Re: [tied] Re: Color and Caste.

>With only 3 or 4 color-words, the actual spread of 'color' would be
>larger than we today tolerate. I suspect 'row' (red-yellow) included
>what we would call orange, pink, and even 'tan'. I suspect what we
>call light gray would have been called 'light'.

Actually, I'd say that IE had the following three colors "light", "dark",
"red". "Dark" can be blue, green, dark brown, black or any non-red dark
colour. Red could be orange, fuscia or any reddish hue, maybe even pink.
"Light" can be yellow, white, light blue, grey, or any light colour at all
that isn't reddish.

>Undoubtedly, of course, they could say something like 'light like new
>grass', 'dark like pine needles' or 'light like a clear cloudless sky
>after a rainstorm'. But these are not real color-words.

This is what's done in Chinese to translate terms in English that tend to go
nuts with the rainbow terminology :) ...Chokolade-se "chocolate brown".

- gLeN


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