Re: I came in late.

artabanos@mail.utexas.edu writes:
>Oh, you'd be surprised.  Afterall, there are languages in Paupua New
>Guinea
>which have only two colors, basicly meaning "light" and "dark".  The idea
>is not that a language *can't* not indicate a given meaning, but that the
>*probability* is that it can.

In Tagalog, there are very few main colors. Red, yellow, blue, green,
black, white, brown (but only used for people), are the only main colors
they recognize. I have heard relatives calling a pink shirt "red", or a
green-blue blanket "blue" or "green", and even heard the phrase:
"Pirutusin mo iyon hanggang pumula" - fry that until it is golden brown
(pumula comes from "pula" or "red" and is treated as a verb, i think).
It's not that Filipinos cant tell pink from red, or golden grown from red,
it's that there just arent terms for those colors, so they use colors that
are similar. Often if something is a color that isn't in tagalog, they say
the color of + object with a similar color: "Kulay tsokolate" = chocolate
colored.


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       "I found love on a two way street, and lost it on a lonely highway"
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