Basic Color Terms

Basic Colors Terms, Fanni Falucskai

One viewpoint sees languages as coding color experience in independent and unique manners. The other one suggests there are exactly eleven basic color categories. These eleven basic colors are black, white, red, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, orange and grey. The eleven basic color categories all followed a set of “restrictions” regardless of the language family. Basic color terms: Their Universality and Evolution” by Berlin and Kay. A study contucted in 1969-1970 by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay. The research approaches the subject of a common evolutionary development of color categories in different languages. Two basic schools of thought regarding color words in different languages. 2600 native speakers. Procedure: Munsell Test. 329 color chips. As languages develop, they create color names in a certain order. If a language only has three color names: it is always white, black and red. Fun fact: in english we have words for purple, brown and blue. But if your native language would be Wobé, you would use only one term for naming all three: Kpe (meaning dark).

An other fun fact: 1858, William Gladstone, published a book on the works of Homer. He noticed that the writer barely used colors. Even when he did, he would use the same color terms. He used purple to descrie blood, wave or even the rainbow. Yele language in Papua New Guinea: black - tree dark - night white-cockatoo red-parrot dark red- juice blue-sky

Importance: universal way how humans make sense of the world.