Re: CHAT: Indigo (was: Orange)

On 5 June, Maarten van Beek wrote:

> To me, for instance, there is a huge difference between sky blue and dark
> blue, and I am still frustrated for not having seperate words for it.
    Well, in Israeli Hebrew, "pink" as opposed to "red" on the one
end of the spectrum is balanced on the other end  by a type of "sky blue"
as opposed to the regular "blue". The word for the "sky blue" is |txelet|.
( I use the term _Israeli_ on purpose, since there is some
disagreement today about the exact color that people of Biblical times
meant when they used the term |txelet|.)
|txelet| is not  "a type of"  blue over here. It is a separate color.
I have been corrected whenever I mistakenly call a |txelet|-colored thing
|kaxol| or |kxalxal|  (= blue or light-blue).
    What's interesting, is that one can redouble the ends of all the main
colors in Hebrew to give a lighter or pastel shade; for example:
|tsahov -- tshavhav|, |yarok -- yrakrak|,  (yellow -- pale yellow, green --
pale green).
This also works for "white" and "black"! What's even more interesting
is that this works for "pink" also, |varod --vradrad|. (Does this mark
"pink" as a "primary" color?)  But you _cannot_ do it with |txelet|!
(I wonder if the reason is because, to do it, one would have to have an
initial consonant cluster of [txl-] ([txlatlat|) which is something
most Hebrew speakers would not like to get their mouths involved with!
Would speakers of any other nat- or conlang feel comfortable with it?
I haven't used that combo in rtemmu --- yet!   >-)  )

     Regarding traffic lights, people here refer to the middle color as
"yellow" not "orange".
     And, BTW, over here it is (theoretically ;-)  ) illegal to go
through them, just as it is with red lights!


    Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a

A word is an awesome thing.

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