Color Terminology

Color terminology has been used to explore the relationships between different languages and cultures , The color spectrum is physical continuum showing no breaks at all. Yet we parcel it out in bits and pieces and assign names to the various component parts : green, blue,yellow, red and so on. We also find that we sometimes cannot directly translate color words from one language to another without introducing subtle changes in meaning i.g English brown and French burn. An interesting issue is how colors are referred to in different language. Are color terms arbitrary, or is there a general pattern? If there is a pattern, what are its characteristics and why might it exist? Berlin and Kay (1969) tried to answer questions such as these drawing on data from a wide variety of languages.

All languages make use of basic color terms . A basic color terms must be a single word e.g blue  or yellow, not some combination of words, e.g light blue or  pale yellow. Nor must it be the obvious sub-division of some higher order term, as both  crimson and scarlet are of red. It must have quite general use, e.g it must not be applied only to a very narrow range of objects as, for example, blond is applied in English almost exclusively to the color of hair and wood. Also the term must not be highly restricted in the sense that it is used by only a specific sub-set speakers, such as interior decorators or fashion writers.
According to Berlin and Kay, an analysis of the color terms found in a wide variety of languages reveal certain very interesting patterns. If a language has only two terms they are for equivalents to black  and white (or dark and light). If a third is added it is red, The fourth ad fifth terms will be yellow and green, but the order may be reversed. The sixth and seventh terms are blue and brown. And then as in English come terms like grey, pink, orange and purple, but not in any particular order. There are also combinations like greyish - brown, variations like scarlet, modifications like fire-engine-red and finally the kinds of designations favored by paint and cosmetic manufactures.
An attempt has been made to relate the extent of color terminology in specific languages with the level of cultural and technical complexity of the societies in which these languages are spoken.. There  is some reason to believe that communities that show little technological development employ the fewest color terms, e.g The Jale of new Guinea have words corresponding to  dark and light alone. On the other hand, technologically and advanced societies have terms corresponding to all eleven mentioned above . Societies in intermediate stages have intermediate numbers, for example, the Tiv of Nigeria have three terms ; the Garo of Assam and the Hanunoo of the  Philippines have four ;  and the Burmese  have seven.
Two points about color terminology seem particularly interesting. One is the existence of such an order in the development of terms as that indicated above. The color spectrum is an objective fact; it is out there, waiting to be dealt with cognitively. Apparently, human cognition is so alike everywhere that everyone approaches the spectrum in the same way. Moreover, as cultural and technological changes occur, it becomes more and more necessary for people to differentiate within the color spectrum. Instead of picking bits and pieces of the spectrum at random as it were and naming them, people, no matter what languages they speak, progressively  sub-divided the whole spectrum in a systematic way. The similar naming practices follow from human cognitive needs.
The second points is that, if speakers of any language are asked to identify the parts of the spectrum, they find one system of such identification much easier to manipulate than another . They find it difficult to draw  a line to separate the part of the spectrum  they would call yellow from that part they would call orange, or similarly to separate blue from green. That is assigning precise borders, or making discontinuities, between neighboring color is neither an easy task for individuals nor one on which groups of individuals achieve a remarkable consensus. However they do find it easy and they do reach a better consensus, if they are required to indicate some part of the spectrum they would call typically orange, typically blue or typically green. That is they have consistent and uniform ideas about typical colors. Speakers of different languages exhibit such behavior, always provided that the appropriate color terms are in their languages.