48 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



India, who have only three definite terms in their color vocabulary, 

 viz., those for red, white and black, while others have also a term for 

 yellow. The absence of a definite term for blue, on the other hand, is 

 very common. The languages which have this characteristic appear 

 to fall into two main classes; those which, as in Kiwai, have the same 

 word for blue and black, and those which have the same word for blue 

 and green. The former class includes the languages of Hovas and 

 Bushmen, as well as of many Australian and Melanesian tribes. The 

 second group comprises a very large number of languages, including 

 one so near home as Welsh, in which there is only one word, 'glas,' for 

 both green and blue. 



By many races a word for blue has been borrowed from some other 

 language, as was the case in Murray Island; thus many African races 

 are said to use the term ^Dru,' obviously a corruption of the English 

 word; in South America the Spanish word 'azul' has been borrowed, 

 and the Battas of Sumatra have borrowed words both from Dutch and 

 Malay. The word used by the Ga people of the Gold Coast for blue 

 and for indigo is said to mean literally '^something that must be learnt,' 

 these people having been taught the use of indigo either by Europeans 

 or by other Africans.* 



When in Ceylon I obtained color vocabularies from a number of 

 Singhalese and Tamils, and, though the two languages differed in other 

 respects, both Singhalese and Tamils used the word 'nil' or "nilam' for 

 blue, and this word, which is said to be the same as the name of the 

 river Nile, is found widely distributed among Asiatic languages. The 

 river Nile has another interest in connection with this peculiarity of 

 color language. We are in the habit of speaking of the White Nile 

 and the Blue Nile. The Arabic name for blue is 'azrag,' a word used 

 by the modern Egyptian for blue and for dark colors generally. 'El 

 Bahr azrag' probably originally meant the dark Nile, and, when we 

 speak of the Blue Nile, we are using an expression which is based upon 

 the primitive confusion between blue and black. 



Magnus has shown that these defects in color nomenclature eannot 

 be referred to the poverty of language. Some races, such as the Kaf- 

 firs and Basutos of South Africa, who have no word for blue, have, 

 nevertheless, a very long vocabulary for the various colors of oxen. 

 Similarly, the Kirghises,t of Central Asia, have many different names 



* For many other instances of defective color terminology among savage and 

 semi-civilized races, see the papers of Magnus already quoted, and also .^jidree, 

 'Zeitsch f. Bthnologie,' Bd. X., p. 328; 1878. 



fRadloflF, 'Zischr. f. Ethnol.' Bd. III., p. 285; 1871. 



