Speech and Sun: New Research on Climate and How We Speak

Testimony from polyglots like her has invited a more sophisticated take on Whorf’s ideas. What if language is less like a yoke than like a wind, nudging us in various directions? This moderate approach, which is more in line with Whorf’s original perspective, is known as “weak Whorfianism” or, paradoxically, neo-Whorfianism.

The model used recordings made before the winterers left to simulate what might happen to their accents as they spent time together. Their prediction was unerringly accurate, even if it did exaggerate the effects compared to what happened in real life. The winterers themselves wouldn't have noticed either as they happened over time. But when the so

Conversely, Greek and Spanish speakers tend to measure time by referring to physical quantities, such as a “ small break” or a “ big holiday”. The flow of time is perceived as a growing volume, rather than a distance traveled.