Posted by Gareth Wilson on 23:06 2/27/02
In reply to: (none)
Are there any interesting colour terms in the Almean languages, like the merger of blue and green in Japanese or the light blue/dark blue distinction in Russian? I notice the Wede:i lexicon has more colours than the Kebreni lexicon, is this just a coincidence or does it say something about the number of basic colour terms in each language?
The color systems of Verdurian and Cadhinor are complete, and follow the Berlin & Kay rules (if anyone isn't familiar with them, Cecil Adams will explain). Cadhinor, for instance, has black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, which (according to B&K) is the standard six-color set.
Since Wede:i and Kebreni both have terms for blue, we can assume that either some terms aren't yet in the lexicons, or the B&K hierarchy doesn't work for Almeans, or both. (I'm tempted to reverse green and blue in their list.)
As for interesting systems, as befitting a culture of artists, Xurnese has a plethora of color terms, including three blues. If the browser cooperates, samples are below.
| dark blue | cyan | baby blue |