Re: NATLANG: Colours

Joe scripsit:

> What about languages with more then seven?  English has 'orange',
> 'grey', 'purple, and 'pink'(not sure about purple.  Most of it can be
> grouped into blue, red, brown, or pink), for instance.  They're pretty
> basic - by which I mean that English speakers will not group them into
> any higher categories.  That leaves about 11 basic colour terms, and
> probably some more that I've forgotten about.
Those four terms can be added in any order, so a language with 8 basic
terms would add any one of them.

I think it's clear that in Russian it's galuboi that corresponds to
universal "blue", as it includes focal blue (a medium value, medium
saturation blue) as well as darker varieties; "siniy" is restricted
to lighter blues only, and has its focal point at what in English is
called "sky blue" (though of course the sky's shade varies by the
time of day).

--
Winter:  MIT,                                   John Cowan
Keio, INRIA,                                    jcowan@reutershealth.com
Issue lots of Drafts.                           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
So much more to understand!                     http://www.reutershealth.com
Might simplicity return?                        (A "tanka", or extended haiku)

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