Do we see something if there isn't a word for it?

I know there has been too much talk already about #thedress than I care about but my hubby found a very interesting article: No one could see the color blue until modern times.

It's nothing about that blasted dress. It's about how our language is connected to what we see around us. The articles says that apparently there wasn't any color blue before--the ancient languages had no words for blue.

And I found this absolutely fascinating: "do you really see something if you don’t have a word for it?"

It was such an interesting observation that I went hunting for any good books on the same topic and found these two books which I may check out.

And even though the author did not write favorably about the Bible and his thoughts about the Tower of Babel is not accurate, I will check them out and learn something still.


The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
by Steve Pinker


Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
by Steve Pinker

pearlie