The Language of Color

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The human eye can see millions of colors, and yet the English language only has 11 basic terms to name them: black, white, gray, blue, green, red, yellow, orange, purple, brown, and pink. To refer to other hues, adjectives are often needed.

That’s not the case in some languages like Russian, which has different words for light blue (goluboy) and dark blue (siniy).

Scientists have previously shown that speakers of languages with these distinctions are quicker to discern nuances. Meanwhile, recognizing a color remains an intrinsically biological feature that relies on the perception of light.

“A logical next question is to what extent does your mother tongue influence your categorization of colors,” said linguistics professor Mila Vulchanova of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Vulchanova and her colleagues carried out a study involving 109 people who spoke either Lithuanian, Norwegian, or both.

Lithuanian also has separate words for light and dark blue, respectively žydra and mėlyna. Norwegian has only one word: blå.

As expected, monolingual Lithuanians could name different nuances faster than their Norwegian-speaking counterparts, while perfect bilinguals had an easier time doing so when speaking Lithuanian.

The study’s innovation was a test where bilingual participants had to memorize a series of numbers while being presented with shades of blue. The numbers were spoken first in Lithuanian, then in Norwegian.

Discriminating hues of blue were recalled faster when the participants had to memorize the numbers in Lithuanian than in Norwegian.

“The research reveals that the language being actively used by bilingual individuals can significantly affect their perception of color,” said co-author Akvilė Sinkevičiūtė.

Humans have by and large attributed the same meanings to colors – for example, red for danger. Still, the study’s findings show how differently we can also perceive our surroundings.