УДК 81-2

Серкова К.В.
Студентка 2 курса КазУМОиМЯ имени Абылай хана
Иностранная филология (Европейские языки)
Алматы, Казахстан
e-mail: [email protected]

ЛИНГВОКУЛЬТУРНЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ ВОСПРИЯТИЯ ЦВЕТА НА

ПРИМЕРЕ АНГЛИЙСКОГО, РУССКОГО, ФРАНЦУЗСКОГО И ИТАЛЬЯНСКОГО
ЯЗЫКОВ

Статья призвана показать универсалии и различия в восприятии цвета представителями

разных культур, отраженные в языке.
На базе четырех индоевропейский языков, английского, русского, французского и
итальянского, проводится анализ названий цветов, с акцентом на их этимологию и
культурную коннотацию.
Ключевые слова: цвета, восприятие цвета, названия цветов, эволюция
цветонаименования, этимология, культурные различия, лингвокультурология, черный,
белый, красный, зеленый, желтый, голубой.
Serkova K.V.,
Second course student of KazUIRandWL
Foreign Philology (European languages)
Almaty, Kazakhstan
e-mail: [email protected]

LINGUO-CULTURAL PECULIARITIES OF COLOR PERCEPTION ON THE EXAMPLE

OF ENGLISH, RUSSIAN, FRENCH AND ITALIAN LANGUAGES

The article aims to show the universals and differences in the colour perception by
representatives of different cultures, reflected in the language.
On the basis of four Indo-European languages, English, Russian, French and Italian, the
analysis of color names is carried out, with an emphasis on their etymology and cultural
connotation.
Keywords: color, color perception, color names, evolution of color naming, etymology,
cultural differences, linguo-culturology, black, white, red, yellow, green, blue.

Introduction

Study of color naming is a topical direction for such approaches in the framework of modern
linguistics as linguoculturology and cognitive linguistics. Such specific segment of language as
color names can provide us with an understanding of how human perceive, analyze and categorize
the things and phenomena of surrounding world. This work aims to trace the patters of color
naming evolution in various languages to figure out universal features, and study the etymology of
color terms, to find differences. Previously, studies of color naming have been carried out on the
basis of one particular language or in a contrast comparison of two languages, which makes it
possible to identify the cultural peculiarities of studied languages, however the novelty of this work
lies in the fact that it provides examples from a wide range of languages, which makes it possible to
reveal not only minor differences, but underlying universal rules.

Universality of color naming evolution

Folk wisdom says that “the world is not black and white”. Nevertheless, for representatives of
some cultures, it is. At least, their language allows them to differentiate only two colors — the one
that corresponds with the English word for “black” (a collective name for all of the colors of the
dark and cold spectrum) and “white” (a collective name for all of the colors of the bright and warm
spectrum).
The eye retina contains 126 million of light-sensitive cells and is capable of detecting millions
of shades of color [1], but the human language allows us to distinguish incomparably less.
Industrialized cultures typically have more words for colors than nonindustrialized ones, but it still
comes to just about a dozen of basic color terms.
Basic color term (BCT) is a monolexemic (unlike light blue) color word that can be applied to
a wide range of objects (unlike blonde, fair or pale) and is known and used on every day basis not
only in some specific discourse, for example, by artists, art experts, architects or designers, but by
all native speakers (unlike taupe, cyan or chartreuse) [2, p.5]. For instance, the list of basic colors in
English and French includes eleven terms, in Russian and Italian — twelve, because of the clear
differentiation of blue and light blue colors, i.e. “синий” and “голубой” in Russian and “blu” and
“azzurro” in Italian.
Although color perception can differ between nations due to cultural peculiarities, after
numerous studies, researchers have identified the universal nature of the development of color
naming systems. Each language undergoes identical stages of color names formation. The theory of
strict chronological sequence of color naming in all languages was first proposed by Brent Berlin
and Paul Key in 1969 in their book “Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution”.
Brent Berlin and Paul Key stated and then proved by a large-scale survey, collected the
answers of more than four thousand representatives of one hundred and ten minor languages, that in
each of the known languages, the color names appear gradually and invariably in the same order.
They identified seven stages of color naming evolution in every natural language:
Stage I: dark-cool (“black”) and light-warm ("white");
Stage II: red;
Stage III: either green or yellow;
Stage IV: both green and yellow;
Stage V: blue;
Stage VI: brown;
Stage VII: purple, pink, orange, or gray [2, p.14-15].
This particular order can be discovered through the study of minor languages, which have a
small number of color names in their word stock.
For instance, if the language has only two color names in its vocabulary, like Pirahã, language
of the isolated Pirahã people of Amazonas, Brazil, these names will correspond with English words
“white” (“light”) and “black” (“dark”) [3, p. 627]. If the language has three color names, like Wobé
language, spoken in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire on the southern coast of West Africa [4, p. 283],
or Bolivian Amazonian language Tsimane [5], it will inevitably be “white”, “black” and “red”. In
all known languages, the third color after black and white will be red. In Yupik languages, spoken
by the peoples of western and south-central Alaska and Chukotka [6], and Papua-New Guinean
language Berinmo there are five terms for colors [5]. If the language has five color names, the
fourth and fifth are always green and yellow (in either order). This pattern can be traced in all
languages and we can be sure that the word for purple, for example, will never appear in the
language before green or yellow enter its vocabulary.
 Etymology of terms denoting “black” and “white” in English, Russian, French and
Italian languages

Color naming is an inevitable result of the basic function of human cognition —

categorization. Colors help a person to distinguish one object from another. We can identify a
common mental pattern of all peoples. First, a person tries to distinguish dark from light (i.e. good
from bad, dangerous from safe). Black and white are universal binary oppositions and they
appeared in human mind simultaneously, since they can be distinguished only in contrast with each
other.
The contemporary English word “white” can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European (PIE)
verb ḱweydos (“to shine”). It evolved through Proto-Germanic hwītaz, and entered into Old English
as hwīt [7].
The word “black” derived from Old English blæc, which meant “the color of soot or coal” [8],
from Proto-Germanic *blakaz “burned” and from PIE *bhleg- “to flash, to burn, to scorch, to
gleam, to shine”. That makes sense, because burnt objects, found by early humans in nature, were
indeed black [7].
Interestingly enough that the French word “blanc” and Italian “bianco” that signify “white”,
derived from the same PIE root *bhleg-, as English “black” [9]. While English speakers focused on
the result of burning — charred objects of dark color, French and Italian speakers concentrated on
the brightness of the process of burning.
Russian word for white, “белый” comes from the ancient Indian bhāti “to shine” [10, p. 149],
which is similar to the etymology of English, French and Italian words for white. Thus in all of the
languages studied above, the color term for “white” is connected with shining and brightness.
Both French “noir” and Italian “nero” originate from Latin “niger”, which presumably derives
from PIE root *negʷ- (“bare, naked, uncovered”) [11] which is also assumed to be the source of
*nókʷts (“night”). Therefore the original meaning of this color name is connected with the night and
darkness and the feelings of vulnerability and insecurity they struck into the hearts of primitive
people.
Throughout history, the Russian color term denoting black “черный” and the term denoting
red “красный” for a long time have been almost identical and interchangeable. The word “черный”
derives from Proto-Slavic *čьrnъ, which is related to the ancient Indian krṣṇás signifying “black”
[12, p. 492]. For instance, in the Russian Synodal translation of the Bible, the Red Sea (Красное
море) is called Чермное море.

Source domains for color names

Despite that color can be perceived through vision and has physical features (such as the
wavelength of electromagnetic radiation), it has an abstract nature, since it is not a material object,
but a property of a material object, and its comprehension is extremely subjective. Color is the
sensation that a person gets when light rays hit his eye. A stream of light with the same spectral
composition will cause different sensations in different people due to the fact that they have
different perception characteristics of the eye, and for each of them the color will be different.
As for any other abstract phenomenon, a person comes up with a name for a color based on
the names of non-abstract, physical objects. Most of the names of colors are originally the names of
the objects that have the property of these colors. The source domain for color names can be
flowers, fruits, human body fluids and even some creatures.
For instance, English “red” and Russian “желтый” denote human body fluids. “Red” comes
from Sanskrit for “blood”. Russian word for “yellow” (“желтый”) comes from the Proto-Slavic
*žьltъ and is related to the Greek χολή “bile” and the Latin fellis “bile, gallbladder” [13, p.43]. That
also corresponds to Spanish word amarillo (“yellow”) which is a diminutive form of the amargo
(“bitter”) that comes from the Latin word amarus. In the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed
among doctors that the human body had four humours. The expression “bitter humor” was
employed to describe the bile found in the liver, which is a deep cold yellow liquid. This is why the
Spanish term for the color yellow is derived from the diminutive form of “bitter” [14].
Some color names come from the names of the creatures from which the paint of this color
was extracted. The word “красный” in Russian for centuries was used as an adjective for describing
person’s attractiveness, as “beautiful”, and began to be used as color name quite late. Previously,
the word used to denote this color was “червленный”, which has the same root as in the word
“червь” (“worm”), since the dye was extracted from worms [15]. The color name “purple” derives
from Latin purpura, which is the name of the dye and also the name of the shellfish from which it
was made.
Orange is a color named after a fruit. The birthplace of oranges is considered China. They
were brought to Europe by Portuguese sailors in the 15th century. Only then did the name of the
color orange enter the word stock of European languages. This color name derives from the Sanskrit
word for the fruit “naranga”. This word was borrowed into Italian as “arancia” and into French as
“orange”, which eventually became the color name in English, as well [14].
Among the floral color names, we can include lilac and wisteria in English, rose and violet
both in French and English, rossa and viola in Italian, розовый, фиолетовый and сиреневый in
Russian.

Historical and cultural connotation of blue color

Blue color entered language much later than preceding black, white, red, yellow or green.
William Gladstone, expert of Homer, discovered that the color “blue” has never been mentioned in
“Iliad and Odyssey” [16, p.488]. Homer used dark red shade (wine red) to describe the color of the
sea.
German philosopher and philologist examined different sacred text, also discovered that in the
old version of the Bible, in the Koran, and in the Indian Vedas blue color was never mentioned [17].
After the “blue” color name came into use, it was applied in a narrow sense, generally in
relation to water. In many cultures, water was believed to be a place where evil, hostile forces lurk.
Since ancient times, water has been considered an element associated with death and with the
afterlife [15]. In Greek and Roman mythology, there are many monsters associated with water: the
Lernaean Hydra, Scylla and Charybdis, the Gorgon Medusa, and so on. In Russian mythology, there
are such creatures as rusalka and vodyanoy.
Very soon, the blue color acquired a negative connotation. Therefore, in various languages
there was a need for a term that had nothing to do with blue and would denote light shades of blue.
As blue was associated with water, evil forces and the underworld, there was a necessity for a color
that would be associated with the sky and sublime things. Thus, the word “голубой” (“light blue”)
appeared in the Russian language, the etymology of which refers to a dove (“голубь”), a symbol of
peace and hope. And there is a word azzurro in Italian, which denotes a “sky-blue color”.

Conclusion

The study of color naming can give us an insight into human’s cognition and categorization
process. It can also show us, how various extra-linguistic factors, such as historical changes,
discoveries and even national superstitions, contribute into the word stock of particular language.
Despite the fact that English, Russian, French and Italian belong to the same language family
— Indo-European, there are some sizeable differences in color perception of the representatives of
these languages. These particular features include not only colors that have acquired a special
cultural connotation over the centuries, but also differences that are initial and emerged at the
earliest stage of the formation of color systems, and which can be traced back to the original
etymology of the words.
However, on the example of the evolution of color systems we can presume that every natural
language, despite the fact of developing in its individual pace, undergoes the same stages in a strict
order as any other. Overall, all these assumptions can help us to understand, that cultural differences
are minor in the contrast with underlying fundamental mental patterns common among peoples all
over the globe.

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