146 Mr Rivers, The colour vision of the Eskimo. 



This definiteness of nomenclature for green and blue, and 

 especially for blue, is very exceptional in the languages of people 

 in stages of civilization similar to that of the Eskimo. Other 

 subarctic races, as the Chukchis 1 and the Samoyeds 2 , are said to 

 show the same absence of definite terminology for green and blue 

 which is characteristic of nearly all primitive languages. 



The other divisions of the Eskimo race do not appear to be as 

 advanced as those examined by me. Bessels found that the 

 Eskimo of Smith Sound confused brown and blue and had no 

 names for gradations of intensity, and Almquist found that the 

 colour names of the Eskimo of Behring Straits were indefinite. It 

 is possible that the Labrador Eskimo examined by me had become 

 exceptionally definite in their nomenclature owing to European 

 influence, for in Erdmann's dictionary tungajoktak is given as 

 meaning green as well as blue, and two of the Labrador Eskimo 

 examined by Virchow called violet "kirnitangajuk " (blackish). 



The tendency to confuse blue and black in nomenclature 

 which is present in nearly all more or less primitive languages 

 seems to have been completely absent in the Eskimo examined by 

 me, though possibly the tendency may have been shown in a slight 

 degree by the woman who called blue-green "iviujukkenangaijuk" 

 (blackish green). The Eskimo of Hudson Bay (Central Eskimo) 

 called black " mugtuk " while those of the southern part of the 

 American side of Behring Straits use this word for blue (Rink). 

 The latter also use a word " tanaqtok" for black which Rink states 

 is possibly related to or confused with the word used elsewhere for 

 blue. 



One may also see in the words used by the Labrador Eskimo 

 some traces of the prominence of red in colour nomenclature which 

 is the most characteristic feature of primitive colour languages. 

 Several individuals called orange and violet by some modifi- 

 cation of the word for red. They were more influenced by the 

 red component in these colours than by the yellow and blue 

 components respectively. 



In another respect the Eskimo language resembles all the 

 other more or less primitive languages with which I am acquainted, 

 viz. in the absence of a word for brown. When asked the names 

 for brown wools and papers, the indecision and delay in answering 

 was in marked contrast with their behaviour with other colours. 

 The browns shown were most commonly named by means of some 

 modification of the word for red, while others were termed yellowish 

 or greenish or even bluish. Two other words " sinanuk " and 

 " a^jangatuk " were used which were also applied to grey. One 



1 See Almquist, Die wissenschaft. Ergebnisse d. Vega-expedition, 1883, vol. i. 

 p. 42. 



2 See Kirchhoff, Das Ausland, 1883, p. 546. 



