Can learning a second language change how you perceive color?

Cultures · Published 1 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: For the Tsimane’ people of the Bolivian Amazon, blue and green are often described with the same word. But a new MIT study reveals that bilingualism might be rewriting their visual vocabulary, allowing them to import new boundaries for the colors they see.

In the remote Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane’ language traditionally uses a very limited set of basic color terms. Monolingual speakers typically rely on only three primary words—black, white, and red—along with a few others that cover broad ranges of yellow or brown. Crucially, they use the words "shandyes" and "yushñus" interchangeably to describe any hue falling within the blue or green spectrum, a phenomenon linguists often refer to as "grue" (a blend of green and blue).

However, recent research led by MIT professor Edward Gibson and Harvard graduate student Saima Malik-Moraleda suggests that language contact is shifting these boundaries. The study found that Tsimane’ individuals who learned Spanish as a second language began to differentiate blue from green. Remarkably, they did not simply borrow Spanish words like "azul" or "celeste" to fill this gap; instead, they repurposed their native Tsimane’ vocabulary. They began using "yushñus" exclusively for blue and "shandyes" exclusively for green.

This cognitive shift extends beyond the blue-green divide. Bilingual speakers also demonstrated increased precision when naming shades of red and yellow, which monolingual speakers tend to group into much broader categories. This suggests that the structural boundaries of a second language can be imported into a person's native tongue. As contact with Spanish-speaking villages increases, researchers believe this new way of dividing the color space could eventually spread to the entire Tsimane’ population, fundamentally altering their linguistic landscape.

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