Research continues into how languages communicate information about colors seen. Malik-Moraleda, Mahowald, and Conway learned that “Languages spoken in industrialized nations such as the United States, for example, tend to have about a dozen basic color terms, while languages spoken by more isolated populations often have fewer. . . . Among members of the Tsimane’ society, who live in a remote part of the Bolivian Amazon rainforest, the researchers found that those who had learned Spanish as a second language began to classify colors into more words, making color distinctions that are not commonly used by Tsimane’ who are monolingual. In the most striking finding, Tsimane’ who were bilingual began using two different words to describe blue and green, which monolingual Tsimane’ speakers do not typically do. And, instead of borrowing Spanish words for blue and green, they repurposed words from their own language. . . . The findings suggest that contact between languages can influence how people think about concepts such as color.”
“How ‘Blue’ and ‘Green’ Appeared in a Language That Didn‘t Have Words for Them.” 2023. Press release, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, https://news.mit.edu/2023/how-blue-and-green-appeared-language-1102