nahuatl colors

[Magnus Pharao Hansen]

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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