Osnovnye tsvetooboznatšenija v sovremennom udmurtskom jazyke
Basic Colour Terms in Modern Udmurt

Summary/Abstract: The article describes an empirical study of Udmurt colour terms the aim of which was to establish an inventory of basic colour terms according to the theory of B. Berlin and P. Kay (1969). The study also considered the differences between the Southern and Northern dialects concerning the colour vocabulary. An analysis of the results shows that in both dialects there are six primary basic colour terms: горд ’red’, вож ’green’, ӵуж ’yellow’, лыз ’blue’, сьöд ’black’, тöдьы ’white’ and one derived basic colour term пурысь ’grey’. A complete inventory of basic colour terms is used in the Southern dialect of Udmurt, which lacks only a basic colour term for purple. It is interesting that in the Northern dialect of the Udmurt language there are two basic colour terms for blue, although different words are used for brown and orange. These results contrast, partly, with Berlin and Kay’s theory.

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