Re: Colors in Native American Languages
Joseph Uher (juher@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu)
Tue, 2 May 1995 09:37:41 -0500
>Original Sender: anorcross@tricty.tricounty.tec.sc.us
>Mailing List: NAT-LANG (nat-lang@gnosys.svle.ma.us)
>
>Greetings!
>I am currently working on establishing a set of lexical items in Shawnee (
>an Algonquian language) which refer to colors in the language. What I am
>particularly interested in concerns 1) how other Amerindian languages express
>color terms and 2) what are the "basic" color terms in a particular
>language.
>For 1), I already have a copy of a paper that Karen Booker presented last
>year at AAA and that focusses on Muskogean languages. I'd like to look at
>how other Amerindian language families, esp. other Algonquian languages,
>express colors.
Off the top of my head: Lakhota --
blue => to (txhoh)
red => sa (shah) and luta (LOO-tah)
yellow => zi (zee *or* zhee) [blond (hair) => zizi]
black => sapa (SAH-pah) [dirty => sapa (SHAH-pah)]
white => [mental lapse]
brown => gi (gxhee)
green (bluegreen) => tozi (TXHOH-zhee)
Lakhota uses different words for "color" ("What color is it?"): if something
is painted, dyed, or personal (like eyes or hair). Can't remember off-hand.
Others on the list may be more knowledgeable.
Hunter
"Maka kin le wakan."