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

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.

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