wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

What is the color of honey, and "faces pale with fear"? If you're Homer--one of the most influential poets in human history--that color is green. And the sea is "wine-dark," just like oxen...though sheep are violet. Which all sounds...well, really off. Producer Tim Howard introduces us to linguist Guy Deutscher, ...

Acclaimed linguist Guy Deutscher looks at the thorny question of how—and if—culture and language shape each other. His new book Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different through Other Languages re-examines the long discredited belief that our native tongues influence the way we see the world. He argues that the words we have and expressions we use can profoundly shape our understanding of everything: from color, to gender to morals.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," according to Shakespeare's Juliet. But would it look the same, too? Does language shape the way we see the world? And how do culture and language influence one another?

Language, Culture and Thought

"There are four tongues worthy of the world's use," says the Talmud: "Greek for song, Latin for war, Syriac for lamentation, and Hebrew for ordinary speech." Other authorities have been no less decided in their judgment on what different languages are good for. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, king of Spain, archduke of Austria, and master of several Europe an tongues, professed to speaking "Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse."