$~~~~$In many languages, such as English, there is no straightforward way to talk about smell. For want of dedicated odor terminology, English speakers are often forced to use odor-sources such as “flowery” and “vanilla” and metaphors like “sweet” and “oriental” in their descriptions of smell.
$~~~~$But the difficulty with talking about smell is not universal. The Maniq, a group of hunter-gatherers in southern Thailand, can describe smells using at least fifteen different terms, which express only smells and are not applicable across other sensory domains. In addition to Maniq, researchers found that there are also a dozen words for various smells in Jahai, a language spoken by a neighboring hunter-gatherer population.
$~~~~$Interestingly, the difficulty for English speakers to translate smell directly into words seems to have very little to do with the nose’s actual capabilities. According to findings of a recent study, English speakers are capable of discriminating more than a trillion different odors. Then, why is there a gap between their ability to discriminate scent and their vocabulary? The researchers suggest that surroundings may play a significant role.
$~~~~$Maniq and Jahai speakers live in tropical rainforest regions with a hunting-gathering lifestyle, and these two ethnic groups evaluate their surroundings through their noses to survive in nature. In an environment that is still largely untouched by humans, they are surrounded by smells at all times. They need to use their sense of smell to identify animals that they can hunt, and to recognize objects or events, such as spoiled food, that can pose a danger. Unlike the Maniq and the Jahai, many English speakers inhabit the post-industrial west and do not rely on smells to survive in their environment. This difference may explain the interesting linguistic phenomenon discussed above.