The linguistic relativity hypothesis states that one can only experience those ideas for which one has words in one’s vocabulary to express.
"In the following paragraph, Peter Farb offers a statement of the Sapir-Whorf proposal (as the linguistic relativity hypothesis is also known), supported by one of their most famous arguments:
According to the hypothesis, the differences between languages are much more than mere obstacles to communication; they represent basic differences in the "world view" of the various peoples and in what they understand about their environment. The Eskimo can draw upon an inventory of about twenty very precise words for the subtle differences in a snowfall. The best a speaker of English can manage are distinctions between sticky snow, sleet, hail, and ice. Similarly, to most speakers of English, a seal is simply a seal, and they have only that one word to describe it; if they want to say anything else about the seal, such as its sex or color, then they have to put an adjective before the word "seal." But the Eskimo has a number of words with which to express various kinds of sealdom: "a young swimming seal", "a male harbor seal", "an old harbor seal", and so forth. A somewhat similar situation exists in English with the word "horse." This animal may be referred to as "chestnut", "bay mare", "stallion", and other names that one would not expect to find in the vocabulary of the horseless Eskimo. (FARB, 1968:237)
Preston & Smith, Sociology A Contemporary Approach, 3rd Ed. Copyright 1989 by Allyn & Bacon A division of Simon & Schuster: pp 67-68.