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There is 푸르다 which can refer to green or blue. Specifically “맑은 가을 하늘이나 깊은 바다, 싱싱한 풀의 빛깔과 같이 밝고 선명하다”. I have no idea what’s up with that article title though.

There is 푸르다 which can refer to green or blue. Specifically “맑은 가을 하늘이나 깊은 바다, 싱싱한 풀의 빛깔과 같이 밝고 선명하다”. I have no idea what’s up with that article title though. Clearly there is 파랗다/파란색 etc? Edit: the title should be “languages don’t map colors exactly the same and can have more or less words for a color” would be a better title. But I think most people already know that.

shagie 5y ago
https://theconversation.com/languages-dont-all-have-the-same-number-of-terms-for-colors-scientists-have-a-new-theory-why-84117 https://theconversation.com/languages-dont-all-have-the-same... And various versions of the article https://npg.si.edu/object/posts_d6c837d227c59da175620b8eaa18b1bb https://npg.si.edu/object/posts_d6c837d227c59da175620b8eaa18... https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc5635863 https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc5635863 https://www.pnas.org/content/114/40/10785/tab-article-info https://www.pnas.org/content/114/40/10785/tab-article-info The essence of it is "how consistent are our names for colors?" Given an image if I point to this image and ask you the color for the N4 spot - what do you say? https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/file-20170917-25673-migist.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/fil... I'm going to say "Blue". How many other people (who speak English natively) answer it the same? Aside: https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ is also rather interesting in that domain.
kevingadd 5y ago
IIRC, 青 in Japanese also can refer to either blue or green, though they also have a dedicated word for green (緑) and that is the one that usually gets used... this can catch people unawares when translating though.
- Hamuko 5y ago
  Japanese traffic lights also have the colors red (赤), yellow (黄) and "blue" (青), where the last one is really somewhere between blue and green.
  - andrewzah 5y ago
    It's interesting that 푸르다 (blue/green) uses a very similar character: 靑, with 青 listed as a variant. Red is the same, 赤 (붉을 적) and yellow (누를 황 / 황색) uses 黃/黄. Green (녹색) uses 綠. There's also 초록 which is 草綠. 赤: https://hanja.dict.naver.com/#/entry/ccko/ad2ad1893b5c49f8ab4a2b848a3b8a1d https://hanja.dict.naver.com/#/entry/ccko/ad2ad1893b5c49f8ab... 黃: https://hanja.dict.naver.com/#/entry/ccko/17a2b69699474d5bb899b8443f74922a https://hanja.dict.naver.com/#/entry/ccko/17a2b69699474d5bb8...
  - NikolaeVarius 5y ago
    Hangul also has the trait that green traffic lights are considered "blue". Really made my head spin as a kid.

shagie 5y ago

https://theconversation.com/languages-dont-all-have-the-same-number-of-terms-for-colors-scientists-have-a-new-theory-why-84117 https://theconversation.com/languages-dont-all-have-the-same... And various versions of the article https://npg.si.edu/object/posts_d6c837d227c59da175620b8eaa18b1bb https://npg.si.edu/object/posts_d6c837d227c59da175620b8eaa18... https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc5635863 https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc5635863 https://www.pnas.org/content/114/40/10785/tab-article-info https://www.pnas.org/content/114/40/10785/tab-article-info The essence of it is "how consistent are our names for colors?" Given an image if I point to this image and ask you the color for the N4 spot - what do you say? https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/file-20170917-25673-migist.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip https://images.theconversation.com/files/186280/original/fil... I'm going to say "Blue". How many other people (who speak English natively) answer it the same? Aside: https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ https://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/ is also rather interesting in that domain.

kevingadd 5y ago

IIRC, 青 in Japanese also can refer to either blue or green, though they also have a dedicated word for green (緑) and that is the one that usually gets used... this can catch people unawares when translating though.

Hamuko 5y ago
Japanese traffic lights also have the colors red (赤), yellow (黄) and "blue" (青), where the last one is really somewhere between blue and green.
- andrewzah 5y ago
  It's interesting that 푸르다 (blue/green) uses a very similar character: 靑, with 青 listed as a variant. Red is the same, 赤 (붉을 적) and yellow (누를 황 / 황색) uses 黃/黄. Green (녹색) uses 綠. There's also 초록 which is 草綠. 赤: https://hanja.dict.naver.com/#/entry/ccko/ad2ad1893b5c49f8ab4a2b848a3b8a1d https://hanja.dict.naver.com/#/entry/ccko/ad2ad1893b5c49f8ab... 黃: https://hanja.dict.naver.com/#/entry/ccko/17a2b69699474d5bb899b8443f74922a https://hanja.dict.naver.com/#/entry/ccko/17a2b69699474d5bb8...
- NikolaeVarius 5y ago
  Hangul also has the trait that green traffic lights are considered "blue". Really made my head spin as a kid.