nahuatl colors

[Michael McCafferty]

Thank you, Magnus, for your message.

Maybe, if Karen Dakin has the time, she could fill us in as what was 
happening color-wise in Proto-Uto-Aztecan. It would be interesting to 
see what underlies Nahuatl color creations.

As an aside, I'm working on a paper having to do with the Illinois 
inanimate intransitive final /-alaantee-/ meaning 'colored', as we see 
in /iskipakalaantee-/ 'it is blue/green'; /oosaawalaantee-/ 'it is 
yellow colored'.

This final can be traced to an ancient Illinois initial meaning *red*.

Michael


Quoting Magnus Pharao Hansen <magnuspharao at gmail.com>:

> Hi Listeros
>
> Just wanted to chip in on the color topic, albeit a little belatedly. I have
> worked with color terminology studies in the past and done a small pilot
> survey in Hueyapan. I thought it would be worth it to mention that in fact
> the most interesting thing about Nahuatlo colourterminology is that
> according to the criteria of Paul Kay and Brent Berlin in their "Basic Color
> Terms" Nahuatl could be one of the only languages in the world *not *to have
> any true color terms! According to Berlin and Kay all languages have between
> two and eleven basic color terms, in a predictable order, i.e. if it has
> three it has black, white and red, if it has five it has those three plus
> yellow and either green or blue etc.  What's interesting is that among the
> criteria is that a basic color term is not derived from anyother word - the
> term must be exclusively related to color. That means that e.g. "lemon" for
> lemon green is not a basic color term, but a secondary one. As you have
> probably noticed in Nahuatl all colorterms could be argued to be secondary
> (arguably not kostik and kapotstik, which are probably derived, but from
> words we don't know). The fact that Nahuatl doesn't have any roots (other
> than kapots- and kos- if we accept them) specficially and exclusively
> referring to color properties makes it a very special language.
>
> Oh and btw. one of my consultants from Hueyapan who is always good at making
> up folketymologies did translate kamohpaltik as "no está mojado". In
> Hueyapan the purple color is called simply kamohtik.
>
> Magnus Pharao Hansen
>




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