizon from a few years back I got my understanding from, I'd have expected better from them. They have dumbed down quite a bit in recent years though.
moptar 10y ago
Anyone who needs to distinguish 20 shades of green would develop the ability to do so. That's more culture or experience than language. Having names for them just means they have some need to communicate that information. You could do the same in English by drawing words or codes from color lists like websafe, Pantone, etc. An example where language forces our thinking and even actions instead of simply allowing us to express it easily is plurals. Plurals force us to include unneeded number information in a lot of our thinking and talking. We have to have at least 2 cars to say "I have some cars" when showing off, otherwise admit that we only have one. You can see it in writing that uses "I" or "we" too. It reveals how many people it represents. A 2-person company can look much bigger than a 1-person company because it can use "we", "our", etc. just the same as a 1000000 person company does.

paulddraper 10y ago

Paint stores have lots of English indistinguishable names for colors, with people who take 20 shades of green very seriously. If you need an idea, that affect language far more than language affects ideas.

tedunangst 10y ago

Another cliched example is Eskimos and their 300 words for snow, which turns out to be not entirely correct.

laretluval 10y ago
Not just not entirely correct, it turns out to be entirely false, with each person who repeats the myth making up a new number each time.

laretluval 10y ago

The effects of color terms on Himba color perception are vastly exaggerated in the media. The actual papers found very small and subtle effects, not dramatic differences. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=18237 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=18237

anexprogrammer 10y ago
Thanks for the 30 minute link hole. :) It was the BBC Horizon from a few years back I got my understanding from, I'd have expected better from them. They have dumbed down quite a bit in recent years though.

moptar 10y ago

Anyone who needs to distinguish 20 shades of green would develop the ability to do so. That's more culture or experience than language. Having names for them just means they have some need to communicate that information. You could do the same in English by drawing words or codes from color lists like websafe, Pantone, etc. An example where language forces our thinking and even actions instead of simply allowing us to express it easily is plurals. Plurals force us to include unneeded number information in a lot of our thinking and talking. We have to have at least 2 cars to say "I have some cars" when showing off, otherwise admit that we only have one. You can see it in writing that uses "I" or "we" too. It reveals how many people it represents. A 2-person company can look much bigger than a 1-person company because it can use "we", "our", etc. just the same as a 1000000 person company does.