Re: [tied] Re: Color and caste

----- Original Message -----

From: Glen Gordon

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2000 11:03 AM

Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Color and caste

Not that freaky; it has a neurophysiological basis. The hypothesis is about the order in which new basic colour terms (BCTs) are added to the vocabulary of colour. Of course a language with just three or four BCTs may have lots of descriptive or technical words for specific non-basic hues (like "salmon" or "vermilion" as varieties of "red" in English). Berlin and Kay predict, for example, that a "grue" (green-and-blue) BCT (like Welsh glas) will chronologically precede the evolution of "green" and "blue" as distinct BCTs.

 

Berlin, Brent & Paul Kay. 1969. Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of CA Press.

 

For an interesting interdisciplinary assessment of the hypothesis, see

 

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~maclaury/colortypes.html

 

Piotr

Glen wrote;

Piotr in response to Hakan's colour origin suggestion:
>Yes, it's the Berlin and Kay hypothesis, well supported by
>cross->linguistic evidence.

Wow, that does exist? Is it actually credible? Freaky.

- gLeN