What is it about?
Italian appears to be an exception to Berlin and Kay's (1969) hypothesis of the 11 basic color terms (BCTs) in developed color lexicons since this language is considered to have 2 BCTs for 'blue' -- azzurro 'light blue' and blu 'dark blue'. We used a monolexemic color-naming method. Colors (N=367), sampling the Munsell Mercator projection, were presented on a CRT. Color names and reaction times of vocalization onset were recorded. Naming consistency and consensus were estimated. In addition, observers indicated the focal color (“best example”) in an array of colors comprising a consensus category. Compared to English color terms, two outcomes are specific to Italian: (i) naming of the RED-PURPLE area is highly refined, with consistent use of emergent non-BCTs; (ii) azzurro and blu both perform as BCTs dividing the BLUE area along the lightness dimension.
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Why is it important?
The findings confirm the weak relativity hypothesis. Historico-linguistic, environmental and pragmatic communication factors are discussed that drive and extension of the BCT inventory in Italian and highly probably in other languages with more than 11 BCTs (e.g. Russian, Greek, Turkish, Maltese) .
Perspectives
Actually, my Italian is non-existent :) Of course, I've learned Italian color names and, with my knowledge of Russian (native), English and German, can understand pretty much (Latin-stemming words) in written Italian. My interpretation of Italian data leaned upon my expertise in color cognition in general and my knowledge of studies on two "Russian blues", sinij and goluboj, in particular. Be assured that my two Italian coauthors, Giulia Paggetti and Gloria Menegaz, have checked everything I've written in the article.
Professor Galina V. Paramei
Liverpool Hope University
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This page is a summary of: Color naming in Italian language, Color Research & Application, February 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/col.21953.
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