Language Cheat Reincarnation – Young Girl VTuber Saves the World

Chapter 381. [Can The World Be Painted In Three Colors?]

I was practicing hunting as instructed by a local man.

At the same time, I was further analyzing their language.

"After all, you never know what kind of trouble might happen in the forest."

I wanted to be able to convey information properly in case of an emergency.

Because I didn't understand the language... I hesitated in expressing myself and couldn't communicate in time. That's something I definitely want to avoid.

"At the very least, in areas other than hunting."

Naturally, my hunting skills are inferior to his.

So, at the very least, I wanted to avoid holding him back in other areas.

Still, there were many new realizations.

It's said that language has regional tendencies...

For example, in cold regions, people tend to speak without opening their mouths much.

The Tsugaru dialect, for instance... There's a theory that it developed to prevent body heat from escaping.

In anime, Russian heroines are often portrayed as quiet, expressionless, and cool characters. This might be because they don't move their mouths much, resulting in fewer facial expressions... and that image might be reflected.

Conversely, there's also a theory that phonemes decrease near the equator.

Regarding the number of phonemes, it's also said to be proportional to population.

English, with a large number of speakers, has 24 phonemes, while Japanese has 16. This is just one example, but such a tendency exists.

"These things can't necessarily be generalized..."

But in reality, the people living here open their mouths widely when they speak. Their expressions are rich, and the language they use has fewer phonemes.

"Also, if there's one big difference, it's probably... 'color.'"

Their language has few words to describe colors.

This is likely because their language is still young.

After all, humans don't inherently have the concept of 'color.' A newborn human, to exaggerate a bit... lives in a "colorless world."

Children understand the concept of color relatively late, around the age of 3.

There's even research suggesting that teaching a 2-year-old requires about 1,000 attempts.

"That's how difficult it is to understand 'color.'"

Everyone has probably seen a small child coloring a picture with crazy colors at least once.

We tend to think of it as "wrong."

But it's natural for it to be chaotic. After all, they don't have the concept yet.

Color is, fundamentally, a gradient.

There are no inherent boundaries... humans just arbitrarily assign names and divide them.

"Their language is still growing. So, their classification of colors is still incomplete."

In fact, there's a set pattern for how colors develop in a language.

Of course, there are exceptions...

Stage 1... White and black.

In other words, there are only words for "bright" and "dark."

This is the state of a newborn baby.

Everyone starts here.

Stage 2... Red is added.

This is probably the color of "blood."

Determining whether someone is injured is a matter of life and death.

Because it's so important, the concept likely emerges first.

Stage 3 (or Stage 4)... Yellow (or green).

The order in which these appear doesn't matter.

In fact, they probably mean the same thing.

Yellow and green are used to distinguish whether food (fruit) is ripe or unripe.

Then, Stage 5... Blue.

Among the basic colors, this is the last concept to emerge.

It's probably the color of the sky or the sea.

It's certainly necessary, but life can go on without knowing it.

Also, it's a color that doesn't appear much in nature.

Another factor might be the difficulty in artificially creating pigments.

Their language is at what would be considered Stage 3.

"White," "black," and "red" — three colors.

"...Now that I think about it."

There was a time when I was about to touch a red flower and was warned.

They could clearly distinguish "red."

But yellow and green didn't exist yet...

To them, a ripe banana is "white," and an unripe banana is "black."

"Well, in practice, they often distinguish between 'edible' and 'inedible.'"

But I should be careful about the differences in color perception.

It's related to the qualia discussion I had before.

Theoretically, I'm probably more sensitive to color differences than they are.

There might be things that only I can notice... or fail to notice.

"Also... I think I mentioned this before."

In Japan, "green" used to be called "blue," I once said.

That's why even green leaves are called "blue leaves."

This is also related to that.

Ao (blue/green)

Although the name is reversed, it's an expression that emerged during Stage 3... when only "green" existed.

"Japanese is a language that had a long period of four colors."

Ao (blue/green)

White, black, red... and green.

That's why these four colors can be turned into adjectives.

Specifically, you can say "shiroi" (white), "kuroi" (black), "akai" (red), and "aoi" (blue/green).

For colors that came later, like "yellow" or "green," you can't say "kiiroi" or "midorii."

Similarly, "orange," "indigo," or "purple" can't be expressed as adjectives.

"So..."

《Iroha-chan, are you thinking about something difficult again? You're muttering.》

《Eh, ah!? Sorry!》

I was startled when a Secret Service woman called out to me.

She chuckled as she watched me.

"...Phew."

I let out a sigh of relief at her demeanor.

She had been recovering remarkably well over the past few days.

She was able to stay awake longer and could now have normal conversations like this——.