"color"

[Unilfwewyu]

Honestly I find it a little strange that Blue AND Green have the same word associated to it. Is there any way to differentiate them, or shall we be confused each time we use the word ean whether it is Green or blue?

[Swoka Swizaw]

Honestly I find it a little strange that Blue AND Green have the same word associated to it. Is there any way to differentiate them, or shall we be confused each time we use the word ean whether it is Green or blue?

Well, as was mentioned before, the issue with ean being a mixed concept is that blue and green are not as distinguished in the Pandoran flora and fauna as one might think. (Cyan is funny that way.) "Ean" could then mean "cyan," more that either color.

If you wanted to distinguish them in a way that might be psychologically apt, try ean a pay for blue and ean a rìk for green. I hope those are adequate...

[roger]

If you wanted to distinguish them in a way that might be psychologically apt, try ean a pay for blue and ean a rìk for green. I hope those are adequate...

You can't use 'a' to link nouns. ean payä/rìkä, perhaps, or ean lepay/lerìk.

[Mirri]

If you wanted to distinguish them in a way that might be psychologically apt, try ean a pay for blue and ean a rìk for green. I hope those are adequate...

You can't use 'a' to link nouns. ean payä/rìkä, perhaps, or ean lepay/lerìk.

I was thinking ean na pay

[roger]

I was thinking ean na pay

Even better.

[omängum fra'uti]

If you wanted to distinguish them in a way that might be psychologically apt, try ean a pay for blue and ean a rìk for green. I hope those are adequate...

You can't use 'a' to link nouns. ean payä/rìkä, perhaps, or ean lepay/lerìk.

Except that "ean" isn't a noun, it's an adjective.

But you can't use "a" to link adjectives either.  Colors are by nature an adjective.  You can describe the color as a noun but in Na'vi that would be the nominal form.  So "pay aean" would just be "blue water" not "water blue".  We don't really have a structure that is certain to be "water blue" that I can think of.  The best I could think of would be "na tìean payä".

[Mirri]

If you wanted to distinguish them in a way that might be psychologically apt, try ean a pay for blue and ean a rìk for green. I hope those are adequate...

You can't use 'a' to link nouns. ean payä/rìkä, perhaps, or ean lepay/lerìk.

Except that "ean" isn't a noun, it's an adjective.

But you can't use "a" to link adjectives either.  Colors are by nature an adjective.  You can describe the color as a noun but in Na'vi that would be the nominal form.  So "pay aean" would just be "blue water" not "water blue".  We don't really have a structure that is certain to be "water blue" that I can think of.  The best I could think of would be "na tìean payä".

No need to make it that complicated. Ean na pay

[Swoka Swizaw]

You can't use 'a' to link nouns. ean payä/rìkä, perhaps, or ean lepay/lerìk.

Thank you. That was one of my first thoughts...well, at least, for lerìk.

I was thinking ean na pay

You know, I do like that one better. Or, hell, more appropriate to the Na'vi, themselves: Ean na ta'leng.

[omängum fra'uti]

No need to make it that complicated. Ean na pay

It's not really that complicated, but try using it outside a simple "lu" statement...

Taw lu ean na pay - The sky is blue like water
Lu lor taw aean na pay - The blue sky is pretty like water - completely different meaning
Lu lor taw a lu ean na pay - The water blue sky is pretty

Taw lu na tìean payä - The sky is like the blue of water
Lu lor taw a na tìean payä - The water blue sky is pretty

[Prrton]

All the water I saw in the movie was "clear". We need a word for "transparent" and a productive something-or-other for "semi-" 

Seriously, though, this is a GREAT discussion. "Brown" is the "color of tea" in Japan while "grey" is the "color of ash."



I think one of the best ways to go about figuring out what colors they might name is to look at the contrasts in the colors that they DECORATE/CAMOUFLAGE themselves with in their daily lives. The process of manipulating/using colors seems to be a big predictor for having names for them in "culture". It also seems fine to me for the Na'vi to have more colors than their "level of civilization" might predict in comparison to cultures in the Amazon, PNG, etc., even if those (like ours) reference things in their environments. Certainly we had no "neon" colors until we had neon. No "fluorescent" colors until we had technology that was capable of fluorescing. They have all kinds of amazing things going on in their environments that we LITERALLY can only dream of (and soon watch on DVD).   

[Swoka Swizaw]

Seriously, though, this is a GREAT discussion. "Brown" is the "color of tea" in Japan while "grey" is the "color of ash."

Well put. Colors are not distinguishable from their objects.

I, too, have a feeling that Frommer will have root colors like ean. One for "red/orange," for instance. Though, yellow, rìk, must be of particular importance to the Na'vi to be/have it's own root.

[omängum fra'uti]

Yellow is "rim".  Leaf is "rìk".

Yellow is the color of their eyes.  Perhaps it could also be what they call the color that their bio-luminescence glows.  Even if the glowing is greenish/whitish, the fact that it glows would lend itself a closer match to yellow than blue, by some cultural ways of looking at color.

Actually, now that I think about it, I really like that idea about the glow being described more by the quality of the light than by the exact color.  Or maybe the luminescence has it's own "color" name.

[Plumps]

Yellow is "rim".  Leaf is "rìk".

Yellow is the color of their eyes.  Perhaps it could also be what they call the color that their bio-luminescence glows.  Even if the glowing is greenish/whitish, the fact that it glows would lend itself a closer match to yellow than blue, by some cultural ways of looking at color.

Actually, now that I think about it, I really like that idea about the glow being described more by the quality of the light than by the exact color.  Or maybe the luminescence has it's own "color" name.

Yes, that is something similar I had in mind when I suggested different words for light in the LEP
Maybe shade is all there is to it ... when you look at the ocean (at least in some places in our own little 'Rrta) sometimes it seems green, sometimes blue to us ... and all the weird concepts in between
So, I like the idea that one would specify in terms of shade

[wm.annis]

Though the anthropology and linguistics are in themselves interesting, at this point I'm not sure how much more we need to debate this particular issue with respect to Na'vi.  Lu Karyuru fìtxele set.  Po luyu alaksì a krr, awngar payeng. 

[Swoka Swizaw]

Yellow is "rim".  Leaf is "rìk".

Srane. Amomum oel tsat. Irayo. Ro sìkangkemtseng tamängok oe a krr 'ok salmi oel futa pamrel sami keyawr lamängu.
Yes. I knew that. Thanks. I was at work when I had remembered what I wrote was wrong.

Any corrections?

[omängum fra'uti]

Discussion on "Rememberance" split into the intermediate forum.  Please continue it there.
http://forum.learnnavi.org/language-updates/rememberance/