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Colors (Was: Re: Mauve and a related conlang question)

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Tuesday, June 4, 2002, 12:50
On Tue, Jun 04, 2002 at 01:56:11AM -0700, Clint Jackson Baker wrote:
[snip]
> Okay, now here's a conlang question--how do your > conlangs deal with colour?
[snip] Ohhh, now you've done it. My conlang is extreeemely color-symbolic. Colors represent a LOT more than just shades and hues; it is the way they think. The entire language is colored with color. :-P Having said that... here are the basic colors in Ebisedian: Color Singular Plural Nullar Red ki' 3k0i' my'ki Green ci' 3cui' my'ci Blue roi' 3roi' my'ri' White Kii' 3Kii' my'Kii Black bui' 3bui' my'bi Those who have read some of my posts may realize that these color names are cognate with ... well, just about everything in the language :-) For example, the direction words, which came up in the last vocab, are: katui' (front, north) cutui' (left, southwest) rotui' (right, southeast) In prepositions, the second syllable indicates location relative to the modified noun. Guess what? Three of the five location infixes are: -Ki'- (above), -cu'- (in), -bu'- (below). In noun association, the three associative prefixes are: ki-, cu-, ro-. The trichotomy correlative particles are: ke, ce, re. The dichotomy correlative particles are: Ke, ve. The three prominent phenomena in the Ferochromon universe are: Ka'l3ri (fountainhead, starburst), l3rii' (river, flow), vyy'i (whirlpool, "black hole"). The 9 vowels are associated with colors, too. The vowels _u_, _w_, _y_ are associated with green or black; _o_, _3_, _i_ are associated with blue; and _0_, _a_, _e_ are associated with red. And the 27 consonants, which are grouped into 5 categories, are heavily "colored" as well -- the velars are red (deep red, or white), the dentals/alveolars are red (light red), the postalveolars are green, the liquids (s, z, r, l) are blue, the labials are green (deep green, or black). Red (or white) represents origination; green represents complexity, convergence, coalescence; blue represents motion, flow; black represents destructive convergence. This color symbolism, which comes from Ebisedi philosophy, saturates the entire language. The vowels and consonants on just about every word is colored with meaning (pun intended). :-) So it is not at all surprising that one of the writing systems of the language, the _k0romoki'_, is based on the arrangement of color patterns. To quote a footnote from my *cough*magnum opus*cough*: "It is a great hobby amongst Ebisedi architects to write entire novels on the walls, floors, and ceilings of their buildings using _k0romoki'_. And the Kings love the halls and corridors of their palaces colored with meaning." (Of course, I haven't even begun to talk about the relationship of colors to geometrical shapes yet... but I think this will suffice. :-P) So, to answer the original question, :-P how does my conlang deal with color? Well... it *is* color :-) T -- Lasagna code is just cheesy.

Replies

Clint Jackson Baker <litrex1@...>
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>