colour terms
JOEL MATTHEW PEARSON
Tokana has the following colour terms. Not too exciting, except perhaps
for the two different words for "grey":
has white
kote black
sane red
lune blue/indigo/violet
kulhe green
laite yellow
aihne gold, amber/yellow
aile silver, metallic-colour
lohne brown, earth/wood-colour
hiem light grey, bluish-grey
halak dark grey
Note that "lune" is reserved for fairly dark and/or intense shades of
blue/indigo/violet - e.g. the colours of certain flowers. The colour
of the sea or the sky is always described as "hiem", which is also the
colour of clouds.
Note also that the word for red, "sane", comes from "san", meaning blood;
while the word for brown, "lohne", contains the root "lo-", which is used
for words associated with trees or wood (e.g. "losak" = "firewood",
"losemu" = "bark", "loka" = "forest").
I haven't yet done much work on Tokana colour symbolism or colour
psychology, except that "laite" = "yellow" has unpleasant associations
for them. (Given its associations with sickness and decay, it might be
better to translate "laite" as "sallow".) By contrast, "aihne" = "gold(en)"
has positive associations - the colour of fire and sunlight.
The only other colour-related bit of Tokana culture which I've 'discovered'
is that light blue and grey are associated with death, and that blue/grey
clothing is often worn by mourners.
Matt.
Kenji Schwarz
Sayat, the North Tungusic-Kamchatkan creole with peculiar influences from
Dakota, as spoken by parthenogenetic gun nuts of the 40th century, has only
three basic color terms: black, white, and red. There are quite a few
derived color terms, including many types of grays (watchet, overcast
sky-gray, tundra moss-gray, etc.). I don't have much grasp of symbolism
yet, except that black and white are associated more with the natural
world, and red with humans and civilization, as well as being generally
"auspicious".
I don't have details handy or worked out yet, but I also want to have the
language make some sort of classifactory distinction between objects with
shiny/reflective vs. dull/matte surfaces.
Vilani is still up for grabs, and we're beginning to discuss it over on the
TravLang list.
It's good to be back -- I'm massively p.o.'d at myself for not noticing and
doing something earlier about not getting CONLANG messages!
Kenji Schwarz ke...@accessone.com
TravLang Homepage: <http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Chamber/2662/TLDL.html>
Lair of the PMPP: <http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Chamber/2662/sayat.html>
Douglas Koller
JOEL MATTHEW PEARSON wrote:
> The only other colour-related bit of Tokana culture which I've 'discovered'
> is that light blue and grey are associated with death, and that blue/grey
> clothing is often worn by mourners.
Is there any basis for this custom in the real world? Male mourners who
are Ge'arthnuns speakers in the present day would wear a black suit,
white shirt, and tie in the robin's egg-to-cobalt range, or a black tie
and a cobalt armband. Women would wear a black dress with simple white
trimming and perhaps a tourquoise or aquamarine brooch, a cobalt scarf,
or some other cobalt accessory (small; a wide-brimmed cobalt hat would
not be acceptable). I've wondered if I saw this somewhere and
assimilated it subconsciously, or if there's something in the collective
unconscious that makes light blue (sky/heaven?) a death symbol. I don't
lose sleep over this, though.
As for other matters color-related:
Ge'arthnuns has this thing about the number seven, so basic color words
come from the ROYGBIV spectrum, and there's one for each declension. A
secondary grouping of seven also exists:
red - zi'auri'ls pink - lo"kfals
orange - ngo"laurs brown - dvaurho"rs
yellow - ro"mbeleks silver - vashiks
green - dhaubs gold - aibs
blue - su"li'ns white - garhans
indigo - safo"ts gray - nevalets
violet - zheshkeths black - e'fu"ths
One of these days, some rockin' correspondences are going to be made
between these, the declensions, the days of the week, the continents, 14
celestial bodies, and other things sevenly. One of these days.
Kou
Jack Durst
What are the 14 celestial bodies? The moon, the sun, the seven visible
planets, pluto, uranus and...?
Sincerely,
Jack Durst
Sp...@sierra.net
[this posting written in Net English]