41
" Mankind’s perception of color, he says, increased “according to the schema of the color spectrum”: first came the sensitivity to red, then to yellow, then to green, and only finally to blue and violet. The most remarkable thing about it all, he adds, is that this development seems to have occurred in exactly the same order in different cultures all over the world. Thus, in Geiger’s hands, Gladstone’s discoveries about "
― Guy Deutscher , Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages
46
" It goes without saying that genders are language’s gift to poets. Heine’s masculine pine tree longs for the feminine palm; Boris Pasternak’s My Sister Life can work only because “life” is feminine in Russian; English translations of Charles Baudelaire’s “L’homme et la mer,” however inspired, can never hope to capture the tempestuous relationship of attraction and antagonism that he evokes between “him” (the man) and “her” (the sea); nor can English do justice to Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to the Sea,” in which the (masculine) el mar strikes a stone (una piedra) and then “he caresses her, kisses her, drenches her, pounds his chest, repeating his own name”—the English “it caresses it, kisses it, drenches it, pounds its chest” is not quite the same. "
― Guy Deutscher , Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages
50
" Jakobson gives the following example. If I say in English, “I spent yesterday evening with a neighbor,” you may well wonder whether my companion was male or female, but I have the right to tell you politely that it’s none of your business. But if we are speaking French or German or Russian, I don’t have the privilege to equivocate, because I am obliged by the language to choose between voisin or voisine, Nachbar or Nachbarin, sosed or sosedka. So French, German, and Russian would compel me to inform you about the sex of my companion whether or not I felt it was your business. This does not mean, of course, that English speakers are oblivious to the differences between evenings spent with male or female neighbors. Nor does it mean that English speakers cannot express the distinction should they want to. It only means that English speakers are not obliged to specify the sex each time the neighbor is mentioned, while speakers of some languages are. "
― Guy Deutscher , Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages
60
" The intimate relation between obligation and likelihood is nicely illustrated by an anecdote from the Soviet era. The story goes that during his state visit to Moscow,27 Fidel Castro is shown around the capital by Leonid Brezhnev. First of all, Castro is invited for a beer, which he downs in one go, and praises heartily. ‘Yes,’ says Brezhnev, ‘it was provided by our good friends from Czechoslovakia.’ Then Castro is chauffeured around the city, and is rather taken by the limo. ‘Yes,’ says Brezhnev, ‘these cars are provided by our good friends from Czechoslovakia.’ Later on, they visit an exhibition of fine crystal, and Castro duly waxes lyrical. ‘Yes,’ says Brezhnev, ‘the crystal is provided by our good friends from Czechoslovakia.’ ‘They must be very good friends,’ says Castro. ‘Yes,’ says Brezhnev, ‘they must. "
― Guy Deutscher , The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention