Colours

This is something that might interest some of you,
especially those at the NGL list: a vector system for
colours!

I'm just sketching it for a new language, but its major
features are quite unchangeable by now. It's intended for
an alien race with a extreme awareness of the visual spectrum.
This race also has the ability to control their visual window
(the range of electromagnetic frequencies they are able to
perceive).

The system is based on the following elements:
* A central point, the middle range of frequencies, more or
less the colour green for us (this varies a bit as the alien
guy adjusts its window).
* Two visual extremes (at the ends of the spectrum)
* Two directions (towards either end of the spectrum, i. e.
the (infra)red and the (ultra)violet end).
* Some qualifiers of quantity.

To name a colour, the aliens will usually choose a reference
point (either the centre or one of the ends) and then add a
direction of movement in the spectrum, together with zero or more
qualifiers (meaning "a bit", "quite a lot", "not so much", etc.)

Of course this is very subjective, but it wouldn't be a problem
if the object in question is within sight. And if not, well, our
own languages are not perfect at this either, and a colour that
might look "turquoise" to me could be "emerald" for my mother,
"greenish" for my father, and "blue" for my brother :)

Probably a second dimension could be added to the system, to indicate
brightness, ranging from blinding to light to dark to very dark. Indeed
this could be the only way to say that something is white or black, as
these "colours" do not appear in the spectrum.


--Pablo Flores

* Fi'nagles Rredn Thanon:
* Qgemp sarito'ndim bu"ndhur, ta^sarito'n lisku"ftian rath
*
* Finagle's Fourth Law:
* Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it will make it worse

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