This is how your language affects your thoughts

Pirahã only has two color words:  light and dark . What an English speaker might call dark red, speakers of Pirahã would just call dark

not all languages have the same color terms.  If you give speakers of different languages a color spectrum and ask them to label when one color becomes another,  they will give different answers

For example, if there were canisters labeled “gasoline drums,” no worker would ever smoke near them because they were  explicitly  dangerous.

However, when the canisters were labeled “ empty  gasoline drums,”  workers would be less vigilant and would smoke near them.

The word  empty , in their minds, meant “ free of risk .”

Cognitively speaking, sighted people can perceive  all colors ,  regardless of language .  It’s just that some languages make an association between a perception and a word.

The strong form of the theory is called  linguistic determinism  and says that language  determines  thoughts.

The weak form is called  linguistic relativity  and says that language  influences  thought.

Tetel-Andresen notes that in her classes, speakers of European language tend to draw horizontal lines with  the past on the left  and  the future on the right .

Mandarin speakers tend to draw  vertical representations of time .

What you draw might be relative to your language