Wednesday, May 17, 2017

The Surprising Pattern Behind Color Names



Different languages have different names for colors, that's given. But some languages identify more colors than others, and some have rather few terms for colors. Research into those languages reveals that when there are fewer color names, they are the same colors across the world. This gave rise to the theory that cultures identify colors in the same order the world over. That is a fascinating thing to learn, but it needs more than a few words to understand clearly. 

By the way, languages with fewer words for colors were once thought to be from people who are color blind. Not true at all, because languages have different ways of distinguishing colors besides a dedicate term for the color. (via Laughing Squid)  

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