..and a primitive tribe in the new guinea highlands still speak a black and white language and distinguish colours in terms of brightness.

#namingColours #alanFletcher

Colour words are acquired by cultures in a strict sequence according to anthropologists who analysed 98 widely differing languages.

All languages have black and white.
if there are three words, the third is red.
If there are four, then it is green or yellow.
if five then whichever didn’t make four, yellow or green.
if six, blue.
if seven, it is brown.
if eight or more, then purple, pink, orange and grey are added in any order.

#namingColours #alanFletcher

names for colours enter language slowly. The ancient Greeks had no word for blue and even in the middle ages there was still no english word for orange. Chaucer referred to it as “bitwixe yelow and reed”. Orange has always suffered an identity crisis. Today, althought we can differentiate millions of shades, our vocabulary still only has about thirty colour words.

#namingColours #alanFletcher