Sublime

The dominant view among contemporary linguists is that language is primarily an instinct, in other words, that the fundaments of language are coded in our genes and are the same across the human race.

perhaps, rather than determining thought, it subtly shapes it, or focuses our attention on one aspect of reality rather than another. Put like that, Sapir–Whorf begins to seem not just more plausible, but almost commonsensical. Instead of linguistic determinism, we have “linguistic relativity.”

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.

@ 50 mins, the evolution of language to describe colors: Someone studied languages & the emergence of colors: Red always comes first, blue is always at the end.

psycholinguist Paul Bloom