The english language pattern is definitely shaping our thoughts and limiting our ideas. Just the whole idea of going from some abstract thought to actually making it out in tangible language, I mean no matter the thought it's a lossy transfer into a medium that lacks all the dimensionality of subconscious thought, neurotransmitter action, sensory information, and physiological response.

There's also something to consider with lower level vs higher level abstractions in language. E.g. jargon. One short word could have a 200 page thesis behind it defining all the ramifications. Talk about compression of information.

Now imagine if our language lacked say the mechanism of jargon, of using some meta word to define thousands of stringed together words at once. Every idea like "car" would have to be described from first principles. The species would probably never develop technology with this sort of language pattern present. If we could somehow level up beyond our current abstraction level, maybe that would make us even smarter, able to handle bigger ideas quicker in real time.

Even more simply than all this: I can only speak about what I have english words for.

If you are fluent in a second language, you understand that the only way to become truly fluent is not just to learn the tangible aspects - the vocabulary, grammar, references, expressions, etc - you have to learn to think like the language/culture.

It’s a combination of cultural assumptions, facial expressions and affectations, thinking patterns, and a whole cultural upbringing that can lead you to very different mental processes and natural conclusions starting from the same words and phrases.

Language absolutely encodes a certain form of intelligence. A lot of those things are reflected not just in the totality of the culture but the language itself. Being fluent leads you to different thinking patterns and different conclusions when processing in that language.