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How Does Language Shape the Way We Feel and Express Emotions?

Roamers Therapy I October 2026

In Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 film Arrival (spoiler alert), linguist Louise Banks tries to decode the language of the aliens who have arrived on Earth. As Louise learns their new language, her perception of time also changes. She begins to see things as if she were also remembering events that will take place in the future. The film explores the idea that learning a new language can change the way a person experiences the world. So, can the language we speak influence the way we perceive and feel our experiences in real life? While Arrival takes this idea quite far, we can recognize the relationship between language and emotions in more familiar examples in our daily lives. If you speak more than one language, you may have noticed that you express certain emotions more comfortably in one language than another. The phrases you use may not carry the same emotional weight in two different languages. You can experience more intense emotions when you describe a childhood memory in your native language, also, you can describe the same event more calmly in another language. Or a language you learned later has become the one in which you can express yourself more openly. In this therapy sketch, we will review multilingualism and how language shapes the way we feel and express emotions.

What is Multilingualism?

Multilingualism refers to a person’s ability to use two or more languages. How we learn these languages, how often we use them, and the contexts in which we speak them all relate to how our brain adapts to language experience. To understand how multilingualism changes our brain, let’s first review how language processing works in the brain simply. 

Speaking requires many brain regions to work together. For example, when you would like to express that you are tired, you find the words that match the thought you want to express and arrange them into a sentence. Semantic processing regions (anterior temporal lobe and inferior frontal gyrus) help us access word meanings, select appropriate words, and form the sentence. Interconnected brain networks carry out these processes. We also need to coordinate our movements to speak the words we’ve chosen aloud. The motor cortex controls the movements of our tongue, lips, and other structures used in speech. The cerebellum helps time and coordinate these movements. Auditory regions (the superior temporal gyrus) process speech sounds. This allows us to follow both what the other person is saying and our own voice.

What differs in the brain with multilingualism?

When we use two or more languages, the system needs to manage more options. While speaking one language, words from another may come to mind. For example, forming an English sentence may bring Spanish equivalents as well. Our brain helps us use the language appropriate for the environment we are in. It also manages options from the other language or switches between languages (Hervais-Adelman, Egorova & Golestani, 2017).

Brain regions involved in language selection and speech control also help us manage multiple languages. These include the caudate nucleus, which helps us choose which language to use, and the putamen, which supports the movements needed to produce speech sounds. Studies have linked multilingual experience to differences in the size and shape of these structures (Hayakawa & Marian, 2019; Blanco-Elorrieta & Pylkkänen, 2016).

Brain areas related to attention and decision-making also play a role in this process. The prefrontal cortex (specifically the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) helps us focus on the language we want to use and keep speaking it. The anterior cingulate cortex helps us recognize when we need more control when there is a conflict between different options. These regions also support other choices in daily life, but their role in multilingualism is to support selection between languages. (Blanco-Elorrieta & Pylkkänen, 2016).

How does being multilingual affect emotional expression?

Learning and using different languages is linked to the brain’s gradual adaptation of its language and control networks, as explained above, and it happens over time. Our language experiences also involve the relationships we build, the memories we form, and the feelings we share. Then we need to also consider how it influences the way we experience and express our emotions.

We may feel certain emotions more intensely in our native language.

For many people, the native language carries a stronger emotional impact. Words of love, comforting phrases, and criticisms we heard in childhood gain meaning alongside the emotions we experienced at that time. For this reason, certain expressions may be felt more intensely in our native language.

For example, a study conducted with 205 people whose native language is Turkish and who learned English later found that expressions such as insults, profanity, and criticism carry a stronger emotional response in Turkish. This difference was observed even among individuals with a high level of English proficiency (Mergen, 2025).

But the language of our emotions can change over time

However, the language in which we feel closest to our emotions can vary depending on our life experiences. As we form close friendships or romantic relationships in a language we’ve learned later in life, that language can also come to play an important role in our emotional lives. Some people may find it easier to express their love, sadness, or needs in that language. 

For example, in a study where Egyptian participants who speak both Arabic and English wrote about their sad memories, the English accounts contained more negative emotional content. This finding demonstrates that the relationship between the language used and emotional expression cannot be reduced to a single rule (El‐Dakhs et al., 2023).

We can switch languages when our emotions run high.

For some people, a second language can also serve as a way to create psychological distance from difficult experiences. While recounting an event that evokes shame, fear, or pain in one’s native language may feel overwhelming, speaking in another language can feel more bearable. This distance can make it easier for a person to address a topic they previously could not discuss. For some people, however, it can create a sense of being unable to fully express themselves or to connect sufficiently with the emotion they are describing. Therefore, speaking more calmly in another language does not always mean better regulation of emotions (Williams et al.,2019).

Switching between languages during conversation may be linked to these emotional differences. A person may switch languages because they find a word that better captures what they are feeling. Sometimes this switch occurs spontaneously. For example, in an observational study conducted with Chinese-American parents, the frequency of language switching increased following the emergence of negative emotions in facial expressions. This is explained by intense emotions can influence the control processes that govern language choice. However, switching languages in this study did not necessarily reduce the emotion’s intensity afterward (Zhang & Hatzidaki, 2025).

Our culture and life experiences can influence how we express our emotions in different languages.

How we express our emotions is also related to the social and cultural contexts in which we use language. While a person may not be accustomed to expressing love verbally within their family, they may have experienced this more frequently in relationships formed in another language. Consequently, it may feel easier to express love or articulate their needs clearly in that language. Furthermore, while we may find a single word in one language that perfectly captures our emotion, we might need several sentences in another to convey the same feeling. Multilingualism can offer a person different ways to express their emotions (Alqarni & Dewaele, 2018). 

The circumstances under which a language is learned are also important. A language learned under stress, such as in an environment of conflict or oppression, may be associated with negative experiences for the individual. Research in such environments shows that social power dynamics can also influence the emotional meaning a language carries (Kassem, Rum & Perry 2022).

How does spoken language influence therapy?

These differences may become especially important in emotionally loaded settings, such as therapy. The language we use in therapy is related not only to how fluent we are in that language but also to how we experience our emotions. Some people feel more natural, able to express themselves in greater detail, and better understood in their native language. Others, however, may be able to speak more openly in a language they learned later in life. For this reason, there is no universal rule that therapy must always be conducted in a specific language.

Our native language can carry strong ties to our childhood memories and close relationships. Speaking in this language can make it easier to access the emotions we’re experiencing; at times, however, it can also make recounting a painful experience feel overwhelmingly intense. Another language, on the other hand, can create distance and help some people discuss topics that evoke shame, fear, or sadness. For example, a person may struggle to describe a difficult event involving their family in their native language but feel more comfortable sharing the same event in another language (Karp & Vögele, 2016).

However, it is important to understand how this distance is experienced. While speaking in another language may allow someone to process their emotions at a more manageable intensity, it may also create a sense that they cannot express themselves the way they want. Therapy is a great space to explore these differences. You and your therapist can discuss which language is easier to speak in, which words better convey a particular emotion, and how the intensity of that emotion changes when the language changes.

Takeaways:

  • Our language experiences also involve the relationships we build, the memories we form, and the feelings we share.
  • Multilingualism refers to a person’s ability to use two or more languages.
  • Brain regions involved in language selection and speech control also help us manage multiple languages.
  • Our experience of emotions can shift when we use more than one language. We may feel certain emotions more intensely in our native language, though the language we connect with our emotions can change over time. When emotions run high, we might switch languages. Our culture and life experiences also shape how we express our feelings in different languages.
  • These differences may become especially important in emotionally loaded settings, such as therapy. Therapy can be a great space to explore these differences.

References:

  • Hervais-Adelman, A., Egorova, N., & Golestani, N. (2017). Beyond bilingualism: multilingual experience correlates with caudate volume. Brain Structure and Function, 223, 3495 – 3502. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-018-1695-0
  • Hayakawa, S., & Marian, V. (2019). Consequences of multilingualism for neural architecture. Behavioral and Brain Functions : BBF, 15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12993-019-0157-z 
  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., & Pylkkänen, L. (2016). Bilingual Language Control in Perception versus Action: MEG Reveals Comprehension Control Mechanisms in Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Domain-General Control of Production in Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience, 36, 290 – 301. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.2597-15.2016
  • Wang, Y., Liu, K., Fang, Y., & Liu, X.-F. (2026). Dynamic modulation of emotion priming on code-switching comprehension in bilingual sentences: an ERP study of stage-specific neural coupling. Current Psychology, 45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-026-09606-4
  • Calabria, M., Costa, A., Green, D., & Abutalebi, J. (2018). Neural basis of bilingual language control. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1426. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13879
  • Hayakawa, S., & Marian, V. (2019). Consequences of multilingualism for neural architecture. Behavioral and Brain Functions : BBF, 15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12993-019-0157-z
  • Mergen, F. (2025). Bilinguals’ Emotion Expression and Perception in L2: Proficiency Matters for Some but not All Emotions. International Journal of Applied Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.70057
  • El‐Dakhs, D., Ahmed, M. M., Altarriba, J., & Sonbul, S. (2023). Differential emotional expression in autobiographical narratives: The case of Arabic–English bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism, 28, 962 – 979. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069231201173
  • Basnight-Brown, D., Ayoob, A., & Altarriba, J. (2022). Emotion Processing in a Highly Proficient Multilingual Sub-Saharan African Population: A Quantitative and Qualitative Investigation. Languages. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7040280
  • Kassem, N., Rum, Y., & Perry, A. (2022). To feel and talk in a language of conflict: distinct emotional experience and expression of bilinguals among disadvantaged minority members. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45, 2992 – 3009. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2081697
  • Alqarni, N., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2018). A bilingual emotional advantage? An investigation into the effects of psychological factors in emotion perception in Arabic and in English of Arabic-English bilinguals and Arabic/English monolinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism, 24, 141 – 158. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006918813597
  • Williams, A., Srinivasan, M., Liu, C., Lee, P., & Zhou, Q. (2019). Why do bilingual code-switch when emotional?. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 20, 830 – 841. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000568
  • Karp, M., & Vögele, C. (2016). Does Anyone Still Understand Me? Psychotherapy and Multilingualism. Verhaltenstherapie, 26, 156 – 157. https://doi.org/10.1159/000448818

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At Roamers Therapy, our psychotherapists are here to support you through anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship issues, race-ethnicity issues, LGBTQIA+ issues, ADHD, Autism, or any challenges you encounter. Our psychotherapists are trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Person-Centered Therapy, and Gottman Therapy. 

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