Blue on blue

[Paul Frank]

> I didn't expect that "red" vs. "orange" would be so much fun! Let's try
> another.
>
> In English we have a single word, "blue," for a color that has several
> different "shades." On the other hand, Russian has *two* words for
> "blue": sinii, which means, approximately, colors similar to the
> "shade" that English-speakers term "dark blue," and "goluboi," which
> means, approximately, colors similar to the "shade" that
> English-speakers term "light blue," though it also has a literal
> meaning, "dove-colored." Supposedly, for a Russian, these two "colors"
> are as distinct as "red" and "orange" are for English speakers. And,
> like "orange," "goluboi" is based on the name of an object that
> epitomizes that color.
>
> -Wilson Gray

And in Chinese, the word (and character) qing (first tone) means
nature's color; green; blue; greenish black. Although in modern Chinese
blue and green can be distinguished by saying lanse (blue) and lüse
(green). I don't know whether this affects color perception among the
Chinese.

Paul
___________________________
Paul Frank
English translation from Chinese,
German, French, and Spanish
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
http://tinyurl.com/5av5h