Landsberger, B. (1967).

About colors in the Sumerian-

Akkadian. Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 21, 139. doi: 10.2307 /
1359368
As a comment on his extremely stimulating, new approach to
investigation.
"Colour and shape designation in the language of the
Altarabischen Dichtung" (1965) writes Wolfdietrich Fischer p. 381:

"In the actual area of only three basic colours are used for the colour
scheme distinguished:
1. green-blue = dark color (ahdar),
2. red-brown (ahmar),
3. yellow-brown (sfar).

Even poorer are Akkadian and Hebraic; the former must be satisfied
with red-brown = samu and green-yellow = ?yarqu; the latter with the
pair adom and iaroq.
1 Yellow blindness is blatantly expressed in the area of application of
the root u(i)rq with its impenetrable synthesis of the element’s "plant"
and "green": it includes both the fresh green plant (see for example
arqussu= "(plant) in thegreen condition", CAD A/2, p. 302)
as the jaundice (akk. amurriqanu2; hebr. i-raqon)
3; the blue blindness, which we will discuss more closely below, is
international; even those who deny it must admit that for the people of
antiquity it was no natural blue.

The word 'avKos', which in later times meant 'blue', was originally
'brightly shimmering'; the sky is just as little for the Greeks and:
Romans
"blue" as for Sumerians, Akkadians and other Semites; Arabic azraq,
today "blue", but classically "shimmering", especially from the shining
eye, resulting in a beating etymological equation with Akk. zarriqu
(CAD Z 69);
modern Hebrew, when writing "blue", must match the color of the dark
Purple (tekelat) or Stibium make-up cabbage (kohal); turquoise "blue" is
mayi "watercolor". Of course, we cannot understand how the ancients
perceived Lapis lazuli (uqnu), which we saw in azure blue; but we must
not imagine that in Akkadian, with the coining of the term "uqniatum"
for a shade of wool, blue blindness was overcome.
For the Sumerians until the time of Gudea, the sky green (plant-
colored), what is below is a little richer (K.K.) Riemschneider, MIO V
[1957] 141-7); here allegedly the color blue is found; but this attachment
is based solely on the (equation SIG.ZA.(GlN with SIG andarant-
(Goetze, JCS X 34 note 17); what is meant by the "blue tag"
(Riemschneider 143,45) with which this wool is compared?

Finally, Syriac knows a word qan'a "dark blue" (Brock.2 678), which is
generally referred to as the loanword of Greek Kvaveos (derivation of
Kvaros" is considered, inter alia, "lapis lazuli"), for which the Wbb.
indicate "dark blue", "black blue", "dark colored", "dark". We
below contradict the derivation of syr. qun'a from the Greek.
The present study strives for a certain systematics, but is far from it.

Congruence between Sumerian and Akkadian must satisfy all

requirements of the classification of objects such as omen observation.
Inserts are rare, see c.
Also the series "abnu sikinsu" which distinguishes the magic stones
mostly by their colour,
makes a living with this permissive series; but prints out finer nuances
through "Kima" ..... From stones is again the
The latter, in turn, is almost exclusively limited to wool. These form the
focus of this investigation. The stereotypical colour series according to
Hh.

Canonical
Sumerian Precursor version Akkadian Color
UD.UD (=babbarx) UD (=babbar) pesu White
mi (sprich ȵi) the same thing salmu Black
si } a, younger sa samu Red-brown
gun-a (speak guna) (gun)-gun-(nu) burrumu Multicolored
se, sprich se sig.sig arqu Green yellow

(stone named seg-seg (Akkadian sissiktu) in abnu sikinsu "speckled

with black")
Pg. 141