Chavakani color terminology

[Chengjiang]

So I've been thinking about color terms lately and I wanted to check whether this made sense. While most words are introduced in a "central" example of their color, the terms referring to white, light yellow, and light green or blue weren't legible so they're shown in black.

Chavakani has the following core color terms:

• mbíní is prototypically red. It includes all reds, all but the bluest purples, and redder oranges and browns.
• eke is prototypically yellow. It includes yellows, yellower oranges and browns, and yellower greens.
• táo is prototypically blue. It includes most blues, most greens, blue-violet, and grays that aren't too close to white or black.
• nu'u is prototypically white. It includes white and lighter grays.
• njâi is prototypically black. It includes black and very dark shades of hues that would otherwise fall under táo, e.g. navy blue.

As in many languages, these terms are also used to refer to the member of a restricted color set (e.g. the possible coat colors of an animal) that they are closest to. This can interact kind of strangely with the small number of basic terms: Green eyes, while rare in this language's main stomping ground, are not unknown, and are referred to as ng'wi eke, literally "yellow eyes", to differentiate them from ng'wi mbíní, brown eyes, and ng'wi táo, blue or gray eyes.

All five of these terms can be mixed to refer to intermediate hues or lighter or darker shades; no color must be referred to using these words but their use is reasonably common. These mixes have a set component order:

• mbínyêke (mbíní + eke) is orange.
• eketáo is green, especially brighter or yellower green; it's used less often than you'd think.
• mbínítáo is purple.
• mbínû'u (mbíní + nu'u) is pink.
• ekenu'u is light yellow.
• táonu'u is light blue or green. Light gray is generally just called nu'u.
• mbínjâi (mbíní + njâi) is dark red or purple, especially of wine or blood.
• ekenjâi is dark brown.
• táonjâi is dark blue or green. Dark gray is generally just called njâi.

As you can see, the "plus white" or "plus black" terms are used where we'd use "light" or "dark" plus the color name. Mixes of three of the basic terms are occasionally seen.

Aside from the five basic color terms above, there is also uye. This term, historically meaning "unripe", has been increasingly used to refer to the color green, and unlike eke or táo it cannot mean yellow or blue. Although it's not quite there yet, this word is on its way to becoming part of the core color vocabulary and is starting to displace eketáo and simple use of its components.

All of the above terms are nominal adjectives and can be used following a noun without the genitive/adjectivizing particle ya.

Chavakani also makes extensive use of the construction ndwa X to name colors. Ndwa is a word for "color", although outside of this construction it has been displaced by the now more common téng'a. Ndwa X means, literally, "the color of X", and can be used to name a color with basically any object as an example. Ndwa phrases do require ya, e.g. preu ya ndwa machí "turquoise stones". There are many fixed or traditional expressions using ndwa, aside from innovative ones. Here are some commonly used examples of this construction:

• ndwa njóavi Reddish to pinkish, especially of flesh; flushed; literally "dragonfruit-colored"
• ndwa fíro Watery gray; literally "cloud-colored"
• ndwa machí Bright blue-green; cyan; literally "rust-colored" (this is a Bronze Age society, so the prototypical color of rust is cyan)

Although there are many fixed ndwa constructions, it is quite common to coin new ones.

[Ryan of Tinellb]

Very nice. I am particularly impressed with this part:

...these terms are also used to refer to the member of a restricted color set (e.g. the possible coat colors of an animal) that they are closest to.

It looks like we've ended up choosing a fairly similar colour range to each other, but that's probably because we've read the same texts . My colours are here.