2022-06-11 22:23:13
In their book
"Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution", Brent Berlin and Paul Kay analyzed over 100 different languages from the major language families across the world to identify 11 basic color categories.
In languages with fewer than the maximum 11 color categories, the colors followed a specific evolutionary pattern:
1. All languages contain terms for black and white.
2. If a language contains 3 terms, then it contains a term for red.
3. If a language contains 4 terms, then it contains a term for either green or yellow (but not both).
4. If a language contains 5 terms, then it contains terms for both green & yellow.
5. If a language contains 6 terms, then it contains a term for blue.
6. If a language contains 7 terms, then it contains a term for brown.
7. If a language contains 8 or more terms, then it contains terms for purple, pink, orange or gray.
These differences are assumed to be cognitively hardwired.
Image: the profusion of distinct color words used by English vs. Chinese.
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