Color Theory

For example:

English language has 11 color categories

Wobe has 3 color categories

This states that the order of how the colors are named follows a hierarchy

Each languages are in different stages that corresponds to the number of basic color terms it has and for languages with the same stages also named the same colors.

This means that by knowing the number of color terms a language has, researchers can predict what those colors are

Speakers begin with two terms – one covering “black” and dark hues, the other covering “white” and light hues.

When a language has three terms, the third is one is almost always centered on hues that English speakers would call “red.”

For example:

If a language has four colors it will be named in this order: black, white, red, and green/yellow

If a llanguage has six colors it will be named in this order: black, white, red, green, and yellow/blue

Reason behind the Color term Hierarchy

Some hypothesize that the order depends on the salience of a color in a natural setting

This study was conducted by Berlin and Kay as a response to the criticism of their past study

The study improved by :

Included 110 unwritten languages

Having 2,600 native speaker

Gladstone 1858

Gladstone studied ancient greek works by Homer

He found out that one color term was used to describe two to four different colors

This lead to past researchers to conclude that ancient societies where color blind

Rivers

Rivers went on an expedition to Papaua, New Guinea

he found tribes that have color terms only for red, white and black while other tribes also had green

He claims that the number of developed color terms depends on intelectual development

He then claims that Papuans are less physically evolve than Europeans

In the 1960s researchers believed that cultures would choose color terms from the spectrum randomly

Berlin and Kay, 1969

This study used 20 people who spoke different languages to identify 330 colors by categorizing them in their languages' basic color term

The study found out that as a language evolve, the order of naming colors where similar among the languages.

The study was heavily criticized because of:

Small sample size with subject being bilingual speaker

some languages have exceptional rules that doesn't follow typical color naming rules

Languages are from Industrial countries only

Tria, Loreto and Mukherjee,2012

This study used computer simulation to explore the evolution of language by allowing two programs communicate and develop names for colors

Researchers found that the order of which the computers name the colors was similar to the hierarchy