A study by MIT revealed that individuals from the Tsimane’ community in the Bolivian Amazon, who were bilingual in Tsimane’ and Spanish, began to articulate distinctions between colors such as blue and green more accurately than those who spoke only Tsimane’. This finding underscores the profound influence that learning a second language can have on shaping and modifying the fundamental linguistic categorizations of one’s primary language.
Residents of an isolated Amazonian tribe who acquired Spanish began to categorize colors differently, according to research from MIT.
While the human eye can differentiate up to a million colors, linguistic expressions for these colors are limited. Basic color terms—words that are commonly and consistently used within a language to refer to colors—are a metric used to evaluate how different languages approach the concept of color. Industrialized countries like the United States usually have approximately twelve such basic color terms, but languages in more isolated communities may have fewer.
Nonetheless, new findings from MIT indicate that a language’s segmentation of the color spectrum can be altered through interaction with other languages.
The study observed that bilingual Tsimane’ people, inhabiting a secluded region in the Bolivian Amazon, started to use a broader lexicon to categorize colors, including distinctions that are not typical among the Tsimane’ who only speak their native tongue.
Notably, bilingual Tsimane’ started to use separate terms for blue and green—a practice not common among the monolingual Tsimane’ speakers. These individuals adapted words from the Tsimane’ language to signify these colors rather than adopting the Spanish terminology.
MIT researchers have discovered that language can evolve to encompass new color distinctions, like the ones between blue and green, following exposure to another tongue. Credit goes to Christine Daniloff of MIT for this insight.
Language Contact and the Delineation of Color
“Acquiring a second language allows you to grasp concepts previously unavailable in your mother tongue,” states Edward Gibson, an MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences and the chief author of the research. “It’s fascinating that they utilized their native Tsimane’ words to start segmenting the color spectrum akin to Spanish.”
The study also demonstrated that bilingual Tsimane’ described colors like yellow and red with greater specificity, in contrast to monolingual speakers who apply these terms more broadly, including a wider array of shades than typically denoted by Spanish or English speakers.
“This is a prime example of the benefits of second-language learning, which enables exposure to a different worldview and novel concepts that can be integrated into your first language,” remarks Saima Malik-Moraleda, a graduate student at Harvard University and the primary author of the study.
Kyle Mahowald, an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, and Bevil Conway, a senior investigator at the National Eye Institute, also contributed to the research paper, which was published on October 31 in the journal Psychological Science.
Categorizing the Color Spectrum
English and several other languages from industrialized nations possess basic color terms for colors such as black, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, pink, and gray. In contrast, South American Spanish differentiates between light blue (“celeste”) and dark blue (“azul”).
The Tsimane’ generally use just three color terms that correspond to black, white, and red. There are also a few terms that cover numerous shades of yellow or brown and a couple of terms used interchangeably for both green and blue, though not uniformly across the community.
Several years back, Gibson and colleagues discovered in a study covering over 100 languages, including Tsimane’, that speakers often divide the warmer spectrum of colors into more categories than the cooler spectrum, which encompasses blue and green. The Tsimane’ language, in particular, employs the terms “shandyes” and “yushñus” interchangeably for any color that lies within the blue or green range.
Building on this earlier research, Malik-Moraleda aimed to determine if second-language acquisition would affect Tsimane’ color terminology usage. Nowadays, many Tsimane’ individuals are learning Bolivian Spanish as their second language.
The researchers engaged with both monolingual and bilingual Tsimane’ subjects, requesting them to undertake two different color-based tasks. The bilingual participants were asked to perform the tasks in both Tsimane’ and Spanish.
In the first task, participants were shown 84 colored chips one at a time and asked to identify the color using their own words. In the second, they were presented with the entire set of chips and tasked with grouping them by color term.
It was observed that when the task was conducted in Spanish, the bilingual Tsimane’ categorized colors using traditional Spanish color terms. Moreover, these bilingual individuals displayed a higher level of precision when naming colors in their native Tsimane’.
“The bilingual Tsimane’ significantly subdivided the color space more than the monolinguals, despite their primary language being Tsimane’,” Gibson notes.
Remarkably, the bilingual Tsimane’ started to use distinct terms for blue and green, although their own language does not make this distinction. The term “yushñus” began to be exclusively associated with blue, while “shandyes” was used solely for green.
Transference of Concepts
The study suggests that language interaction can shape the way concepts such as color are cognitively organized.
“It appears that the concepts are borrowed from Spanish,” says Gibson. “The bilingual speakers learn a new method of color space categorization, which proves advantageous in the industrialized world. It’s helpful to have terms for specific colors, and they seem to integrate some of that back into the Tsimane’ semantic framework.”
While these distinctions between blue and green were only noted among Tsimane’ who had learned Spanish, the researchers posit that such usage could become widespread among the monolingual Tsimane’ or, more plausibly, that a greater portion of the community might become bilingual due to increased interactions with Spanish-speaking settlements.
“Over time, these communities tend to adopt the prevailing external language as it provides economic advantages and job opportunities,” Gibson explains.
The researchers now intend to explore whether other concepts, such as temporal frames of reference, might also transition from Spanish to bilingual Tsimane’ speakers. Malik-Moraleda is also keen to determine whether the color terminology findings of this study could be observed in other isolated populations, specifically the Gujjar, a nomadic group residing in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
The study, entitled “Concepts Are Restructured During Language Contact: The Birth of Blue and Other Color Concepts in Tsimane’-Spanish Bilinguals,” is referenced with the DOI: 10.1177/09567976231199742, and was published on October 31 in Psychological Science.
This research was supported by funding from the La Caixa Fellowship, the Dingwall Foundation, the National Eye Institute’s Intramural Research Program, and the National Science Foundation CompCog Program.
Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about language color perception
How does bilingualism affect color perception in the Tsimane’ people?
Bilingual Tsimane’ individuals, through learning Spanish, began to distinguish colors such as blue and green with greater precision, applying separate terms from their own language to these colors, unlike their monolingual counterparts.
What does the MIT study suggest about language and color classification?
The study suggests that language contact, such as Tsimane’ speakers learning Spanish, can influence and change the way native color concepts are categorized and understood.
Can learning a second language change native linguistic concepts?
Yes, as indicated by the MIT research, learning a second language can reshape native linguistic concepts, exemplified by how bilingual Tsimane’ speakers started to identify colors differently from monolingual speakers.
What was a key finding about the Tsimane’ language and color?
A significant finding was that bilingual Tsimane’ speakers began using distinct words for colors like blue and green, which are not typically differentiated in the Tsimane’ language.
What potential impacts could arise from the Tsimane’ learning Spanish?
The learning of Spanish by the Tsimane’ may lead to a broader adoption of Spanish color terminology among the community, possibly affecting even monolingual speakers as the language evolves.
Are there plans to study similar effects in other communities?
Yes, the researchers aim to explore if the observed changes in color terminology among the Tsimane’ due to Spanish influence are replicable in other isolated populations such as the Gujjar nomads of Kashmir.
More about language color perception
- Tsimane’ Color Perception and Bilingualism
- Language Acquisition Influences Color Discrimination
- The Cognitive Impact of Bilingualism in Color Classification
- Language and Perception: Insights from the Tsimane’ Study
- Bilingualism’s Effect on Cognitive Development
