Basic colour terms in five Finno-Ugric languages and Estonian Sign Language: a comparative study

Abstract

In this paper we compare five Finno-Ugric languages – Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Udmurt and Komi-Zyrian – and the Estonian Sign Language (unclassified) in different aspects: established basic colour terms, the proportion of basic colour terms and different colour terms in the collected word-corpora, the cognitive salience index values in the list task and the number of dominant colour tiles in the colour naming task. The data was collected, using the field method of Davies and Corbett, from all languages under consideration, providing a distinctive foundation for linguistic comparison. We argue that Finno-Ugric languages seem to possess relatively large colour vocabularies, especially due to their rich variety of word-formation types, e.g. the composition of compound words. All of the languages under consideration have developed to Stage VI or VII, possessing 7 to 11 lexicalised basic colour terms. The cognitive salience index helps to distinguish primary and secondary basic colour terms, showing certain comprehensive patterns which are similar to Russian and English.

Objects as culture‐specific referents of color terms in Russian

“…It is worth noting that high frequency and elicitation rank of sirenevyj, malinovyj, salatovyj, bolotnyj, and morskoj volny was found earlier by Davies and Corbett 40 and more recently also for native Russian speakers in Estonia. 41,42 Further, in our study, the list of the most frequent object-derived color terms offered by Russian speakers includes terms with achromatic modifiers svetlo-"light" and tëmno-"dark" in combination with sirenevyj "lilac" and bordovyj "claret", the finding in accord with that of the Estonian group of linguists.…”

A comparative analysis of colour–emotion associations in 16–88‐year‐old adults from 31 countries

“…We assessed emotion associations with 12 colour terms, glossed in English as red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, purple, pink, brown, white, grey and black . Eleven of these colour terms (i.e., all but turquoise ) are basic in Indo‐European languages and in many other language families (e.g., Berlin & Kay, 1969; Biggam, 2012; Corbett & Davies, 1997; Uusküla, 2006; Uusküla et al., 2012). A basic colour term implies that its meaning is understood by all native speakers of its respective language, and the term cannot be easily categorized under another term (e.g., lavender is not a basic colour term since it is a shade of purple ; Biggam, 2012).…”

Kuidas maitseb? Eesti ja saksa aktiivse maitsesõnavara empiiriline uurimus

“…Siinne kirjeldav empiiriline uurimus lähtub antropoloogilise suunitlusega kognitiivsest lähenemisviisist, milles emakeelsete keelejuhtide küsitlemiseks kasutatakse lingvistilisi välimeetodeid (vt Sutrop 2002;Vainik 2004;Uusküla 2008;Bieler & Runte 2010;Wnuk & Majid 2014;Bagli 2021 jt). Sõnaandmete kogumiseks toetutakse Sutropi (2002) samalaadsele uurimusele, mis kasutas Corbetti ja Daviese välimeetodit (1997) modifitseeritud kujul.…”