A Malaysian Language Describes Smells As Precisely As English Describes Colors
Sniff Test A man sniffs a durian fruit before deciding to buy it. Photo by Glass and Mirror on Flickr, CC BY 2.0 You often get a good idea of what things will taste like from a restaurant menu's descriptions. But try doing the same with descriptions of perfumes in catalogs, and you'll have a bit more trouble. What exactly is "steamy amber" supposed to smell like? Things don't have to be this way, however. Although years of studies in Western societies have found that people are really bad at describing smells, a new study of a language found in Malaysia suggests the deficiency is cultural, not biological. Speakers of Jahai and other related languages have precise words for different smells. They're equivalent to the range of words—red, blue, pink—that English has for colors, according...