为什么古希腊人看不见蓝色？：英语精读讲义

Why is the sky blue?

天空为什么是蓝色的？

It's one of the most common questions asked by both kids and adults, 語法

这是孩子和大人最常问的问题之一，

unless you're from ancient Greece. 語法

除非你来自古希腊。

I know, I know, 語氣意圖

我知道，我知道，

you'd think the country that is now ubiquitously known 語氣意圖

你可能会觉得，这个如今因以下特色而闻名遐迩的国家——

for beautiful blue rooftops,

美丽的蓝色屋顶、

crystal blue waters,

清澈湛蓝的海水，

and a blue flag would have a longer history with the color.

还有蓝色的国旗——应该与蓝色有着更悠久的渊源。

But if you were to read Homer, 講解

但如果你去读荷马的作品，

uh not that one,

呃，不是你想到的那个，

the famous ancient Greek writer from the 8th century BC,

而是公元前8世纪那位著名的古希腊作家，

you'd notice that the word blue isn't mentioned once

你会发现，“蓝色”这个词竟然一次也没被提到，

through thousands of pages of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

哪怕《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》足足有数千页。

Black is mentioned 170 times,

“黑色”出现了170次，

white 100,

“白色”100次，

red 13 times,

“红色”13次，

yellow and green each around 10,

“黄色”和“绿色”各出现了大约10次，

but blue never appears.

但“蓝色”从未出现。

What's weirder is that Homer describes things that we would normally call blue, 表達脈絡

更奇怪的是，荷马会把一些我们通常认为是蓝色的东西，

like the ocean,

比如大海，

as wine dark. 文化背景

描述成“葡萄酒般的暗色”。

He even calls honey green and sheep violet.

他甚至说蜂蜜是绿色的，绵羊是紫色的。

For a while,

有一段时间，

some suggested that maybe the ancient Greeks just saw colors different than we do,

有人猜测，也许古希腊人看到的颜色就是和我们不一样，

or maybe they were all colorblind.

又或者，他们全都是色盲。

But we now know that color vision developed around 30 million years ago,

但我们现在知道，色觉早在大约3000万年前就已经进化形成，

so that's not it. 語氣意圖

所以并不是这个原因。

It gets even crazier.

更离谱的还在后面。

As historians and researchers began looking into other ancient civilizations, 短語動詞

随着历史学家和研究人员开始考察其他古代文明，

they realized the same thing.

他们发现情况竟然如出一辙。

Almost none of them used the word blue.

几乎没有一个文明使用过“蓝色”这个词。

From Icelandic texts to ancient Indian epics

从冰岛文献到古印度史诗，

dating to about four millennia ago,

后者可追溯至大约四千年前，

to ancient Chinese writings,

再到中国古代文献，

and even the original Hebrew Bible,

甚至《希伯来圣经》原文，

all of them fail to mention blue once,

它们无一提到过蓝色，

while all of them mention black, white, and red,

却全都会提到黑色、白色和红色，

and many, the Bible included,

而且其中许多文献——包括《圣经》——

also mention green and yellow.

还提到了绿色和黄色。

Again, it's not like they don't talk about things that we would call blue. 語氣意圖

再强调一次，这并不是说它们不谈论那些我们会称为蓝色的东西。

They describe the ocean as wide, stormy, silent,

它们会形容大海广阔、汹涌、寂静，

but never blue.

却从不说海是蓝色的。

It wasn't until the mid-1800s 語法

直到19世纪中叶，

that linguists began to analyze the history of languages

语言学家才开始分析各种语言的历史，

and found something peculiar.

并发现了一个奇特的现象。

In every culture,

在每一种文化中，

black and white are first,

“黑”和“白”总是最先出现，

then the first color to enter the language is always red, 用詞

接着，进入语言的第一种颜色总是红色，

then yellow follows,

然后是黄色，

then green,

再然后是绿色，

and then blue is the final color to enter language

最后，蓝色才进入语言，

in every single culture.

每一种文化无一例外。

Over the years, researchers have found some minor exceptions with the middle order,

多年来，研究人员发现，中间的顺序存在一些小例外，

so green and yellow,

比如绿色和黄色的先后可能不同，

but red is always first,

但红色永远是第一个，

and blue is always last in every single language.

而蓝色在每一种语言中永远都是最后一个。

So why this order?

那为什么会是这个顺序呢？

There's two main theories. 語法

主要有两种理论。

First, the evolutionary explanation is simple.

首先，从进化角度来看，解释很简单。

Black and white help distinguish between night and day, 短語搭配

黑色和白色有助于区分白天与黑夜、

light and dark,

光明与黑暗，

and are the most clear and useful,

而且是最清晰、最实用的颜色，

so every culture has those.

所以每种文化都有表示它们的词。

Then red.

接下来是红色。

It's often associated with blood or danger.

它常常与鲜血或危险联系在一起。

Even human faces and communication use red through the galvanic skin response, 用詞

甚至在人类的面部表情与交流中，红色也会通过皮肤电反应发挥作用，

like when you blush or are stressed.

比如脸红或感到压力时。

Green and yellow entered language as the need to distinguish between ripe and unripe foods,

为了区分成熟和未成熟的食物，绿色和黄色也随之进入了语言，

and blue?

那蓝色呢？

There's very few blue things that we actually interact with.

我们真正会接触到的蓝色事物少之又少。

Blue fruits are pretty rare,

蓝色的水果非常罕见，

blue animals are rare too,

蓝色的动物也很少，

and when they are blue,

即使它们看起来是蓝色的，

it's often not a pigment, 語法

往往也不是因为色素，

but a sort of light illusion,

而是一种光线造成的视觉假象，

like in butterflies.

比如蝴蝶身上的蓝色。

Even the modern European language words for blue

就连现代欧洲语言中表示“蓝色”的词，

are derived from ancient words for black or green. 短語搭配

也源自古代表示“黑色”或“绿色”的词。

The second explanation suggests that these words don't enter language

第二种解释认为，这些颜色词要等到

until humans could make them.

人类能制造出相应颜色后，才会进入语言。

Red being the easiest and most accessible color,

红色是最容易获得、也最容易制作的颜色，

because you can just take a piece of dry clay and use it as a crayon.

因为随手拿一块干黏土，就能把它当蜡笔来画。

If you think of cave drawings,

如果你想想洞穴壁画，

for example,

比如说，

there's a lot of black and red in them.

就会发现里面有大量黑色和红色。

But blue?

可蓝色呢？

It's one of the hardest colors to create.

它是最难制造出的颜色之一。

For thousands of years,

几千年来，

nobody had it except the Egyptians,

除了埃及人，谁都没有蓝色颜料，

and they had a word for it.

而他们也有表示蓝色的词。

So does this mean that ancient people couldn't see those colors

那么，这是否意味着古人看不见那些颜色，

before they had a word for it?

至少在有相应的词汇之前看不见？

Not exactly. 語氣意圖

也不完全是。

Early humans would have considered colors as simply hues of black,

早期人类只会把各种颜色视为黑色、

white, or red,

白色或红色的不同色调，

which sounds kind of crazy,

这听起来有点不可思议，

but there's actually modern-day evidence for this.

但我们今天其实有证据支持这一点。

If you look at these 12 colors,

如果你看看这12种颜色，

can you spot the one that's different?

你能找出其中不同的那一个吗？

You might think clearly it's this one.

你可能觉得，显然就是这个。

But when presented with a similar chart, 語法

但面对一张类似的色卡时，

the Himba people of Namibia, 文化背景

纳米比亚的辛巴族人，

who don't have a separate word for blue,

他们没有单独表示“蓝色”的词，

take longer to point out this distinction. 短語動詞

要花更长时间才能指出这一区别。

On the contrary, 表達脈絡

与此相反，

when looking at green colors,

当他们观察不同的绿色时，

they are more quickly able to note the difference

却能更快地发现一种差别，

that we wouldn't catch as quickly.

而我们没那么快察觉到它。

This one.

就是这个。

And this is because they have more words for types of green

这是因为他们用来描述不同绿色的词

than we do in English. 語法

比我们英语中的更多。

In fact,

事实上，

one of their color categories clumps some types of blue and green together, 短語動詞

他们有一个颜色类别，会把某些蓝色和绿色归在一起，

while they have other color categories for different greens still.

同时又有其他颜色类别，专门区分不同的绿色。

In the 1890s,

19世纪90年代，

anthropologists discovered that indigenous islanders in New Guinea

人类学家发现，新几内亚岛的原住民

described the sky as black or dirty like water, 短語搭配

会把天空描述成黑色，或说它像水一样污浊，

which if you think about it, 語氣意圖

仔细想想，

isn't that surprising.

这其实并不奇怪。

Even if you look at a color picker in Photoshop,

即使你看看 Photoshop 里的颜色选择器，

it's clear that a dark or navy blue isn't actually that far from being black, 語法

也很容易看出，深蓝或藏青其实离黑色并不远，

and is quite far from other hues which we would still call blue.

却与其他同样会被我们称为蓝色的色调相距甚远。

In that sense, 表達脈絡

从这个意义上说，

black would have been a much broader term for early and ancient humans. 語法

对早期和古代人类而言，“黑色”涵盖的范围要宽泛得多。

It's kind of like how these are all shades of red.

这有点像这些全都是红色的不同色调。

We wouldn't call them different colors necessarily,

我们未必会把它们称为不同的颜色，

but this in English we call pink.

但在英语中，我们把这一种叫作粉色。

Even though it's technically just another shade of red,

尽管严格来说，它只是红色的另一个色调，

we've decided to categorize it as separate,

我们却决定把它单独归为一类，

and as a result, it's different in our minds.

结果在我们心里，它就成了一种不同的颜色。

Of course,

当然，

even if we didn't name it pink, 語法

即使我们不把它叫作粉色，

we'd still be able to see that it's a different color,

仍然能看出它是一种不同的颜色，

a lighter hue,

是一种更浅的色调，

but ultimately we'd consider it a form of red.

但归根结底，我们还是会把它视为红色的一种。

Now you might be thinking this just seems semantic. 表達脈絡

现在你可能会觉得，这不就是用词上的差异吗？

So what? 語氣意圖

那又怎样？

They have different names.

这些颜色只是名称不同。

There's no functional difference in the actual color we're seeing.

我们实际看到的颜色并没有任何功能上的区别。

But neuroscience has found that to be untrue. 語法

但神经科学发现，事实并非如此。

Turns out, 表達脈絡

事实证明，

and this is mind-blowing,

而且这简直令人震惊：

that language trains our brain to see colors differently.

语言会训练我们的大脑，让我们以不同的方式看见颜色。

What this means is once we have a new word for a color, 表達脈絡

这意味着，一旦我们有了表示某种颜色的新词，

there's a feedback loop in the brain, 用詞

大脑中就会形成一个反馈回路，

and this exaggerates the differences between those colors,

这个回路会放大这些颜色之间的差异，

especially at the border areas between them.

尤其是在它们相接的边界区域。

We get used to calling these colors as distinct hues, 語法

我们逐渐习惯把这些颜色称作不同的色调，

and as a result the brain more aptly sees them as distinct hues.

于是大脑也更善于把它们看成不同的色调。

Without the word, 語法

如果没有这个词，

you would still see the color,

你依然能看见这种颜色，

but you wouldn't notice or contextualize it in the same way.

但你不会以同样的方式注意到它、理解它。

If that still feels bizarre,

如果你还是觉得这很不可思议，

because I know it did for me,

我知道我当时确实有这种感觉，

think about learning a new language.

那就想想学习一门新语言的过程。

At first,

一开始，

everything just looks or sounds like gibberish.

看什么、听什么都让人不知所云。

You can't tell the verbs apart from the nouns, 短語動詞

你分不清动词和名词，

let alone one word from the next, 表達脈絡

更别说分清一个词和另一个词了，

because you are just learning.

因为你才刚开始学。

But slowly,

但慢慢地，

over time,

随着时间推移，

your brain starts to pick up on these categories and patterns 短語動詞

你的大脑开始捕捉这些类别和规律，

and can recognize minor differences much faster.

也能更快识别细微的差别。

It's not like you couldn't tell the words were different before,

并不是说你以前分辨不出这些词的差别，

but it all sort of blended together. 短語動詞

只是它们全都混在了一起。

Once you become more familiar with it,

当你越来越熟悉这门语言，

you start to see and hear those words much more clearly.

就会开始更清楚地看到和听出这些词。

Honestly, it's kind of like when I learn a new English word,

说实话，这有点像我学会一个新的英语单词时，

and then suddenly I hear it everywhere,

然后突然间，我到处都能听到它，

I see it everywhere.

到处都能看到它。

But the truth is,

但事实上，

I probably came across that word before, 短語動詞

我以前很可能已经遇到过这个词，

but just didn't notice it.

只是没有留意。

But now that I've truly learned the word, 語法

可现在，我已经真正学会了这个词，

the feedback loop is there,

反馈回路也随之建立，

and so I truly notice it.

所以我真的会注意到它。

It's a wild example of how our amazing brains

这个惊人的例子展示了我们神奇的大脑

have allowed us to create language,

如何让我们创造出语言，

but then that language turned back around 習語

而语言随后又反过来

and has an impact on brain function.

影响大脑的功能。

Not only is our perception of the world an illusion, 語法

我们对世界的感知不仅是一种幻象，

our brains are an active part of creating it.

我们的大脑本身也在积极参与塑造这种感知。

Thank you so much for watching.

非常感谢大家观看。

I hope you found it as interesting as I genuinely did.

希望你也和我一样，真心觉得这个话题很有趣。

If you like our videos,

如果你喜欢我们的视频，

make sure you're subscribed,

一定要订阅频道，

make sure you leave a like on this video,

也别忘了给这个视频点个赞，

and you can join our mailing list

你还可以加入我们的邮件列表，

with the link in the description.

链接就在简介里。

Otherwise,

那么，

we will see you next time for a new science video.

我们下期全新的科学视频再见。

Peace.

拜拜。