105

COLOR TERMS IN NARRAGANSETT

George F. Aubin
Assumption College

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calor space has often been considered as a prime example of the

arbitrariness of the fit between physical phenomena and the terms chosen by any

given language to refer to these same phenomena. The discussion by Gleason

(1955:4) on the varying ways English, Bassa, and Shona divide up the spectrum

is typical of this approach to the question. A quite different view of color

space and color terminology is advanced by Berlin and Kay in their book, Basic

color terms, in which they argue for the existence of just eleven universal

basic color terms acquired by languages in a fixed evolutionary order:

Stage I: WHITE and BLACK

Stage II: RED
Stage III: GREEN or YELLOW
Stage IV: GREEN and YELLOW
Stage V: BLUE
Stage VI: BROWN
Stage VII: PURPLE and/or PINK and/or ORGANGE and/or GREY (any number in
any order)

In the spate of criticism and comment provoked by this book, two studies

are of special interest. Foremost is 'Calor term salience' by D. Hays et al.,

some of the conclusions of which are independently supported by E. Heider in her

article, 'Universals in calor naming and memory'.

In their paper, 'Color term salience' (hereafter referred to as CTS), Hays

and his associates conclude (1972:1120) that, in spite of their agreement with

many of the criticisms of Berlin and Kay's book, they are persuaded that its

main structure is correct. CTS (1972:1109-13) adduces four new types of evidence

in support of this conclusion.

(1) Color vocabulary size and cultural complexity: Few focal color terms

are found in usually simple societies, and more focal color terms in more complex ·

societies, a fact they maintain is not accounted for by the hypothesis of joint

diffusio n.

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Papers of the 7th Algonquian Conference (1975)
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(2) Expression length and salience: The more salient a focal color term,

the shorter its expression form on the average.

(3) Frequency of use and salience: The more salient a focal color term,

the more often it is used in a culture that possesses it.

(4) Ethnographic frequency and salience: The more salient a focal color

term, the more frequently ethnographers are likely to use it when discussing

native ideas about color. Also, the more salient a term, the more likely it

is to appear in an ethnography that mentions few colors in such discussion.

Two related concepts are central to this discussion, focal color term

(which replaces Berlin and Kay's troublesome basic color term) and salience.

By a focal color term is meant 'a monolexemic color term which is substantially

equivalent to one of the following eleven English color terms: black, white,

red, yellow, green, blue, brown, pink, orange, purple, and grey' (CTS 1972:1108

Each such term is defined by a focal point of hue and brightness on the Munsell

color chart (CTS 1972:1109). By salience of colors is meant 'those colors

which are notable for their prominence and conspicuousness, and thus attract

attention. Salient colors 'leap out'' (CTS 1972:1111). All focal color terms

are salient in this sense, with the more widely distributed terms being more

salient than the others (CTS 1972:1111-13, 1120).

In this paper, I will examine in the light of the evidence of the

Narragansett materials the argument of CTS that there is a relationship between

ethnographic frequency and salience. Since it is maintained that this

relationship can be determined from written records alone, in the absence of

native informants (CTS 1972:1113), Narragansett provides a good test of the

validity of this contention. Less directly, the Narragansett evidence also

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tests the other three conclusions of CTS. In addition, the following discussion

of Narragansett color terms is of more general interest due to the fact that

Algonquian languages are seldom adequately treated in the various discussions

of color terminology. CTS briefly refers to four Algonquian lanquages in one

of its tables (CTS 1972:1114-17); neither Heider nor Berlin and Kay mention any

at all. I have attempted to be as complete as possible, including in this

discussion any and all terms that may reasonably be considered Narragansett

color terms in the light of information available to me. I have also included

both Proto-Algonquian and Natick color terms where I have been able to determine

them.

1. mowi 'black' (191); mowashuck 'iron' (42); mowesu 'blacke, or swarfish' (52);
moattoqus 'a blacke wolfe' (103); moaskug 'black snake' (105)
-cf. Natick m8i '(it is) black, dark colored' (Tr03.65), PA *mo:w- 'soil'
(B125.139)

2. sucki 'black' (52); sucki 'blacke' (155); sucki 'blacke' (191); suckesu
'blacke, or swarfish' (52); suckautacone 'a cole-blacke man' (52);
suckauhock 'black money' (115); suckawhock 'blacke money' (115); suckauhock
•black [money]' (155); suckauhock 'the blacke money' (155); nausakesachick
'the blacke money' (155)l; suckauanausuck 'the blacke shells' (156);
suckauaskeesaquash 'the blacke eyes' (156); suckinuit 'black, or blackish
[cloth]' (160); Stiles suckequoq 'bass' (Co73.9); Gatschet suckenak (a
plural form) 'black, colored persons' (Ga73.14)

3. metewis 'black earth' (192); metewemesick '...an Indian towne...' (192)

4. wcSmpi 'white' (191); wompdsu 'white' (52); wompimish 'a chestnut tree'
; wompimineash 'chestnutts' (95); wompiscannemeneash 'white seed-corne'
B); wompmissaund 'a chestnut canow' (108); wompans 'white money' (115);
wompam 'white [money]' (155); wauompeg, or wauompesichick-mesim 'give me
white (156 ; wompinuit 'white cloath' (160); wompequayi 'cloth inclining
to white (160); Stiles waumpmunch 'chestnut' (Co73.10); Gatschet wampum
money; currency used as money' (Ga73 14)
-cf. Natick wo-mpi 'white' (Tr03.195),'PA *wa:pi 'white' (B146.104)

5
' cedar tree' HIV ' mi'^OCkuk 'a -d ~PPer kettle- (15); mishquawtuck 'the
salmon' Q13, • : l S ^ a s h l m ' a r e d f ^ ' (103) ; mishquammauquock 'red fish,
TlT) m i a ' i n u i f ^ f ^ S a r t h ' ( 1 ? 3 ) ' ""hquook '...Adam, or red earth..
kunukkeke 'vo,r ,, ° t h ( 1 6 ° ' S m £ s h ^ ° c k 'red earth' (192); mishquesu
-cr N : t L k y m u s ° r m Y 1 n r e d d i S h , . ( 1 6 2 ) ; "iles mishquasmps 'fox' (Co73 10)
PA meskw Zl^T ' ^ T 1 ' m S q U 1 ' a n d " ^ e ' ( i t is> red' (Tr03 . 71) ,
ffl meskw- red (root)' (B146.120)

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6. wunnam 'their red painting...' (191)

-cf. PA *welamana 'red ochre, vermilion' (He71.247)

7. wesaui 'yellow' (191)

-cf. Natick weesoe 'yellow' (Tr03.186), PA *wi:sa:wi 'yellow' (Go65.220)

8. askaski 'greene' (191)

-cf. Natick ashkoshqui, -ki; oshkoski '(it is) green' (Tr03.15)

9. peshaui 'blew'^(191); peshauiuash 'violet leaves' (97)

-cf. Natick 8noi, 8noe 'blue' (Tr03.112)

10. pequawus 'a gray fox' (103)

-cf. Natick wompishocki 'gray' (Tr03.195)

Of the ten color terms found in the Narragansett materials, one of them,

term 6, does not fit the definition of a focal color term and must be eliminated.

Several other terms are questionable. In spite of the numerous examples

for term 2, Trumbull (1903:226) rejects the interpretation of Williams, stating

that

...strictly speaking, sucki was dark colored and not black. The
dark purple shells from which the more valuable peag was made,
and the dark peag itself blue, purple, or violet were
named from their color suckauhock.

Term 3 is glossed with a query by Trumbull (1903:56) as 'plumbago or graphite',

thus suggesting that it may not be or contain a color term at all. Term 10

is suspect for the same reason.

Term 9, glossed by Williams as both 'blue' and 'violet', may indicate only

that the term BLUE in Narragansett also includes some shades of purple. Trumbull

(1903:112) questions the forms cited by Williams, pointing out that the

Narragansett forms are apparently related to the Natick form uppeshau 'flower'.

Lending support to Williams, however, are the Natick forms peshai 'blue' and

peshannoquat 'blue colour' quoted by Cotton (1830:168). Given this conflicting

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evidence, term 9 must be considered questionable.

If we eliminate from our list, in addition to term 6, those terms which

are suspect in some way, i.e., terms 2, 3, 9, and 10, we are left with

evidence for the existence of Narragansett color terms for BLACK, WHITE, RED,

YELLOW, and GREEN. Most striking is the fact that the color terms found in

the Narragansett materials are just those predicted by Berlin and Kay, a

finding which supports the contention of CTS that there is a relationship

between ethnographic frequency and salience. In addition, since there are far

more examples of BLACK, WHITE, and RED in the Narragansett corpus than of the

other terms, it can be argued that the salience of the focal color term is

related to its frequency of use, with the earlier terms in Berlin and Kay's

evolutionary sequence having higher frequencies than the later terms. Further,

according to this evolutionary sequence, Narragansett would be a Stage IV

language, lending some support to the contention of Berlin and Kay and CTS

that there is a relationship between color vocabulary size and cultural

complexity.

Concerning the question of expression length and salience, it is sometimes

stated in the discussion of focal color terms that the more widely distributed

terms are shorter in length than the rarer ones (CTS 1972:1111; Heider 1972:14).

In this connection, Heider talks of letters and CTS refers to phonemes. Neither

makes very clear what is meant precisely by 'letter' or 'phoneme'. Neither

study, moreover, discusses the phonology of any of the languages used in any

detail. Further, there is little discussion of the problems involved in the

determination of length regardless of the unit of analysis selected.2 Until

«>re attention is paid in the literature to considerations of this nature, any

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conclusions concerning expression length and salience are best viewed with
some skepticism.

The Narragansett evidence thus seems to generally support the conclusions

of Berlin and Kay and of CTS, with the one exception noted. Although this

analysis of the Narragansett materials is a tentative one, there is reason to

believe that some of the attributes of focal colors, including their linguistic

codability across languages, are universals probably derived from underlying

factors that have to do with the physiology of primate color vision (Heider

1972:20). In the case at hand, of course, before making any claims of this

nature, we need more information on the color terms in languages closely related

to Narragansett, as well as Proto-Algonquian reconstructions for as many of the

eleven focal color terms as possible. If and when this information becomes

available, a clearer picture of the Narragansett situation and its wider

implications will hopefully emerge.

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NOTES

Ives Goddard has pointed out to me that this is most likely the changed form;
cf. Unami saksu 'he is black', Munsee nsaksaw 'he is black' and ne'skasi't
'one who is black'.

See Durbin (1971:271 note) for a brief discussion of some of these problems.

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REFERENCES CITED

Berlin, Brent, and Paul Kay. 1969. Basic color terms: their universality and
evolution. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Bloomfield, Leonard. 1925. On the sound-system of Central Algonquian.

Language 1.130-56.

• 1946. Algonquian. Pp. 85-129 in Linguistic structures

of native America, Harry Hoijer et al., eds. Viking Fund Publications
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Brown, Roger, and Eric Lenneberg. 1954. A study in language and cognition.
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 49.454-62.

Collier, George. 1973. Review of Basic color terms: their universality and
evolution, by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay. Language 49.245-48.

Cotton, Josiah. 1830. Cotton's vacabulary of the Massachusetts (or Natick)

Indian language. Pp. 147-257 in Massachusetts Historical Society
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Cowan, William. 1973. Narragansett 126 years after. International Journal of

American Linguistics 39.7-13.

Durbin, Marshall. 1971. Review of Basic color terms: their universality and
evolution, by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay. Semiotica 6.257-78.

Ervin, Susan. 1961. Semantic shift in bilingualism. American Journal of

Psychology 74.233-41.

Gatschet, Albert. 1973. Narragansett vocabulary collected in 1879. International

Journal of American Linguistics 39.14.

Gleason, H.A. 1955. An introduction to descriptive linguistics. New York: Holt,

Rinehart and Winston.

Goddard, Ives. 1965. The Eastern Algonquian intrusive nasal. International

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Hays, David, Enid Margolis, Raoul Naroll, and Dale Perkins. 1972. Color term
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Heider, Eleanor. 1972. Universals in color naming and memory. Journal of

Experimental Psychology 93.10-20.

Hewson, John. 1971. Beothuk consonant correspondences. International Journal

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Hickerson, Nancy. 1971. Review of Basic color terms: their universality and
evolution, by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay. International Journal of
American Linguistics 37.257-70.

Newcomer, Peter, and James Faris. 1971. Review of Basic color terms: their
universality and evolution, by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay. International
Journal of American Linguistics 37.270-5.

Trumbull, James. 1903. Natick dictionary. Bureau of American Ethnology,

Bulletin 25. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Westcott, Roger. 1970. Bini color terms. Anthropological Linguistics

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Williams, Roger. 1936. A Key into the language of America [1643]. Providence:
The Roger Williams Press.

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