Re: Color system

caeruleancentaur wrote:

> Has any of the group worked with colors in his conlang or
> conculture?  There is a color system in Senyecan.  6 is a mystical
> number in the culture & there are a lot of groups of & multiples of 6.
I've mentioned these on the list before (this is a subject that comes up
every once in a while), but here's a summary of color words from some of
my languages.

Lindiga colors are based on a set of 5 basic hues plus black and white.

lasti   ["lastSi]  white
marlki  ["mal`gi]  black
rnuchti ["n`uxtSi] red
kirvi   ["kirvi]   yellow
werrti  ["wErdZi]  green
lampi   ["lambi]   blue
mirrki  ["mirgi]   purple

More details at:
http://www.io.com/~hmiller/lang/Lindiga/colors.html

Many of the different kinds of people in my conculture worlds (the
Zireen, Sangari, and so on) have a different perception of colors, based
on primary colors of yellow, turquoise, indigo, and ultraviolet. The
latest version of a color system based on these primary colors is
illustrated here:

http://www.io.com/~hmiller/png/new-tirelat-colors.png

The only color in the "ultraviolet" section that really looks like a
different color to human eyes is "zhuli" (violet), representing a color
between indigo and ultraviolet. The combination of four primary colors
results in 16 basic color words:

kavi  -Y -T -I -U (black)
lumi  -Y -T -I +U (ultraviolet)
guuri -Y -T +I -U (indigo)
zhuli -Y -T +I +U (violet)
kilhi -Y +T -I -U (turquoise)
myri  -Y +T -I +U (turquoise + ultraviolet)
nuri  -Y +T +I -U (blue)
zaari -Y +T +I +U (blue + ultraviolet; anti-yellow)
xiri  +Y -T -I -U (yellow)
tsevi +Y -T -I +U (yellow + ultraviolet; anti-blue)
xeni  +Y -T +I -U (yellow + indigo)
zafi  +Y -T +I +U (anti-turquoise)
ziimi +Y +T -I -U (green)
sh@mi +Y +T -I +U (green + ultraviolet)
veli  +Y +T +I -U (white)
fali  +Y +T +I +U (white + ultraviolet)

Tirelat also has "marvi" for a brownish (dark yellow or orange) color,
and "ghezhi" for a light yellow-green color.

Not all Zireen and Sangari languages have all of these basic color
words, but they do all make distinctions between colors that only differ
in their ultraviolet component (which is invisible to humans), and they
usually don't have a basic word for red (which is invisible to them).