Re: Color Terms

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  Carlos Eugenio Thompson Pinzón
  Bogotá, Colombia
  ICQ: 19156333
  URL: http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/9028/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Boudewijn Rempt" <bsarempt@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2000 3:12 AM
Subject: Re: Color terms


On Fri, 17 Nov 2000, Sylvia Sotomayor wrote:

>
> > It occured to me that the Kélen have a rather complex
> > color scheme where the name of the color changes
> > according to what is being described. The way a Kélen
> > person would describe it is that they have 4 different sets
> > of color terms, 4 being the sacred number of course.
>
> Oh, this is good! I wonder - is there any natlang that shows
> a similar pattern - Berlin and Kay don't mention it, for sure,
> but it look so natural, logical and satisfactory.
At least all the natlangs I know have that kind of behaviour at some
level.  At least between people and things there are some complexities
in English
  things      people
  pink        white
  brown       black
  light brown red
  light brown yellow
With "white", "black", "red" and "yellow" meaning something different
for things.

-- Carlos Th



Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.valdyas.org