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In many languages, the colors described in English as "blue" and "green" are colexified, i.e., expressed using a single umbrella term. To render this ambiguous notion in English, linguists use the blend word grue, from green and blue,^[1] a term coined by the philosopher Nelson Goodman—with an unrelated meaning—in his 1955 Fact, Fiction, and Forecast to illustrate his "new riddle of induction".

The exact definition of "blue" and "green" may be complicated by the speakers not primarily distinguishing the hue, but using terms that describe other color components such as saturation and luminosity, or other properties of the object being described. For example, "blue" and "green" might be distinguished, but a single term might be used for both if the color is dark. Furthermore, green might be associated with yellow, and blue with either black or gray.

According to Brent Berlin and Paul Kay's 1969 study Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution, distinct terms for brown, purple, pink, orange, and gray will not emerge in a language until the language has made a distinction between green and blue. In their account of the development of color terms the first terms to emerge are those for white/black (or light/dark), red and green/yellow.^[2]

Afro-Asiatic

Amazigh

The word for blue in the Amazigh (Berber) language is azerwal. In some dialects of Amazigh, like Shilha or Kabyle, the word azegzaw is used for both green and blue. It is likely cognate with the English word azure, which represents the colour between blue and cyan.

Arabic

The color of the sky is sometimes referred to as "the green" in some dialects of Classical Arabic poetry, in which it is al-khaḍrā' (الخضراء). In Arabic the word for blue is azraq (أزرق). The Arabic word for green is akhḍar (أخضر).

In Moroccan Arabic, the word for light blue is šíbi, whereas zraq (زرق) stands for blue and khḍar (خضر) for green. The word zrag (زرڭ) is used to describe the color of a suffocated person, and is also used pejoratively as a synonym to "dumb, stupid".

Egyptian

The ancient Egyptian word wadjet covered the range of blue, blue-green, and green. It was the name of a goddess, the patroness of Lower Egypt, represented as a cobra called Wadjet, "the green one", or as the Eye of Horus, also called by the same name. At the same time, wedjet was the word used for Egyptian blue in faience ceramics.

Hebrew

In Hebrew, the word "כחול" (pronounced /kaˈχol/) means blue, while "ירוק" (pronounced /jaˈʁok/) means green and has the same root, י־ר־ק (j-r-q), as the word for "vegetables" (ירקות, jeʁaˈkot). However, in classical Hebrew, ירוק can mean both green and yellow, giving rise to such expressions as ירוק כרישה (pronounced /jaˈʁok kriʃ'ʔa/), "leek green", to specify green to the exclusion of yellow. Like Russian and Italian, Hebrew has a separate name for light blue (תכלת, "t'khelet")—the color of the sky and of fringes (tzitzit) on the ritual garment tallit. This color has special symbolic significance in both Judaism and Jewish culture.^[3]

American languages

Chahta

The Choctaw language has two words, okchʋko and okchʋmali, which have different meanings depending on the source. In 1852 okchakko is translated variously as pale blue or pale green, okchakko chohmi (somewhat okchakko) is given as swarthy, and okchamali is defined as deep blue, gray, green, or sky blue.^[4] In 1880 okchakko and okchʋmali are both given as blue, and green is not specifically listed as a color.^[5] In an 1892 dictionary, okchamali is deep blue or green, okchakko is pale blue or bright green, and a third word kili̱koba is bright green (resembling a kili̱kki, a species of parrot).^[6] By 1915, the authoritative Byington dictionary gives okchako as blue and okchamali as green, blue, gray, verdant.^[7] A current coursebook differentiates based on brightness, giving okchʋko as bright blue/green and okchʋmali as pale or dull blue/green.^[8] Modern usage in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma language school is to use okchʋko for blue and okchʋmali for green, with no distinction for brightness.

Kanienʼkéha

The language of the Kanien'kehá:ka Nation at Akwesasne is at Stage VII on the Berlin–Kay Scale, and possesses distinct terms for a broad range of spectral and nonspectral colors such as blue (oruía), green (óhute), black (kahúji), white (karákA), and gray (atakArókwa). According to one researcher, the Kanien'kehá:ka term for purple (arihwawakunéha) translates to 'bishop', a recent, post-Christianization coinage.^[9] The way in which purple was categorized and referenced prior to the addition of the latter term is not clear.

Lakota

In the Lakota Sioux language, the word tȟó is used for both blue and green, though the word tȟózi (a mixture of the words tȟó meaning "blue (green)," and zí meaning "yellow") has become common (zítȟo can also be used). This is in line with common practice of using zíša/šázi for orange (šá meaning "red"), and šátȟo/tȟóša for "purple/violet."^[10]

Mapudungun

Mapudungun, spoken by indigenous peoples of Chile and Argentina, distinguishes between black (kurü), blue (kallfü) and green (karü, also meaning "raw" or "immature"). The word payne was formerly used to refer to a sky blue, and also refers to the bluish color of stones (Zúñiga, 2006).

Mayan

Single words for blue/green are also found in Mayan languages; for example, in the Yucatec Maya language blue/green is yax.

Tupian

Tupian languages did not originally differ between the two colors, though they may now as a result of interference of Spanish (in the case of Guaraní) or Portuguese (in the case of Nheengatu). The Tupi word oby (IPA: [ɔˈβɨ]) meant both, as does the Guaraní hovy (IPA: [hɔʋɨ]). In modern Tupi (Nheengatu) the word suikiri can be used for green and iakira/akira for blue. However, iakira/akira also means immature, as in pakua akira (green banana/immature banana), and suikiri can also mean blue. In modern Guarani, the word hovy is used for blue and hovy'û (which literally means "dark green/blue") is used for green. The word aky, which is cognate with Nheengatu akira, also means 'green/immature.'

Yebamasa

The Yebamasa of the Rio Piraparana region in Vaupés Department, southeastern Colombia, use the term sumese for both blue and green. The letter "u" is pronounced like the German "ü".^[11]

Austronesian languages

Filipino (Tagalog)

Speakers of Tagalog most commonly use the Spanish loanwords for blue and green—asul (from Spanish azul) and berde (from Spanish verde), respectively. Although these words are much more common in spoken use, Tagalog has native terms: bugháw for blue and lunti(án) for green, which are seen as archaic and more flowery. These are mostly confined to formal and academic writings, alongside artistic fields such literature, music, and poetry.

In Cebuano, another major Philippine language, the native words for "blue" and "green" end in the same syllable: pughaw and lunhaw, respectively. Pughaw means sky blue, while lunhaw is fresh leaf green (i.e. neither brownish nor yellowish).

Humor and jokes of a sexual or derogatory nature that would otherwise be described as "blue" in English (e.g. "blue comedy", "blue joke") are called "green" in Philippine English. This is a calque of the Hispanic term chiste verde.

Javanese

Modern Javanese has distinct words for blue biru and green ijo.^[12] These words are derived from Old Javanese birū and hijo.^[13] However, in Old Javanese birū could mean pale blue, grayish blue, greenish blue, or even turquoise, while hijo which means green, could also mean the blue-green color of clear water. Biru and ijo in Modern Javanese are cognates of Malay/Indonesian biru and hijau which both have the same meaning.

Dravidian

Kannada

The Kannada language distinguishes between blue (neeli – ನೀಲಿ), green (hasiru – ಹಸಿರು) and yellow (haladi – ಹಳದಿ). The prefix kadu (ಕಡು) would indicate darker colors while the prefix tili (ತಿಳಿ) would indicate light colors. Thus kaduneeli (ಕಡುನೀಲಿ) would mean dark/deep blue, while tilineeli (ತಿಳಿನೀಲಿ) would mean light blue.

Tamil

The Tamil language distinguishes between the colors பச்சை green (paccai), நீலம் blue (neelam) and கருப்பு black (karuppu). The prefix karu- would indicate dark colors while the suffix iḷam would indicate light colors. Thus கரும்பச்சை karumpaccai would be dark green.

Telugu

The Telugu language uses a single word, Telugu: పచ్చ pacca, for green and yellow. To differentiate between the two shades, another word is prefixed in some cases. For example, green will be called ఆకుపచ్చ ākupacca "leaf-pacca" and yellow పసుపుపచ్చ pasupupacca "turmeric-pacca".

Malayalam

In Malayalam there are distinct words for blue (neela – നീല), green (pachcha – പച്ച) and yellow (manja – മഞ്ഞ).

East Asian languages

Chinese

The modern Chinese language has the blue–green distinction (藍 lán for blue and 綠 lǜ for green); however, another word that predates the modern vernacular, qīng (青), is also used in many contexts. The character depicts the budding of a young plant and it could be understood as "verdant", but the word is used to describe colors ranging from light and yellowish green through deep blue all the way to black, as in xuánqīng (玄青). For example, the flag of the Republic of China is referred to as qīng tiān, bái rì, mǎn dì hóng (青天，白日，滿地紅, "A Blue Sky, White Sun, and Wholly Red Earth") whereas qīngcài (青菜) is the Chinese word for "green vegetable", referring to bok choy, and the opposing sides of the game liubo were known as qīng and white in antiquity^[14] despite using black and white pieces. Qīng was the traditional designation of both blue and green for much of the history of the Chinese language, while lán originally referred to the dye of the indigo plant.^[15] However, lǜ as a particular 'shade' of qīng applied to cloth and clothing^[16] has been attested since the Book of Odes (1000–600 BC), as in the title of Ode 27 (《邶風·綠衣》, "Green Upper Garment") in the Airs of Bei section. After the discarding of Classical Chinese in favor of modern vernacular Chinese, the modern terms for blue and green are now more commonly used than qīng as standalone color terms, although qīng is still part of many common noun phrases. The two forms can also be encountered combined as 青藍 and 青綠, with qīng being used as an intensifier. In modern scientific contexts,^{[citation needed]} qīng refers to cyan as distinguished from both blue^[how?] and green.

Japaneseedit

The Japanese words ao (青, n.) and aoi (青い, adj.), the same kanji character as the Chinese qīng, can refer to either blue or green depending on the situation. Modern Japanese has a word for green (緑, midori), but it is a relatively recent usage.^{[citation needed]} Ancient Japanese did not have this distinction: the word midori came into use only in the Heian period and, at that time and for a long time thereafter, midori was still considered a shade of ao.^{[citation needed]} Educational materials distinguishing green and blue came into use only after World War II;^[17] thus, even though most Japanese consider them to be green, the word ao is still used to describe certain vegetables, apples, and vegetation. Ao is also the word used to refer to the color on a traffic light that signals drivers to "go". However, most other objects—a green car, a green sweater, etc.—will generally be called midori. Japanese people also sometimes use the word gurīn (グリーン), based on the English word "green", for colors. The language also has several other words meaning specific shades of green and blue.

Koreanedit

The native Korean word 푸르다 (Revised Romanization: pureu-da) may mean either blue or green, or bluish green. These adjectives 푸르다 are used for blue as in 푸른 하늘 (pureu-n haneul, blue sky), or for green as in 푸른 숲 (pureu-n sup, green forest). 푸른 (pureu-n) is a noun-modifying form. Another word 파랗다 (para-ta) usually means blue, but sometimes it also means green, as in 파란 불 (para-n bul, green light of a traffic light). There are Sino-Korean expressions that refer to green and blue. 초록/草綠 (chorok adj./n.), 초록색/草綠色 (choroksaek n. or for short, 녹색/綠色 noksaek n.) is used for green. Cheong 청/靑, another expression borrowed from Chinese (靑), is mostly used for blue, as in 청바지/靑-- (cheong-baji, blue jeans") and Cheong Wa Dae (청와대 or Hanja: 靑瓦臺), the Blue House, which is the former executive office and official residence of the President of the Republic of Korea, but is also used for green as well, as in 청과물/靑果物 (cheong-gwamul, fruits and vegetables) and 청포도/靑葡萄 (cheong-podo, green grape).

Tibetanedit

In Tibetan, སྔོན་པོ། (Wylie sngon po) is the term traditionally given for the color of the sky and of grass.^[18] This term also falls into the general pattern of naming colors by appending the suffix "po", as in "mar po" (red); "ser po" (yellow); "nag po" (black); and "dkar po" (white). Conspicuously, the term for "green" is "ljang khu", likely related to "ljang bu", and defined as—"the grue (sngon po) sprout of wheat or barley".^[19]

Vietnameseedit

Vietnamese used to colexify green and blue with the word xanh. This is a colloquial rendering of thanh (靑), as with Chinese and Japanese. In modern usage, blue and green are dislexified. Shades of blue are specifically described as xanh da trời (blue skin of sky), or xanh dương, xanh nước biển, (blue of ocean). Green is described as xanh lá cây (green of leaves).

Vietnamese occasionally employs the terms xanh lam (blue) and xanh lục (green) in which the second syllables is derived from the Chinese: 藍 and 綠 respectively, sometimes skipping the syllable xanh, for blue and green, respectively, in formal or scientific speech. Xanh can also be used singularly for any color that is the shade in between blue and green inclusively.

Mongolianedit

In Mongolian, the word for green is ногоон (nogoon). Mongolian distinguishes between dark and light blue. The word for light blue is цэнхэр (tsenher), and the word for dark blue is хөх (höh).

Indo-Europeanedit

Albanianedit

Albanian has two major words for "blue": kaltër refers to a light blue, such as that of the sky, but it is derived from Vulgar Latin calthinus, itself derived from caltha, a loan from Ancient Greek that meant "marigold" a small and in fact yellow flower.^[20][21] The other word, blu, refers to a darker shade of blue, and like many similar words across many European languages, derives ultimately from Germanic (see also: Italian blu). There is a separate word for green, gjelbër, which derives from the Latin galbinus, which originally meant "yellow" (cf. German gelb); the original Latin word for green on the other hand, viridis, is the source of the Albanian word for "yellow", verdhë.^[22] Albanian also has a borrowed word for green, jeshil, from Turkish yeşil; it tends to be used for non-natural greens (such as traffic signals) in contrast to gjelbër.

Balticedit

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There are separate words for green (zaļš) and blue (zils) in Latvian. Both zils and zaļš stem from the same Proto-Indo-European word for yellow (*ghel). Several other words in Latvian have been derived from these colors, namely grass is called zāle (from zaļš), while the name for iris is zīlīte (from zils).

The now archaic word mēļš was used to describe both dark blue and black (probably indicating that previously zils was used only for lighter shades of blue). For instance, blueberries are called mellenes.

In Latvian black is "melns" (in some local dialects "mells").

In Lithuanian žalias is green, mėlynas is blue and žilas is gray (hair), grizzled.

Slavicedit

Bulgarian, a South Slavic language, makes a clear distinction between blue (синьо, sinyo), green (зелено, zeleno), and black (черно, cherno).

In the Polish language, blue (niebieski from niebo – sky) and green (zielony) are treated as separate colors. The word for sky blue or azure—błękitny—might be considered either a basic color or a shade of blue by different speakers. Similarly dark blue or navy blue (granatowy—deriving from the name of pomegranate (granat), some cultivars of which are dark purplish blue in color) can be considered by some speakers as a separate basic color. Black (czarny) is completely distinguished from blue. As in English, Polish distinguishes pink ("różowy") from red ("czerwony").

The word siwy means blue-gray in Polish (literally: "color of gray hair"). The word siny refers to violet-blue and is used to describe the color of bruises ("siniaki"), hematoma, and the blue skin discoloration that can result from moderate hypothermia.

Russian does not have a single word referring to the whole range of colors denoted by the English term "blue". Instead, it traditionally treats light blue (голубой, goluboy) as a separate color independent from plain or dark blue (синий, siniy), with all seven "basic" colors of the spectrum (red–orange–yellow–green–голубой / goluboy (sky blue, light azure, but does not equal cyan)–синий / siniy ("true" deep blue, like synthetic ultramarine)–violet) while in English the light blues like azure and cyan are considered mere shades of "blue" and not different colors. The Russian word for "green" is зелёный, zielioniy. To better understand this, consider that English makes a similar distinction between "red" and light red (pink, which is considered a different color and not merely a kind of red), but such a distinction is unknown in several other languages; for example, both "red" ( 紅, hóng, traditionally called 赤), and "pink" (粉紅, fěn hóng, lit. "powder red") have traditionally been considered varieties of a single color in Chinese. The Russian language also distinguishes between red (красный, krasniy) and pink (розовый, rozoviy).

Similarly, English language descriptions of rainbows have often distinguished between blue or turquoise^[23] and indigo,^[24] the latter of which is often described as dark blue or ultramarine.^[25]

The Serbo-Croatian color system makes a distinction between blue, green and black:

• Blue: plava (indicates any blue) and modra; in the eastern speaking areas modra indicates dark blue, in some of the western areas it may indicate any blue
  • Navy blue: teget (mainly in the eastern speaking areas)
  • Ash blue: sinje (espetially in Dalmatia to describe sea in stormy weather: sinje more)
• Green: zelena
• Black: crna

Modra may also mean dark blue and dark purple that are used to describe colours of a bruise, modrica. Native speakers cannot pinpoint a color on the spectrum which would correspond to modra.^{[citation needed]}

Sinje, cognate to Bulgarian синьо, sinyo/Russian синий, siniy, is archaic, and denotes blue-gray, usually used to describe dark seas.

Turquoise is usually described as tirkizna, and similarly, azure will use a loan word azurna. There is no specific word for cyan. Blond hair is called plava ('blue'), reflecting likely the archaic use of "plav" for any bright white/blue colors (like the sky).

Mrko "dusky" can refer either dark brown, less often dark gray, or even black. It is etymologically derived from the word for "darkness" (mrak), but is distinct from "dark" (tamna). For instance, it is used to describe the brown bear (mrki medved/medvjed). Smeđe and kestenjasto refer brown, crveno means red, ružičasto is for pink and narančasto designates orange.

Shades are defined with a prefix (e.g. "tamno-" for dark, or "svetlo-/svijetlo-" for light), for example, dark blue = "tamnoplavo".

The Slovene language distinguishes among blue, green and black

• Blue: moder (officially) or plav (vernacular) is used for any blue. Sometimes a word sinj (adj. sinje) is also used to describe azure. The word akvamarin is sometimes used for navy-blue.
Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Blue–green_distinction_in_language
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