=?utf-8?Q?=D1=81=D0=B8=D0=BD=D0=B8=D0=B9_?=and purple rainbows

[Francoise Rosset]

A little harmless spring-break "research" here ...

Wikipedia:
"the most commonly cited and remembered sequence, in English, is
Newton's sevenfold red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and
violet."

Indigo, then, corresponds to синий.
But we don't use "indigo" to the extent they use синий in Russian.

"Purple" as a word must be related to пурпур– and to the French
"pourpre," now translated as "crimson" because "purple" covers too
many other associations besides royal robes. So it makes sense that
Russians associate "purple" with reddish-purple.

My own American "purple" is at the bluish-er end. Fashion jargon would
tend to back me up, as the more reddish purples have a slew of other
color-names, such as plum, orchid, eggplant, aubergine.

BUT purple seems quite ... versatile.
The wikipedia entry shows a rather reddish color swatch, but says,
"Purple is a very rare color in nature, though the lavender flower is
an example of purple nature."
The lavender flower, as it happens, is pale grayish-blue purple, NO
relation to the color swatch they show.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple
Look through the examples they give at the bottom, your bridesmaids'
dresses may be in it.
Some of those colors to me are out-and-out reds, while others would
certainly be синий to Russians.

Or ... look at "Blue"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue  > "shades of blue"

It's a lot of fun to disagree with most of the nomenclature,
plus our computers show colors differently anyway
and many of those are not stable colors.
-FR






On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 17:07:31 -0400
  Melissa Smith <mtsmith02 at YSU.EDU> wrote:
> It has something to do with the way they divide the colors of the 
>rainbow. I once has an argument about bridesmaids' dresses in an 
>outdoor wedding with a Russian friend about identification in English 
>as "purple," which she identified as "sinij"  For her, "Purple" was 
>closer to "Crimson," or robes of royals.
> 
> I don't know how we remember the colors of the rainbow, but I believe 
>we identify the end of the spectrum as "violet."
> 
> I believe Russians know a phrase: Kazhdyi Oxotnik ZHelaet Znat- Gde 
>... I forget the rest. 
> Melissa Smith
> 
> Melissa T. Smith, Professor
> Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures  Youngstown State 
>University
> Youngstown, OH 44555
> Tel: (330)941-3461
> 


Francoise Rosset, Associate Professor
Chair, Russian and Russian Studies
Wheaton College
Norton, Massachusetts 02766
Office: (508) 285-3696
FAX:   (508) 286-3640

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