為什麼古希臘人看不見藍色？：英語精讀講義

Why is the sky blue?

天空為什麼是藍色的？

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

這是小孩和大人最常問的問題之一，

unless you're from ancient Greece. 文法

除非你來自古希臘。

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

你可能會以為，這個如今舉世皆知的國家

for beautiful blue rooftops,

有著美麗的藍色屋頂、

crystal blue waters,

清澈湛藍的海水，

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

還有一面藍色國旗，應該和藍色有更久遠的淵源。

But if you were to read Homer, 講解

但如果你去讀荷馬的作品，

uh not that one,

呃，不是那一位荷馬，

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

而是公元前8世紀那位著名的古希臘作家，

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

你會發現，「藍色」這個詞一次都沒出現，

through thousands of pages of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

儘管《伊里亞德》和《奧德賽》洋洋灑灑有數千頁。

Black is mentioned 170 times,

黑色出現了170次，

white 100,

白色100次，

red 13 times,

紅色13次，

yellow and green each around 10,

黃色和綠色各約10次，

but blue never appears.

但藍色一次都沒有。

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

更奇怪的是，荷馬描述一些我們通常會稱為藍色的事物時，

like the ocean,

比如海洋，

as wine dark. 文化背景

卻說它像葡萄酒一樣深暗。

He even calls honey green and sheep violet.

他甚至說蜂蜜是綠色的，綿羊是紫羅蘭色的。

For a while,

有一陣子，

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

有人認為，或許古希臘人看到的顏色和我們不一樣，

or maybe they were all colorblind.

又或許他們全都是色盲。

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

但我們現在知道，彩色視覺早在大約3,000萬年前就已演化出來，

so that's not it. 語氣意圖

所以原因並不是這個。

It gets even crazier.

更驚人的還在後頭。

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

當歷史學家和研究人員開始探究其他古文明時，

they realized the same thing.

他們發現同樣的情況。

Almost none of them used the word blue.

幾乎沒有任何文明使用「藍色」這個詞。

From Icelandic texts to ancient Indian epics

從冰島文獻到古印度史詩，

dating to about four millennia ago,

這些可追溯至大約四千年前的文本，

to ancient Chinese writings,

再到中國古代著作，

and even the original Hebrew Bible,

甚至是最初版本的《希伯來聖經》，

all of them fail to mention blue once,

全都一次也沒提到藍色，

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

卻全都提到了黑色、白色和紅色，

and many, the Bible included,

而且其中許多文獻，包括《聖經》，

also mention green and yellow.

也提到了綠色和黃色。

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

再說一次，他們並非沒談到我們所謂的藍色事物。

They describe the ocean as wide, stormy, silent,

他們會形容海洋遼闊、洶湧、寂靜，

but never blue.

卻從不說它是藍色的。

It wasn't until the mid-1800s 文法

直到19世紀中葉，

that linguists began to analyze the history of languages

語言學家開始分析語言的歷史，

and found something peculiar.

才發現一件奇特的事。

In every culture,

在每一種文化中，

black and white are first,

黑色和白色總是最先出現，

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

接著，進入語言的第一種色彩永遠是紅色，

then yellow follows,

再來是黃色，

then green,

然後是綠色，

and then blue is the final color to enter language

最後進入語言的色彩才是藍色，

in every single culture.

每一種文化都是如此。

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

多年來，研究人員發現中間的順序偶爾有些小例外，

so green and yellow,

也就是綠色和黃色的先後可能不同，

but red is always first,

但紅色永遠最先，

and blue is always last in every single language.

藍色則在每一種語言中都永遠最晚出現。

So why this order?

為什麼會是這個順序？

There's two main theories. 文法

主要有兩種理論。

First, the evolutionary explanation is simple.

第一種是演化上的解釋，而且很簡單。

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

黑色和白色有助於區分白天與黑夜、

light and dark,

明亮與黑暗，

and are the most clear and useful,

也是最清楚、最實用的區別，

so every culture has those.

因此每一種文化都有這兩種詞。

Then red.

接著是紅色。

It's often associated with blood or danger.

它往往和鮮血或危險有關。

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

就連人的臉孔和溝通，也會透過皮膚電反應傳達紅色訊號，

like when you blush or are stressed.

比如臉紅或承受壓力時。

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

隨著人們需要區分成熟與未成熟的食物，綠色和黃色也進入了語言，

and blue?

那藍色呢？

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

我們實際會接觸到的藍色事物非常少。

Blue fruits are pretty rare,

藍色水果相當罕見，

blue animals are rare too,

藍色動物也很少，

and when they are blue,

而就算牠們是藍色的，

it's often not a pigment, 文法

通常也不是色素造成的，

but a sort of light illusion,

而是一種光線產生的錯覺，

like in butterflies.

蝴蝶就是如此。

Even the modern European language words for blue

就連現代歐洲語言中表示藍色的詞，

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

也是從古代表示黑色或綠色的詞演變而來。

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

第二種解釋認為，這些詞不會進入語言，

until humans could make them.

直到人類能製造出這些顏色為止。

Red being the easiest and most accessible color,

紅色最容易製作，也最容易取得，

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

因為只要拿一塊乾黏土，就能當蠟筆來畫。

If you think of cave drawings,

想想洞穴壁畫，

for example,

舉例來說，

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

裡頭就大量使用黑色和紅色。

But blue?

但藍色呢？

It's one of the hardest colors to create.

它是最難製造的顏色之一。

For thousands of years,

幾千年來，

nobody had it except the Egyptians,

除了埃及人，沒有人能製造藍色，

and they had a word for it.

而埃及人的語言裡也有表示藍色的詞。

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

這是否代表古代人在有詞可以形容那些顏色前，

before they had a word for it?

根本看不見它們？

Not exactly. 語氣意圖

不完全是。

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

早期人類可能只把各種顏色視為黑色、

white, or red,

白色或紅色的不同色調，

which sounds kind of crazy,

這聽起來很不可思議，

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

但現代其實有證據支持這點。

If you look at these 12 colors,

看看這12種顏色，

can you spot the one that's different?

你能找出不一樣的那一個嗎？

You might think clearly it's this one.

你可能會覺得，顯然就是這一個。

But when presented with a similar chart, 文法

但看到類似的色彩圖表時，

the Himba people of Namibia, 文化背景

納米比亞的辛巴族人

who don't have a separate word for blue,

因為沒有專門表示藍色的詞，

take longer to point out this distinction. 片語動詞

需要花更久時間才能指出這項差異。

On the contrary, 表達脈絡

相反地，

when looking at green colors,

當他們觀察不同的綠色時，

they are more quickly able to note the difference

卻能更快發現其中的差異，

that we wouldn't catch as quickly.

而我們沒辦法這麼快注意到。

This one.

就是這一個。

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

這是因為他們用來形容各種綠色的詞，

than we do in English. 文法

比英文裡還要多。

In fact,

事實上，

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

他們有一個顏色類別，把某些藍色和綠色歸在一起，

while they have other color categories for different greens still.

同時還用其他顏色類別區分不同的綠色。

In the 1890s,

19世紀90年代，

anthropologists discovered that indigenous islanders in New Guinea

人類學家發現，新幾內亞島上的原住民

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

會把天空描述成黑色，或像髒水一樣混濁，

which if you think about it, 語氣意圖

但仔細想想，

isn't that surprising.

這其實沒那麼令人意外。

Even if you look at a color picker in Photoshop,

即使你看看Photoshop裡的選色器，

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

也很明顯，深藍或海軍藍其實離黑色並不遠，

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

反而和其他同樣被我們稱為藍色的色調相差很大。

In that sense, 表達脈絡

從這個角度來看，

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

對早期和古代人類而言，「黑色」涵蓋的範圍可能廣泛得多。

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

這有點像這些全都是紅色的不同色調。

We wouldn't call them different colors necessarily,

我們未必會說它們是不同的顏色，

but this in English we call pink.

但英文會把這一種稱為粉紅色。

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

雖然嚴格來說，它也只是另一種紅色調，

we've decided to categorize it as separate,

但我們決定把它另立一類，

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

因此在我們心中，它成了不同的顏色。

Of course,

當然，

even if we didn't name it pink, 文法

即使我們沒有把它命名為粉紅色，

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

還是看得出它是不同的顏色，

a lighter hue,

是比較淺的色調，

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

但我們終究會把它視為紅色的一種。

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

現在你可能會覺得，這聽起來只是語意上的差別。

So what? 語氣意圖

那又怎樣？

They have different names.

他們只是用了不同的名稱。

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

我們實際看到的顏色，在功能上根本沒有差異。

But neuroscience has found that to be untrue. 文法

但神經科學發現，事實並非如此。

Turns out, 表達脈絡

原來，

and this is mind-blowing,

而且這真的很顛覆認知，

that language trains our brain to see colors differently.

語言會訓練我們的大腦，用不同方式看待顏色。

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

也就是說，一旦我們有了一個形容某種顏色的新詞，

there's a feedback loop in the brain, 用詞

大腦中就會形成回饋迴路，

and this exaggerates the differences between those colors,

進一步放大這些顏色之間的差異，

especially at the border areas between them.

特別是在它們彼此交界的區域。

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

我們習慣把這些顏色稱為不同的色調，

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

於是大腦也會更敏銳地把它們看成不同的色調。

Without the word, 文法

如果沒有這個詞，

you would still see the color,

你還是看得到那個顏色，

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

卻不會以同樣的方式注意或理解它。

If that still feels bizarre,

如果你還是覺得這很難以置信，

because I know it did for me,

我知道，因為我一開始也這麼覺得，

think about learning a new language.

那就想想學習一種新語言的過程。

At first,

一開始，

everything just looks or sounds like gibberish.

一切看起來或聽起來都像毫無意義的亂碼或雜音。

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

你分不出動詞和名詞，

let alone one word from the next, 表達脈絡

更別說分辨前後相鄰的單字，

because you are just learning.

因為你才剛開始學。

But slowly,

但慢慢地，

over time,

隨著時間過去，

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

你的大腦開始掌握這些類別和規律，

and can recognize minor differences much faster.

也能更快辨認細微的差異。

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

不是說你以前完全分不出這些詞有所不同，

but it all sort of blended together. 片語動詞

而是它們感覺全都混在一起。

Once you become more familiar with it,

等你越來越熟悉後，

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

就會更清楚地看見並聽出那些詞。

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

老實說，這有點像我學會一個新的英文字，

and then suddenly I hear it everywhere,

然後突然到處都聽得到它，

I see it everywhere.

也到處都看得到它。

But the truth is,

但事實是，

I probably came across that word before, 片語動詞

我以前很可能就遇過那個詞，

but just didn't notice it.

只是沒有注意到。

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

可是現在，我真正學會了這個詞，

the feedback loop is there,

回饋迴路也建立起來，

and so I truly notice it.

所以我真的會注意到它。

It's a wild example of how our amazing brains

這是一個很驚人的例子，顯示我們了不起的大腦

have allowed us to create language,

讓我們得以創造語言，

but then that language turned back around 慣用語

但語言接著又反過來，

and has an impact on brain function.

對大腦功能產生影響。

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

我們對世界的感知不只是幻象，

our brains are an active part of creating it.

我們的大腦還會主動參與創造這個幻象。

Thank you so much for watching.

非常感謝你收看。

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

我由衷覺得這很有意思，希望你也一樣。

If you like our videos,

如果你喜歡我們的影片，

make sure you're subscribed,

記得訂閱我們的頻道，

make sure you leave a like on this video,

也別忘了幫這支影片按讚，

and you can join our mailing list

你還可以加入我們的電子報名單，

with the link in the description.

連結就在說明欄中。

Otherwise,

那麼，

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

我們下次會帶著新的科學影片再跟大家見面。

Peace.

大家保重！