(paraphrased/summarized from Scientific American, April 04)

Further into the idea that one's language shapes one's perception of reality, there is the subject of colors. The way different languages name cultures is possibly one of the only areas where there seems to be a relative universality to naming. More industrial cultures often have more names for colors than more primitive colors, but they are generally sorted into very similar patterns. Some languages have only two or three terms - one for black/blue/green and "cool" colors, one for red/yellow and "warm" colors, and one for white or "light" colors. If there is a fourth they often split blue/green from the cool colors. English has eleven terms, which are generally similar, if not identical, to most other languages associated with similar technological levels: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, pink, orange, purple, and gray. These are the most basic: colors like 'blue-green' or colors associtated with specific things like 'emerald' or 'salmon' are not included.

Interestingly this could be interpreted to say that one can assume that humans generally percieve color in the same fashion, if not at least similarly. Thus, what I say is 'red' is probably also percieved by, say, Bob as 'red,' as opposed to Bob seeing what I say is 'red' as 'violet-magenta.'

Also interestingly as a converse tangent are the way different languages deal with space. Some languages do not have words for subjective directions such as 'left' or 'right,' but only absolute directions such as 'north' and 'west.' Speakers of such would thus say something like, "You have something on your cheek....no, your south cheek."