Re: CHAT: Orange

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> Natlangy note :)) : Purple and violet are different colours in English? That's
> strange. I was taught that the equivalent of French "violet" was purple. But if
> you also have violet, what is then the correspondent in French? I'm confused,
> because maybe I've been using the term purple all along when I should have said
> violet...
Well, remember that English is essentially a Germanic language that
has eaten far too many French dishes for its own good.  And since
languages in general abhor exact synonymy, people will sort out these
differences, but in the case of colors, not in general in an objective
way unless they are making up sets of paints or something -- and even
then there isn't perfect agreement between one brand of paint and
another.

Note even in your presumably standardized French the appearance of
an idiosyncratic definition of "mauve", which since it is defined by the
color of a particular chemical, one would think would be utterly
standardized across languages.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_