Re: Blue grass and skies

On Wed, 9 Aug 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> Aug 09, 2000 at 11:02:37PM -0400@
>
> On Wed, Aug 09, 2000 at 11:02:37PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> [snip]
>
> > borah: purple
> > jaju: plum
> > hwaesaek: grey
>
> Hmm. "Grey" in Hokkien is "huaysek" (probably pronounced the same way as
> in Korean, but I never heard "hwaesaek" in Korean before so I'm not sure).
Pronounced something like "hweh-sek," except it's a soft s.

> > hayang: white
> > keum: gold (colored)
> [snip]
>
> Hmm. "Gold" in Hokkien is "Kim", derived from the Mandarin "qing" (ching
> or tsing, in the older romanizations).
>
> > I learned silver and copper at some point, but don't remember them.
>
> Hey, this could be a way of checking my hypothesis (or conspiracy theory,
> if you will). "Silver" in Hokkien is "gim". If you find out, I'd like to
> know if my theory holds up :-)
Silver is "eum."  I just remembered.  :-p

YHL