II. — On the Color-Vocahtilary of Children. 



By harry K. WOLFE. 



The very interesting investigations and discussions on the 

 development of the color-sense in man, during historical 

 times, have indirectly shown the deficiency of ancient lan- 

 guages in words for simple sensations. Even if the validity 

 of the inference drawn by the original investigators is more 

 than doubtful, their labor has not been in vain. In seeking 

 evidence for the recent evolution of the sense of color, Glad- 

 stone, Geiger, and others have shown that few words denot- 

 ing color are used in the earliest literature of several nations. 

 Furthermore, most of the color-words found denote shades of 

 red, orange, or yellow. Violet is never named, blue very 

 seldom, and green much less frequently than we might expect 

 from its occurrence in nature. Quite similar results have been 

 obtained from examination of the vocabularies of modern un- 

 civilized peoples.^ Although most tribes have names for the 

 principal colors of the spectrum, the terms denoting red or 

 yellow are far more numerous and much more definite than 

 the others. 



The inference from these facts has been that primitive 

 peoples are deficient, not merely in words for color, but also 

 in color-perception. In making the perception depend on 

 the name, the fact was overlooked that the conception must 

 precede the name. Moreover, the latter is not invented until 

 the desire arises to communicate the conception to others. 



It is not my purpose at present, however, to show that this 



^ Dr. Hugo Magnus : Untersiichimg iiber den Farbensiun de7- Naturvolker, 

 S. 43 et set]. 



University Studies, Vol. I., No. 3, July, 1890. 205 



