tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jan 03 06:08:50 2008
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: purple
Many human languages lack a word for purple. That doesn't mean the
speakers of those languages can't see the color. It just means that
Maltz neglected to include it in his definitions of {SuD} and {Doq}.
He also didn't include chartreuse, mauve, brown, grey and a lot of
other colors. There is no reason to fixate on purple and jump to
conclusions about Klingon physiology.
Okrand was playing with a linguistic generalization when he created
his color words. Some human languages have only two words for color
(usually translated as "black" and "white") with all the colors we
know arbitrarily divided between these two terms (darker colors being
"black" and lighter ones being "white"), or they may have three colors
(usually "black", "white" and "red"), or four colors (add "green/blue"
to the list) or five colors... up to about seven colors. Everything
after seven is completely arbitrary, but among the lesser numbered
colors there are generalities that usually hold.
In particular, color systems that only include a "red/orange" group
and a "green/blue" group ALWAYS list yellow in the "red" group. In
terms of spectra, this is arbitrary, since yellow is basically
somewhere between orange and green, but human languages always put
yellow with "red".
Okrand put it with "green", just to make Klingon different. He's a
linguist. This is a kind of joke. Most people don't get it.
So, look at something purple. Does it look reddish purple or bluish
purple? The Klingon would call it {SuD} if it were bluish purple or
{Doq} if it were reddish purple, just like something between orange
and yellow will be {SuD} or {Doq} depending on whether the person
describing the color sees it as more of an orange or more of a yellow.
For finer hue differentiation, we have {rur} and a vocabulary of nouns
that are associated with particular colors.
Doq
On Jan 2, 2008, at 6:14 PM, naHQun wrote:
> "The fact that neither SuD nor Doq includes what is called "violet" or
> "purple" in Federation Standard may be related to Klingon
> physiology--that is, exactly how the Klingon eye processes different
> wavelengths of light." KGT pp82-83
>
> Seems pretty simple, Klingons can't see purple, therefore they don't
> have a word for "purple".
>
> But WHY can't they see purple?
>
> I can think of two reasons.
>
> 1) It is simply outside of thier visual range-like humans and
> ultra-violet. We simple can't see it, but we know that it's there
> because we have instruments to detect it for us.
>
> 2) ALL Klingons are color-blind to purple.
>
> If it's option 1, then only a small group of Klingons who spend time
> dealing with shades outside of the Klingon spectrum would have a way
> to refer to puprple. (How often do we use "ultra-violet" in everyday
> speech?)
>
> If it's option 2, then in place of purple, a Klingon would see a
> different shade, something like when a colorblind human looks at a
> shade that they can't see.
> In which case, is anyone on the list colorblind to purple-or know
> enough about colorblindness in general to "guess" what shade purple
> would come out as. If a Klingon percieves purple as green-then the
> Klingon would say that the object is "SuD". Which would then make all
> purple object SuD, no?
>
> Of course, not having a Klingon around to place purple objects in
> front of makes all of this speculation.
>
> ~naHQun
>
> --
> http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=508314975
> http://www.myspace.com/naHQun
> http://www.angelfire.com/tx4/purpleelaphants/
> http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=17154199825822026505
> http://www.twitter.com/roneyii
>
> Modern playwrights have become obsessed with writing human
> interpretations of alien theatrical works while ignoring completely
> our own unique cultural heritage.~Bashir; "The Die is Cast" (DS9)
>
>