Re: Colors

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 06:46:18 -0400, Javier BF <uaxuctum@...> wrote:

>>I discovered recently that my conlang has a word for the 'color' of
>>something that looks black because there is too little illumination,
which
>>is not the same as the word for something that is actually black.
>
>Something like "shadowed"?
Yes, or "dark". What color is it? It's dark.

>In fact, it has been argued that a focus on lightness
>over hue, and on other non-chromatic aspects such as
>texture, material, freshness, etc., predates the focus
>on hue that is now commonplace in modern Western languages.
>'Colour' words in the languages of ancient and 'primitive'
>peoples seem to deal more often or primarily with features
>other than hue, which can be rather vaguely defined if
>at all. Think of having words for "blonde", "gold", etc.
>and not for hue-based concepts like "yellow", and in
>concepts like say "pastel", that refers not to hue but
>to insaturation.
Fascinating. However, I have no idea what freshness would have to do with
color... would it be the difference between the color of fresh vegetation
and dead vegetation?