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For English speakers, do you think that you have a limitation in your ability to see and distinguish variations of blue because you have a single word, "blue" t

For English speakers, do you think that you have a limitation in your ability to see and distinguish variations of blue because you have a single word, "blue" that covers a range of colors? In Russian there are two colors for blue, "goluboy" and "siniy". "goluboy" if for lighter blues, and "siniy" is for darker blues. Does this mean that Russians are more attuned to difference in the concept of blue or just that they have discrete names that are more convenient when talking about some kinds of blue?

Pigalowda 3y ago
Maybe, although we use extra adjectives like Royal blue, sky blue, powder blue, navy blue, etc That may get the color differentiation down well enough for regular people to use. Maybe not for blue experts though.
thaumasiotes 3y ago
No. You can still see. I used to spend time in a chat room where you could configure the background and foreground color of your text; I used blue on cyan.
- aeonik 3y ago
  You can still see it, but you pay less attention to it, in some cases if the color has no meaning to you, then it you become attention blind to it. I used to not pay any attention to colors, but I heard men have high rates of color blindness, and I also heard about tetrachromats. I took a bunch of tests, I'm not color blind, nor am I a tetrachromat, but after those tests I take my color vision more seriously and try to distinguish more colors.
unclenoriega 3y ago
Research shows that the way your native language divides colors does affect your ability to distinguish them. For example, a Russian speaker would more quickly and easily distinguish two similar shades if one is goluboy and one is siniy. However, with training, anyone with adequate color vision can learn to be as or more proficient.
- RoyalHenOil 3y ago
  I don't experience an internal monologue and don't think of any words at all when looking at colors, yet I have a very good ability to differentiate between subtle hue variants (based on tests I have taken that test exactly this). If it's true that language affects ability to differentiate hues (I am somewhat skeptical, but certainly open to the possibility), then it seems to me that maybe language just muddies our natural ability. In other words, thinking about the word "blue" might cause you to artificially group colors together that you wouldn't otherwise group.
  - ted_bunny 3y ago
    Maybe it's less about ability to distinguish, and more about... readiness to do so? I'm not sure how to phrase it.
  - wilg 3y ago
    I don't think 99%+ of people "think of words when looking at colors" unless they have some reason to.
  - unclenoriega 3y ago
    I want to be clear, it's a small difference in initial ability to distinguish certain colors. If you've spent your whole life dividing colors a certain way, it's a little easier for you to distinguish colors that are on different sides of that boundary.
    - RoyalHenOil 3y ago
      So it sounds like the less you grow up talking about colors, the better you are at observing them? If so, maybe we do our children a disservice for teaching them color words.
- wilg 3y ago
  I'd argue that demonstrates that practicing distinguishing colors is learned. Some people practice distinguishing colors because their culture tends to to so, such as people who speak Russian. For others, they learn to do it by practicing visual design. Other people just pick it up over time. I mean, after all English has words for "teal" and "turquoise". So it's just a subjective matter of what's common. This isn't evidence, for example, that language determines or enhances your ability to distinguish color.
crabbone 3y ago
Nah, those words are more like synonyms than two different colors / groups of colors. They aren't used consistently neither by the same group of people nor between different groups. This is especially obvious when there's a need to give a precise name / definition (eg. when naming paints or objects with very distinctive color). For example, I've heard cyan translated as either one of those (I studied printing). And when it comes to paints, there's eg. "берлинская лазурь" (the name of a particular pigment and a paint that uses that pigment), which is typically described as голубая, but it's really dark. In general, it seems that in languages with long history, there's very little in terms of consistency in how speakers name different colors. Meanings "drift" over time. Sometimes they "fork" because of the objects associated with the same color change that color (eg. egg yolk yellow). It's also influenced by availability of pigments and dyes and the companies who manufacture paints. Sometimes these keep labeling, but change the technology used to make paints. In particular, saturation seems to increase with technological advances, but names seems to remain the same. This, of course, also depends on your audience. If you talk to an arts student or a painter, they will have a different idea about what colors are and how to name them. For instance, an art student would often deny that "white", "black", "brown" or "pink" designate colors -- from a perspective of someone trained in classical painting, these aren't really colors and don't help in describing what / how one should draw something. Similarly, from a perspective of someone who's tasked with painting walls, the division may be imposed by technical limitations (i.e. mixing paints from a particular manufacturer cannot produce a desired hue, if, eg. green paint is used, therefore the painter may believe that the color isn't a shade of green).
mike_hock 3y ago
There's definitely a difference between "baby blue" and "navy blue."
mannyv 3y ago
No, in English there are many, many words for blue, some of which are only known by women and interior designers. In english the amount of precision you use depends on the context and the shared referents. You could say "bud light blue" or 'greek blue' depending.

Pigalowda 3y ago

Maybe, although we use extra adjectives like Royal blue, sky blue, powder blue, navy blue, etc That may get the color differentiation down well enough for regular people to use. Maybe not for blue experts though.

thaumasiotes 3y ago

No. You can still see. I used to spend time in a chat room where you could configure the background and foreground color of your text; I used blue on cyan.

aeonik 3y ago
You can still see it, but you pay less attention to it, in some cases if the color has no meaning to you, then it you become attention blind to it. I used to not pay any attention to colors, but I heard men have high rates of color blindness, and I also heard about tetrachromats. I took a bunch of tests, I'm not color blind, nor am I a tetrachromat, but after those tests I take my color vision more seriously and try to distinguish more colors.

unclenoriega 3y ago

Research shows that the way your native language divides colors does affect your ability to distinguish them. For example, a Russian speaker would more quickly and easily distinguish two similar shades if one is goluboy and one is siniy. However, with training, anyone with adequate color vision can learn to be as or more proficient.

RoyalHenOil 3y ago
I don't experience an internal monologue and don't think of any words at all when looking at colors, yet I have a very good ability to differentiate between subtle hue variants (based on tests I have taken that test exactly this). If it's true that language affects ability to differentiate hues (I am somewhat skeptical, but certainly open to the possibility), then it seems to me that maybe language just muddies our natural ability. In other words, thinking about the word "blue" might cause you to artificially group colors together that you wouldn't otherwise group.
- ted_bunny 3y ago
  Maybe it's less about ability to distinguish, and more about... readiness to do so? I'm not sure how to phrase it.
- wilg 3y ago
  I don't think 99%+ of people "think of words when looking at colors" unless they have some reason to.
- unclenoriega 3y ago
  I want to be clear, it's a small difference in initial ability to distinguish certain colors. If you've spent your whole life dividing colors a certain way, it's a little easier for you to distinguish colors that are on different sides of that boundary.
  - RoyalHenOil 3y ago
    So it sounds like the less you grow up talking about colors, the better you are at observing them? If so, maybe we do our children a disservice for teaching them color words.
wilg 3y ago
I'd argue that demonstrates that practicing distinguishing colors is learned. Some people practice distinguishing colors because their culture tends to to so, such as people who speak Russian. For others, they learn to do it by practicing visual design. Other people just pick it up over time. I mean, after all English has words for "teal" and "turquoise". So it's just a subjective matter of what's common. This isn't evidence, for example, that language determines or enhances your ability to distinguish color.

crabbone 3y ago

Nah, those words are more like synonyms than two different colors / groups of colors. They aren't used consistently neither by the same group of people nor between different groups. This is especially obvious when there's a need to give a precise name / definition (eg. when naming paints or objects with very distinctive color). For example, I've heard cyan translated as either one of those (I studied printing). And when it comes to paints, there's eg. "берлинская лазурь" (the name of a particular pigment and a paint that uses that pigment), which is typically described as голубая, but it's really dark. In general, it seems that in languages with long history, there's very little in terms of consistency in how speakers name different colors. Meanings "drift" over time. Sometimes they "fork" because of the objects associated with the same color change that color (eg. egg yolk yellow). It's also influenced by availability of pigments and dyes and the companies who manufacture paints. Sometimes these keep labeling, but change the technology used to make paints. In particular, saturation seems to increase with technological advances, but names seems to remain the same. This, of course, also depends on your audience. If you talk to an arts student or a painter, they will have a different idea about what colors are and how to name them. For instance, an art student would often deny that "white", "black", "brown" or "pink" designate colors -- from a perspective of someone trained in classical painting, these aren't really colors and don't help in describing what / how one should draw something. Similarly, from a perspective of someone who's tasked with painting walls, the division may be imposed by technical limitations (i.e. mixing paints from a particular manufacturer cannot produce a desired hue, if, eg. green paint is used, therefore the painter may believe that the color isn't a shade of green).

mike_hock 3y ago

There's definitely a difference between "baby blue" and "navy blue."

mannyv 3y ago

No, in English there are many, many words for blue, some of which are only known by women and interior designers. In english the amount of precision you use depends on the context and the shared referents. You could say "bud light blue" or 'greek blue' depending.