Colour

Really helpful vocabulary page

what colour do you think of?

Sensitive

Earthy and serious

Neutral

Passionate

Creative and natural

Serious and professional

Practical and on the move

Open and positive

Helpful and kind

Creative and nerdy

Pure and innocent

Confident and passionate

Independent and a bit rebellious

Fun and sporty

sick     angry      sleep      awake       sensitive      passion     neutral       mental       change    slow     fast

embarrassing     sadness     positive       kindness       innocent       powerful      love      deep      alon

caring      intelligent     neutral     passionate     courageous     independent     creative      analytical

serious       jokey       thoughtful        generous       warm-hearted      shy       extraverted      introverted

Colour oracle

What words does this remind you of?

Think of six things that are naturally blue. You can't say "sky"or "sea".

1

2

3

4

5

6

What colours can you see on this dress?

What colours are you wearing today? Why?

colour idioms

choose the correct word

out of the blue/red  (unexpectedly)

Q: Which of these events have occurred out of the blue?

Covid

World War II

9/11

The "discovery" of the American Continent by Christopher Columbus

The sinking of the Titanic

pink/green with envy     (jealous)

Is anyone jealous of you for any reason? Why?

purple/orange with rage    (angry)

get caught red/black handed    (guilty)

to have green/white thumbs       (good at gardening)

What makes you go purple with rage?

Do you have green thumbs?

Have you ever tried "shop-lifting"? Why? Why not? Did you get away with it?

  a white/blue lie      (small lie told to be polite or kid)

Tell each other some good reasons to tell white lies.

once in a red/blue moon       (not often at all)

Think about 

something you and your family do once in a blue moon

something that you almost never say or do, but just sometimes you do

to get the green/red light     (to be given permission)

Who gave you the green light to come to NZ?






What colour goes with these noun-adjectives for colour?

ocean

forest

lemon

royal

emerald

sapphire

sky

pitch

dirt

fire-engine

battleship

eggshell

snowy

stark

hot

Speaking:


You have ten characters in a play. They're personality and attitude is expressed in the following statements. What colour will their costume be?

1. Andy: I'm positive, open and lively.
2. Anna: I need my own space. I'm gentle but fragile.
3. Sharon: Don't tell me what to do. I'm my own boss.
4. Gus: I hear what you're saying but I don't want to be involved. I'm not really interested in people.
5. Brian: I'm a person in authority. Behave yourselves.
6. Patricia: I'm royalty. Obey me!
7. Angela: I'm caring and warm. Others are more important for me.
8. Susan: I'm creative yet analytical. I'm nerdy, but original.
9. Arthur: I'm passionate. Love me!
10. David: I'm often in a bit of a hurry, I hate to stand around all day. Please let me through.


Here are ten colours / shades:

1. Dark blue
2. Light blue
3. Orange
4. Red
5. Yellow
6. Grey
7. White
8. Purple
9. Peach
10. Black

Extension: which of these characters will get on well together? Which won't?

What does the diagram show?

Colour Hierarchy Diagram (after Berlin and Kay 1969)

Answer:

The diagram above works from left to right (following the arrows and plus signs). If a language has a particular colour word then it will also have all the colour words to the left of that word. So if a language has a word for blue, then it will also have words for yellow, green, red, black and white. The diagram also indicates that if a language has a word for say pink, then it may, or may not, have a word for purple, but it will have colour words for brown, blue etc.

Why is this?

Watch:
 
The mystery of Blue

Questions:

1. Which famous book about the sea never mentions the colour blue?
2. In what order do the words for colours generally appear in ancient languages?

red black blue white yellow green

3. Which culture was one of the first to produce a blue dye?
4. What does the word "outlier" mean in Davidoff's test?
5.  "Without a word for a colour you may find it difficult to see it?" What evidence is given in the video?

Discussion:

According to the video, is there some connection between a culture manufacturing colour and "naming" it?
What example was given of this?

C.S Lewis (author of the Narnia series)

"in order to see precisely what something is, you first need to have a vague idea of what it is."

Is the same thing true of the other senses - hearing?

Which sense to you trust most?

SIGHT       HEARING      SMELL      TASTE     TOUCH

How do you check that you're not dreaming?

Does Davidoff's test prove that having a word for a colour might help us to see it? 

We use the expressions "eye-opening experience" or "to open someone's eyes" to mean a person or film or book or journey etc that really made you to see a whole new world. 

Has anyone (or anything) really opened your eyes (or your mind) before?

Create the correct FORM of the word and then check below:

In 'The Odyssey,' Greek poet Homer   FAME    describes the 'wine-dark sea.'

In 1858 William Gladstone, who later became the British prime minister, counted the colour    REFER       in the Homer's Odyssey and found blue wasn't mentioned at all. Black is mentioned NEAR    200 times and white about 100. Red,    WHILE    , is mentioned    FEW   than 15 times, and yellow and green fewer than 10.

It wasn't just the Greeks. Blue also doesn't appear in the Koran, ancient Chinese stories, and an ancient Hebrew version of the Bible,    ACCORD   to a German philologist named Lazarus Geiger.

Check

In 'The Odyssey,' Greek poet Homer famously describes the 'wine-dark sea.'

In 1858 William Gladstone, who later became the British prime minister, counted the colour references in the Homer's Odyssey and found blue wasn't mentioned at all. Black is mentioned nearly 200 times and white about 100. Red, meanwhile, is mentioned fewer than 15 times, and yellow and green fewer than 10.

It wasn't just the Greeks. Blue also doesn't appear in the Koran, ancient Chinese stories, and an ancient Hebrew version of the Bible, according to a German philologist named Lazarus Geiger.

Look at this diagram. What do you think it illustrates?

The surprising pattern behind color names around the world




1. How many colour categories do we have in English?

2. How did anthropologists used to believe colour terms were chosen by cultures?

3. What did the research in 1969 suggest about how colour terms develop in a language?

4. What did William Gladstone notice about Homer's use of colour terms?

4. How do languages with only a few colour terms describe colours that don't have terms?

5. How is colour expressed in Hanuno'o?

6. Why might a word for "red" be formulated before a word for "blue"?

7. What have researchers discovered about colours themselves?





Where would you place these colours in the Hanuno'o spectrum?

Black, dark blue, light blue, purple, orange, white, grey, silver, gold, light green, dark green, pink, red, yellow....

More:

Further reading