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Re: Color Terms

From:J. Barefoot <ataiyu@...>
Date:Tuesday, July 27, 1999, 15:25
>From: Ed Heil <edheil@...> >Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...> >To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...> >Subject: Color Terms >Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 21:44:57 -0600 > >See this web site: > >http://www.cs.buffalo.edu/pub/colornaming/diss/section2.7.2.html > >for some info on classic work on color terms, which was conducted by >showing speakers of different languages a wilde variety of color chips >and asking them to choose the ones that are representative of the >basic color terms in their languages. > >It seems that there are eleven basic focal colors that humans all >consider independent and perceptually salient. Even when a language >has a term that covers more than one of these colors, e.g. a term >which includes blue and green, speakers of that language do *not* tend >to choose a blue-green color as a good representative of that term; on >the contrary they choose a blue or a green; and not just any blue or >green, but the exact blue or green that a speaker of English or French >would call "blue" or "bleu" or "green" or "vert"! > >So there are certain "built in" color foci in human vision, and >languages may or may not have individual names for all of them (and >may or may not also have non-basic color terms, which cover particular >shades or sub-categories of the "basic" ones). > >Er, read the article. It's really classic work, and it's written up >better than I could explain it and it shows the color chips. > > >Ed Heil ------------------------------- edheil@postmark.net
Trask also does a good job explaining it in "Language: The Basics." He mentions that it is absolutely predictable which color foci a langanuage will have by how many it has. You have to pick them in order: black, white, red, green or yellow, green or yellow, blue, brown, and then in any order these: pink, grey, purple, and orange. I think "re-dividing" the color wheel from your first language is a great way to add a dash naturalness to your language. That's what I did to the colors in Asiteya: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7853/colors.htm _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com