A note on color terminology

[Page Stephens]

FYI.

http://webdesign.about.com/od/accessibility/a/aa062804.htm

Page Stephens

----- Original Message -----
From: "Page Stephens" <hpst at EARTHLINK.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 1:05 PM
Subject: A note on color terminology


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Page Stephens <hpst at EARTHLINK.NET>
> Subject:      A note on color terminology
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> I just thought about this after I received a note on another list which =
> I could not read because of the colors of the upload.
>
> I am color blind and have known this for many years. As a result all too =
> many words which some people use in order to denote subtle differences =
> between one color and another are totally meaningless to me.
>
> This is a biological problem which I and many others especially white =
> males share but it also impinges on our use of words since when someone =
> uses a word like mauve we don't know what the hell they are talking =
> about even if we might use them.
>
> Those of us who are color blind think that we live in the same world =
> that everyone else lives in or at least we do until we take a color =
> blindness test but then we learn that we are not able to distinguish =
> between the shades of colors which others see.
>
> As a result you have to take our use of color terms with a grain or pile =
> of salt.
>
> I invite everyone on this list to take the test on this url: =
> http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.html
> in order to discover whether or not they are color blind.
>
> I took it myself this morning only to flunk it entirely but my wife took =
> it and discovered that she could see colors which I could not see.
>
> I would love to have everyone on this list take the test for their own =
> information.
>
> If anyone out there then wants to discuss the results of their test =
> results in terms of their use of color terminology I would love to see =
> the conclusions about linguistic usage they draw from this experience.
>
> Page Stephens