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Fwd: color and word "blue", not Nabokov
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At 06:30 PM 5/7/05 -0700, you, Carolyn, wrote:
>An interesting point - - the ancients had no word for (and didn't see?)
>blue.
An interesting question. If they did see blue, it is hard to imagine having
no word. If they had no word, it is hard to suppose that they saw blue. Now
I wonder how and when children take "blue" into their vocabulary. Same for
all languages? I think of all the words with distinct meanings which we
classify as blue - aquamarine, navy, cobalt, cornflower, hyacinth, sapphire
... But not, or rarely, lavender, teal, peacock ...
Surely I'll notice Nabokov's blues (colors, not butterflies) more carefully
hereafter.
Mary Krimmel
----- End forwarded message -----
>An interesting point - - the ancients had no word for (and didn't see?)
>blue.
An interesting question. If they did see blue, it is hard to imagine having
no word. If they had no word, it is hard to suppose that they saw blue. Now
I wonder how and when children take "blue" into their vocabulary. Same for
all languages? I think of all the words with distinct meanings which we
classify as blue - aquamarine, navy, cobalt, cornflower, hyacinth, sapphire
... But not, or rarely, lavender, teal, peacock ...
Surely I'll notice Nabokov's blues (colors, not butterflies) more carefully
hereafter.
Mary Krimmel
----- End forwarded message -----