The surprising pattern behind color names around the world

Summary

The video script explores the fascinating relationship between language and color perception, revealing that not all languages categorize colors in the same way. It delves into the groundbreaking work of Paul Kay and Brent Berlin, who discovered a universal pattern in color naming across languages. The script challenges early assumptions, critiques the methodology, and discusses the implications of these findings, suggesting that color naming may be influenced by the natural environment and cognitive processes, reflecting a shared human experience.

Takeaways

• 🌈 Different languages categorize colors uniquely; some like Wobé from Côte d'Ivoire may use one term for multiple colors.
• 📊 English has 11 basic color categories, while Russian has 12, and some languages like Wobé only have 3.
• 🔍 Researchers have found patterns in color naming across languages, suggesting a universal pattern in how color terms develop.
• 🎨 Paul Kay and Brent Berlin's research indicated that languages with few color terms tend to have black, white, and red as their basic terms.
• 📚 Kay and Berlin's work challenged the previous assumption that cultures randomly chose colors from the spectrum for naming.
• 🤔 The study of color naming is not new; it dates back to William Gladstone's observations on color terms in ancient Greek texts.
• 👀 Early anthropologists like W.H.R. Rivers incorrectly associated the number of color terms with a society's intellectual and cultural development.
• 🌐 Berlin and Kay's World Color Survey expanded their research to include 2,600 native speakers of 110 unwritten languages, reinforcing their color hierarchy theory.
• 🤖 Cognitive science simulations suggest that the order of color term development may be influenced by the inherent distinctness of colors themselves.
• 🔵 The theory proposes a developmental order for color terms: black and white first, followed by red, then green and yellow, and finally blue, with other colors like brown, purple, pink, orange, and gray coming later.
• 🌍 The color hierarchy theory reveals a universal aspect of human cognition, showing how different cultures and societies categorize and understand the world around them.

Q & A

What is the significance of the Wobé language in the context of color categorization?

The Wobé language from Côte d’Ivoire is significant because it has only three basic color categories, which demonstrates that not all languages categorize colors in the same way as English or Russian, which have more.

How many basic color categories does English have according to the script?

English has 11 basic color categories.

What did Paul Kay and Brent Berlin discover in their study of color categorization across languages?

Kay and Berlin discovered a universal pattern in which languages tend to develop color names in a certain order, starting with black and white, then red, followed by green and yellow, and so on.

What is the World Color Survey, and what did it aim to address?

The World Color Survey was an extension of Kay and Berlin's initial research, aiming to address criticisms by conducting the same color labeling test on over 2,600 native speakers of 110 unwritten languages from nonindustrialized societies, to see if the color hierarchy still held true.

What percentage of languages in the World Color Survey fit into the proposed color hierarchy?

Eighty-three percent of the languages in the World Color Survey fit into the proposed color hierarchy.

Why did some researchers initially speculate that ancient societies were colorblind based on their writings?

Some researchers speculated that ancient societies were colorblind because they found little mention of certain colors, like blue or orange, in ancient texts, such as those of Homer.

What was the flawed assumption made by anthropologist W.H.R. Rivers about color terms and cultural development?

W.H.R. Rivers incorrectly assumed that the number of color terms in a population was related to their intellectual and cultural development, using this to claim that certain groups, like Papuans, were less evolved than Europeans.

How did cognitive science researchers explore the question of why certain color terms emerge before others?

Cognitive science researchers used computer simulations of language evolution through conversations between artificial agents. These agents developed shared labels for different colors, and the order in which labels emerged matched the stages proposed by Kay and Berlin.

What does the color hierarchy suggest about the universality of human perception and categorization of colors?

The color hierarchy suggests that despite cultural differences, there is a universal pattern in how humans categorize colors, indicating a shared way of making sense of the world through language.

What was the criticism against Berlin and Kay's initial study regarding the sample size and the languages chosen?

Critics pointed out that the initial study used a small sample size of only 20 bilingual English speakers and that the languages were mostly from industrialized societies, which did not represent a diverse or accurate cross-section of the world's languages.

How did the script mention the cognitive process of color naming in relation to the natural environment?

The script suggests that the stages of color naming may correspond to the salience of colors in the natural environment, with red being more common and thus named before blue, which was less prevalent before manufacturing.

Outlines

00:00

🌈 The Universality of Color Naming

This paragraph delves into the fascinating study of color naming across different languages and cultures. It begins by questioning the basic color categories in various languages, highlighting the Wobé language from Côte d’Ivoire, which uses a single term for colors we perceive as distinctly different. The script discusses the groundbreaking work of Paul Kay and Brent Berlin, who, in 1969, challenged the notion that cultures randomly assign color names. Through their research involving 20 speakers of different languages, they identified a universal pattern in the development of basic color terms, suggesting an order in which languages create color names, starting with black and white, followed by red, and then other colors like green, yellow, and blue. The paragraph also touches on the historical perspective, mentioning William Gladstone's observations on color usage in ancient Greek texts and the flawed anthropological assumptions of the 19th century regarding color term development and societal evolution.

05:02

🔍 The Evolution of Color Terminology

The second paragraph explores the reasons behind the universal stages of color naming and the implications of these findings. It discusses the criticism Berlin and Kay's theory faced, particularly regarding the small and biased sample size and the definition of 'basic color term.' The paragraph also introduces the World Color Survey, which expanded the study to over 2,600 native speakers of 110 unwritten languages from nonindustrialized societies, reinforcing the color hierarchy with an 83% fit rate. The discussion then shifts to the cognitive science approach, which uses computer simulations to model the evolution of language and color naming through conversation, revealing a similar order of color term development. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the significance of these findings, suggesting that despite cultural differences, there is a universal pattern in how humans categorize and understand the world through color.

Keywords

💡Color Categories

Color categories refer to the basic groupings of colors that a language distinguishes. In the context of the video, it highlights how different languages have varying numbers of these categories, which affects color perception and naming. For example, English has 11 basic color categories, while Wobé has only 3, leading to different ways of perceiving and naming colors like blue, purple, and brown.

💡Wobé

Wobé is a language spoken in Côte d’Ivoire. The video uses it as an example to illustrate the concept of color categories, showing that in Wobé, one word is used to describe what English speakers would call blue, purple, and brown. This demonstrates the cultural and linguistic diversity in color naming.

💡Basic Color Terms

Basic color terms are the fundamental words used in a language to describe colors. The video discusses how the number and sequence of these terms can vary across languages, and how they are not chosen randomly but follow a certain pattern as languages develop. For instance, if a language has three basic color terms, they are always for black, white, and red.

💡Paul Kay and Brent Berlin

Paul Kay and Brent Berlin are researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, known for their work on color naming. They challenged the assumption that cultures choose color names randomly and proposed a universal pattern in how languages develop color names, which is central to the video's theme of color perception and linguistic diversity.

💡Universal Pattern

The universal pattern refers to the theory that languages develop color names in a certain order, starting with black and white, then red, followed by green and yellow, and so on. This concept is a key part of the video's exploration of how color terms evolve in different languages and cultures.

💡William Gladstone

William Gladstone was a British statesman who also contributed to the study of color naming through his analysis of Homer's works. In the video, he is mentioned for noticing the lack of color terms in ancient Greek texts, which led to early but incorrect speculations about color perception in ancient societies.

💡Cognitive Science

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field that studies cognition and decision-making processes, including language. The video references cognitive science researchers who used computer simulations to explore how color names might emerge in language, supporting the idea that there is a natural hierarchy in color naming.

💡World Color Survey

The World Color Survey is a comprehensive study conducted by Berlin and Kay, which involved over 2,600 native speakers of 110 unwritten languages. The survey aimed to validate their color hierarchy theory on a global scale and is a significant part of the video's discussion on the universality of color naming.

💡Color Hierarchy

Color hierarchy is the proposed order in which color terms are developed in a language. The video explains that this hierarchy is not random but follows a pattern that is consistent across many languages, with 83% fitting into the proposed order, suggesting a universal aspect of human cognition related to color perception.

💡Cultural Development

Cultural development refers to the evolution of a society's customs, knowledge, and intellectual capacity. In the video, it is mentioned in the context of early anthropological theories that incorrectly linked the number of color terms to a society's level of physical and intellectual evolution, a concept that has since been debunked.

💡Salience

Salience in the context of the video refers to the prominence or noticeableness of certain colors in the natural environment. It is suggested that the order of color term development might be related to the salience of colors, with red being more distinct and common, thus being named before blue.

Highlights

Different languages have varying numbers of basic color categories, with some like Wobé from Côte d'Ivoire using only three.

English has 11 basic color terms, while Russian has 12, indicating a range in language categorization.

Researchers have identified a pattern in the development of basic color terms across languages.

Paul Kay and Brent Berlin's study in 1969 challenged the random selection of color terms by cultures.

Kay and Berlin's research found a universal pattern in the order of color term development in languages.

The color hierarchy theory suggests a sequence in which color terms are developed, starting with black and white, then red, and so on.

William Gladstone's observations on color terms in ancient Greek literature highlighted the absence of certain color distinctions.

Early anthropological interpretations of color term scarcity in ancient texts were sometimes used to make unfounded claims about societal development.

W.H.R. Rivers' expeditions linked the number of color terms to the intellectual and cultural development of societies, a perspective criticized as racist.

Critics of Kay and Berlin's theory pointed out the limitations of their sample size and the lack of representation from non-industrialized societies.

The definition of 'basic color term' was a point of contention, as some languages use object descriptors for color comparisons.

Languages like Hanunó’o from the Philippines demonstrate that color terms can also convey physical sensations.

The World Color Survey expanded the study to over 2,600 native speakers of 110 unwritten languages, providing broader evidence for the color hierarchy.

Eighty-three percent of languages studied fit into the proposed color hierarchy, suggesting its widespread applicability.

The color hierarchy's heat map revealed clusters that closely matched English speakers' color term usage.

Cognitive science simulations support the idea that the order of color term development may be inherent to the colors themselves.

The research implies a universal aspect of human perception and categorization of color, despite cultural differences.

Transcripts

If I showed you this paint chip and asked you to tell me what color it is, what would

you say?

How about this one?

And this one?

You probably said blue, purple, and brown — but if your native language is Wobé from

Côte d’Ivoire, you probably would have used one word for all three.

That’s because not all languages have the same number of basic color categories.

In English, we have 11.

Russian has 12, but some languages, like Wobé, only have 3.

And researchers have found that if a language only has 3 or 4 basic colors, they can usually

predict what those will be.

So how do they do it?

As you would expect, different languages have different words for colors.

But what interests researchers isn’t those simple translations, it’s the question of

which colors get names at all.

Because as much as we think of colors in categories, the truth is that color is a spectrum.

It’s not obvious why we should have a basic color term for this color, but not this one.

And until the 1960s it was widely believed by anthropologists that cultures would just

chose from the spectrum randomly.

But In 1969, two Berkeley researchers, Paul Kay and Brent Berlin, published a book challenging

that assumption.

They had asked 20 people who spoke different languages to look at these 330 color chips

and categorize each of them by their basic color term.

And they found hints of a universal pattern: If a language had six basic color words, they

were always for black (or dark), white (or light), red, green, yellow, and blue.

If it had four terms, they were for black, white, red, and then either green or yellow.

If it had only three, they were always for black, white, and red.

It suggested that as languages develop, they create color names in a certain order.

First black and white, then red, then green and yellow, then blue, then others like brown,

purple, pink, orange, and gray.

The theory was revolutionary.

[music change]

They weren’t the first researchers interested in the question of how we name colors.

In 1858, William Gladstone — who would later become a four-term British Prime Minister

— published a book on the ancient Greek works of Homer.

He was struck by the fact that there weren’t many colors at all in the text, and when there

were, Homer would use the same word for “colours which, according to us, are essentially different.”

He used the same word for purple to describe blood, a dark cloud, a wave, and

a rainbow, and he referred to the sea as wine-looking.

Gladstone didn’t find any references to blue or orange at all.

Some researchers took this and other ancient writings to wrongly speculate that earlier

societies were colorblind.

Later in the 19th century, an anthropologist named W.H.R.

Rivers went on an expedition to Papua New Guinea, where he found that some tribes only

had words for red, white and black, while others had additional words for blue and green.

"An expedition to investigate the cultures on a remote group of islands in the Torres Straits

between Australia and New Guinea.

His brief was to investigate the mental characteristics of the islanders.

He claimed that the number of color terms in a population was related to their “intellectual

and cultural development”.

And used his findings to claim that Papuans were less physically evolved than Europeans.

Berlin and Kay didn’t make those racist claims, but their color hierarchy attracted

a lot of criticism.

For one thing, critics pointed out that the study used a small sample size — 20 people,

all of whom were bilingual English speakers, not monolingual native speakers.

And almost all the languages were from industrialized societies — hardly the best portrait of

the entire world.

But it also had to do with defining what a “basic color term” is.

In the Yele language in Papua New Guinea, for example, there are only basic color terms

for black, white, and red.

But there’s a broad vocabulary of everyday objects — like the sky, ashes, and tree

sap — that are used as color comparisons that cover almost all English color words.

There are also languages like Hanunó’o from the Phillippines, where a word can communicate

both color and physical feeling.

They have four basic terms to describe color — but they’re on a spectrum of light vs.

dark, strength vs. weakness, and wetness vs. dryness.

Those kinds of languages don’t fit neatly into a color chip identification test.

But by the late 1970s, Berlin and Kay had a response for the critics.

They called it the World Color Survey.

They conducted the same labeling test on over 2,600 native speakers of 110 unwritten languages

from nonindustrialized societies.

They found that with some tweaks, the color hierarchy still checked out.

Eighty-three percent of the languages fit into the hierarchy.

And when they averaged the centerpoint of where each speaker labeled each of their language’s

colors, they wound up with a sort of heat map.

Those clusters matched pretty closely to the English speakers’ averages, which are labeled

here.

Here’s how Paul Kay puts it: “It just turns out that most languages make

cuts in the same place.

Some languages make fewer cuts than others.”

So these color stages are widespread throughout the world… but why?

Why would a word for red come before a word for blue?

Some have speculated that the stages correspond to the salience of the color in the natural

environment.

Red is in blood and in dirt.

Blue, on the other hand, was fairly scarce before manufacturing.

Recently cognitive science researchers have explored this question by running computer

simulations of how language evolves through conversations between people.

The simulations presented artificial agents with multiple colors at a time, and, through

a series of simple negotiations, those agents developed shared labels for the different

colors.

And the order in which those labels emerged?

First, reddish tones, then green and yellow, then blue, then orange.

It matched the original stages pretty closely.

And it suggests that there’s something about the colors themselves that leads to this hierarchy.

Red is fundamentally more distinct than the other colors.

So what does all this mean?

Why does it matter?

Well, it tells us that despite our many differences across cultures and societies ... there is

something universal about how humans try to make sense of the world.