o yis Colour terms in O Yis
Linguists still argue about the basic colour terms used in Istran languages. The current consensus is that O Yis speakers use ten basic colour terms:
- muu mú - black
- sitte sitte - white
- Dyomb dzyomb - grey, dull
- egger egger - light grey, shiny, green
- tvel tvel - red, purple, pink
- reNdol reŋdol - brown, dark orange
- killeb killeb - yellow, light orange
- zmai zmai - green
- tuuf túf - light blue
- zoar zoar - blue, black
The colour spectrum can be (roughly) divided up as follows:
Neutral colours
O Yis speakers divide the grayscale space into four regions: black; grey; light grey; and white.
- Mú - black - can also translate as dark, unlit. Similarly sitte (white) can be translated as bright, light. The suffix -muyn is used to indicate dark colours while the suffix -sín is used for pastels.
- Dzyomb - grey - is also the word used for dullness and the suffix -dzyomme can be added to other colours to indicate that they have a low reflectivity (matte colours).
- The key translation of egger is as shiny - the adaption of the word to refer to the lighter greys, and also to chromatic light greys in the green-yellow area of the spectrum, appears to be a specific feature of O Yis as other Istran languages seem to lack this distinction. The suffix -egem can be added to other basic colour terms to show high reflectivity (glossy colours).
Chromatic colours
O Yis speakers divide the colour spectrum differently to Ramajal speakers. In particular red covers a much wider range of colours, while blue is divided between two separate basic colour terms:
- Purple, lilac, pink and scarlet are all forms of red - tvelzor, tvelzorsín, tvelsín and tvelmuyn respectively. Bluer purples are considered to be a form of dark blue - zoartel.
- Orange does not exist as a basic colour term; lighter oranges are referred to as killebreŋ while darker oranges are reŋdolkil.
- Túf is specifically light blue; some linguists argue that the term evolved from the word tos (sky) and many O Yis speakers consider the light pink and mauve hues seen in the sky to be variants of túf.
- Zaur clearly derives from the word zaurz (sea); it is also used by many O Yis speakers to refer to chromatically tinted blacks, in particular the deepest reds and blues.
- Zmai is used for all green colours except for the palest greens and yellow-greens, which instead are referred to as egger.
The word dakkec - colour - can be used to modify other nouns to indicate a colour like that noun. Colours directly derived from nouns are shown by the suffix -daku.
To indicate that a colour is translucent, use the suffix -mer.
