Re: What counts as a basic color word?
| From: | R Burke <rmgb@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, April 3, 2003, 5:29 |
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--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Peter Clark <peter-clark@B...> wrote:
> And what counts as a "basic" color word? ...
Not exactly sure what you mean, but there is a language universal as to what color
words are basic to all languages. This is from studies by Berlin & Kay, as
reported in Bernard Comrie's book <i>Language Universals & Linguistic
Typology</i>.
All languages have foci for black and white. If it has three basic color words,
then the third is for red. If it has four, the fourth is either green or yellow
(no preference). If it has five, the fourth and fifth are green and yellow. If
it has six, the sixth is blue. If it has seven, the seventh is brown.
That's as far as Comrie reports. I'm not sure if Berlin & Kay had more.
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