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Nothing unique about Japan there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%E2%80%93green_distinction_in_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%E2%80%93green_dis

Nothing unique about Japan there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%E2%80%93green_distinction_in_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%E2%80%93green_distinction... "In many languages, the colors described in English as "blue" and "green" are colexified, i.e. expressed using a single cover term." It goes on to list several dozen languages that do it.

namenotrequired 6y ago
Brazilians have both words but also draw the line differently than my European eyes do. The so called "Verde mar" is definitely blue to me and my American colleagues
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  As I commented sidethread, I was disturbed -- as an American growing up in America -- that the language always referred to the sea as blue when, if you look at it with your eyes, it's obviously green. Perhaps the sea is greener near Portugal and Brazil inherited the description, in the same way that Americans inherited the description of a blue sea and never bothered to reevaluate it?
simplicio 6y ago
Yea, in Vietnamese, blue is "blue-green like the sea" and green is "blue-green like a leaf", presumably a call-back to before the two colors were linguistically distinguished.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > blue is "blue-green like the sea" Hmm. In contrast, it always bothered me that English idioms referred to the sea as blue when you can go look at it and it's a deep green. (Formative experiences of seeing what color the sea is took place in the Bay Area.)
  - simplicio 6y ago
    Interestingly, trying to figure out what color Homer meant by his commonly used phrase "the wine-dark sea" was one of the things that led people to realize the links between language and color discussed in the article. While the colors of the ocean and wine look pretty different to us, its apparently common in other languages to group them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine-dark_sea_(Homer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine-dark_sea_(Homer)

namenotrequired 6y ago

Brazilians have both words but also draw the line differently than my European eyes do. The so called "Verde mar" is definitely blue to me and my American colleagues

thaumasiotes 6y ago
As I commented sidethread, I was disturbed -- as an American growing up in America -- that the language always referred to the sea as blue when, if you look at it with your eyes, it's obviously green. Perhaps the sea is greener near Portugal and Brazil inherited the description, in the same way that Americans inherited the description of a blue sea and never bothered to reevaluate it?

simplicio 6y ago

Yea, in Vietnamese, blue is "blue-green like the sea" and green is "blue-green like a leaf", presumably a call-back to before the two colors were linguistically distinguished.

thaumasiotes 6y ago
> blue is "blue-green like the sea" Hmm. In contrast, it always bothered me that English idioms referred to the sea as blue when you can go look at it and it's a deep green. (Formative experiences of seeing what color the sea is took place in the Bay Area.)
- simplicio 6y ago
  Interestingly, trying to figure out what color Homer meant by his commonly used phrase "the wine-dark sea" was one of the things that led people to realize the links between language and color discussed in the article. While the colors of the ocean and wine look pretty different to us, its apparently common in other languages to group them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine-dark_sea_(Homer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine-dark_sea_(Homer)