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Yes!! The lack of green-blue distinction is prevalent enough in linguistics that the term "grue" has entered the lexicon. Paul and Kay (1969) argue for a lingu
by archduck 5y ago
Yes!! The lack of green-blue distinction is prevalent enough in linguistics that the term "grue" has entered the lexicon.
Paul and Kay (1969) argue for a linguistic universal which posits that the set of which colors a language has is a function of how many colors it has. (Stealing from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity_and_the_color_naming_debate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity_and_the_...):
1. All languages contain terms for black and white.
2. If a language contains three terms, then it contains a term for red.
3. If a language contains four terms, then it contains a term for either green or yellow (but not both).
4. If a language contains five terms, then it contains terms for both green and yellow.
5. If a language contains six terms, then it contains a term for blue.
6. If a language contains seven terms, then it contains a term for brown.
7. If a language contains eight or more terms, then it contains terms for purple, pink, orange or gray.
The opposite of the grue phenomenon exists too, i.e. languages which subdivide the "blue" part of the spectrum into separate lexemes. In Russian, for instance, goluboy = light blue, whereas siniy = blue to dark blue. This morning I was reading the Wikipedia entry for color revolution, and there's a quote from Belarusian President Lukashenko, "They [the West] think that Belarus is ready for some 'orange' or, what is a rather frightening option, 'blue' or 'cornflower blue' revolution." I had to chuckle about that - it sounds so goofy in the English translation, but that's only because we don't have a lexical distinction there. (Now I would have personally translated it to light blue, but that's another matter.)