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Re: Vocabulary concept mismatches

From:Javier BF <uaxuctum@...>
Date:Friday, March 5, 2004, 13:19
>For one thing, Sangari eyes >aren't eyeball-shaped; they're more like birds' eyes.
[...]
>Zaara has green eyes. Vyziimiden sai Zaara izhilma. > >vy-ziimi-de-n sai Zaara i -zhilma >3p-green-DN-PF NOM.PL (name) POSS-iris >DN=Direct observation, Non-past >PF=Perfective
Are their eyes tetrachromatic like those of most birds, too? I mean, that would grant you the possibility of having lots of colour names in Tirelat referring to visual experiences well beyond the range of common human abilities, given that tetrachromats are expected to experience eight basic colour perceptions instead of only six like most of us: white/black + blue/yellow + red/green + unknown1/unknown2. Some birds (like doves) are thought to be pentachromat, so they might possess two pairs of extra basic chromatic perceptions. Some of the extra colours are located in the ultraviolet or infrarred range, so not only richer rainbows but wider ones. Cheers, Javier

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Herman Miller <hmiller@...>