Color term

An important distinction must be established between color and shape, as these two attributes usually are used in conjunction with one another when describing in language.

Basic color terms meet the following criteria:[2] English has 11 basic color terms: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, orange, pink, purple, and gray; other languages have between 2 and 12.

It also generally fails the above litmus test in that most people do not find the use of the approximation of other basic color terms (blue-green) to be jarring.

In the classic study of Brent Berlin and Paul Kay (1969), Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution,[2] the researchers argued that the differences in number of basic color terms in languages follow a repeatable pattern.

Berlin and Kay originally based their analysis on a comparison of color words in 20 languages from around the world.

Berlin and Kay's study identified seven stages of color distinction systems.

For example, the Yali highland group in New Guinea identify the color of blood as black.

This is because blood, as a relatively dark liquid, is grouped into the same color classification as black.

In the Bassa language, there are two terms for classifying colors; ziza (white, yellow, orange, and red) and hui (black, violet, blue, and green).

Objects begin to rely less on their brightness for classification and in this stage we instead see each term cover a larger scope of colors.

In the Bambara language, there are three color terms: dyema (white, beige), blema (reddish, brownish), and fima (dark green, indigo, and black).

Stage III identifies a third term referring either to green (IIIa) or yellow (IIIb).

The Chinese character 青 (pronounced qīng in Mandarin and ao in Japanese) has a meaning that covers both blue and green.

Japanese also has two terms that refer specifically to the color green, 緑 (midori, derived from the classical Japanese descriptive verb midoru 'to be in leaf, to flourish' in reference to trees) and グリーン (guriin, which is derived from the English word 'green').

[citation needed] Stage V introduces blue as its own color term, differentiating from black or from green.

In English, this is the first basic color term (other than black and white) that is not differentiated on hue, but rather on lightness.

English splits some hues into several distinct colors according to lightness: such as red and pink or orange and brown.

[2] Stage VII adds additional terms for orange, pink, purple, or gray, but these do not exhibit the same hierarchy as the previous seven colors.

To Russian speakers, sinii and goluboi are as separate as red and pink, or orange and brown.

Ak and beyaz have the same meaning, while kara is a broader term than siyah and also includes dark browns; which word is used also depends on the kind of object being described.

Both ak and kara are of Turkic origin, while siyah is borrowed from Persian, and beyaz from Arabic بياض bayāḍ.

An interesting case that deviates from this pattern is Irish's two words for green: This distinction is made even if two shades are identical.

In English white, black, red, yellow, green, blue, brown, and gray are abstract color terms.

One of these is "characteristic referential range", or the use of a color term to identify or differentiate a referent over a wide context.

Statements such as "there cannot be a reddish green" are taken as a part of a logical structure akin to geometry, institing that color-related terms and propositions are rooted in our language practices.

[25] Šekrst and Karlić introduced cognitive convenience, referring to naming of objects of a certain color, for which their hue is not as important as their brightness.

For example, in various languages, grapes are described using color terms "white" and "black" even though their real hue is usually a certain shade of green or purple.

[27] Decock analzyes conceptual change and engineering in the context of color concepts, arguing that in the case of conceptual change of colour concepts varying degrees of optimization, design and control are possible.