When you speak, what comes first, the idea or the word? Do you first feel a thought inside you, and only after that go searching for the right word to wrap around it? I think we all do. The word is never the start. The word is just the skin. The idea, the consciousness, is the thing sitting under it.

Debatable from a philosophical perspective. The words you have access to do indeed shape how you view the world. It could absolutely be argued that the words to which you have access shape your consciousness.