Diversity of perception in the world’s languages

Jane Flint Bridgewater

The language we speak reflects our experience,
sensorium responding to our world,
brain cells wiring, areas activated,
children’s organs plastic to repair.

More than 7,000 tongues in a million years,
many listening from beyond the grave.
Glottalised consonants, gyrating gestures,
tonal vowel harmony begin the journey.

Smell-linked words impact piriform cortex
in Umpila-speaking aboriginals, show
hunter-gatherer origins; black, white
and blood red only words of colour shared.

Colour systems’ lexicons show step-wise
additions, red reconstructed to root
of the tree, yellow or green next, then both and blue,
brown for many, last pink, purple, orange or grey.

Delectable tastes describe Farsi, Lao, Cantonese,
Tzeltal, Turkish and Yucatec.
Geometric shape most recognised among 
learned Malay making patterned pottery.

Communities living in rectangular homes
concur more on angular shapes than those
dwelling in round houses.  Sound pitch best agreed
by Mandarin Chinese-speaking musicians.

Our precious mix of human language 
must be treasured, understood for survival,
May we relearn old tricks of diction
to help preserve our natural world.

The Science

The scientific study of language has revealed interesting insights into its evolution. For example, it has highlighted a stepwise evolution of words relating to colour (as described in stanza 4; see reference for an example). I was most moved poetically, however, by the exploration of the language used to express and describe the five basic senses. An excellent study tested the idea that humans should be better at communicating about sight and hearing than the other senses of touch, taste and smell. They found that languages differ significantly in the number of words they use (or code) for different senses, which can be partly explained by cultural influences. Figure 3 in this study illustrates this diverse hierarchy of the senses (smell, taste, touch, hearing, shape recognition and colour) across languages according to the mean codability agreement of each domain (ie the number of words used to describe it). There is therefore no single universal hierarchy of language when it comes to senses.

The Poet

Jane Flint Bridgewater writes poetry in her retirement from cardiology practice in the West Midlands, UK. A lifelong reciter with Poetry Society medals in her youth, she has shown a Humanities interest in her holistic approach to medicine, championing good communication for patient empowerment, prevention and rehabilitation, and women’s heart health after her early MD in nuclear imaging. Her poetry has focussed on life experience, family and nature, reflecting her longstanding interest in both science and the arts. Some has been written to interlace with harp music at the Leamington Harp Festival. She has previously published in Consilience.

Next poem: Fridge Notes by Tiffany Roberts