This week's Moscow Times article...
Jun. 11th, 2004 06:53 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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learn_russianBetween the Devil and the Wine-Dark Sea
By Michele A. Berdy
Винноцветное море: wine-dark sea.
About 3,000 years ago, Homer described the evening sea as oinos, translated as "wine-dark," starting off a debate on language and perception that has yet to be resolved. Was this a poetic reference to the sea burnished by the magenta sunset? Was wine in those times bright red? Or did Greeks use one word for "dark color" that could be applied to red wine or a blue-green sea at twilight?
Or, like most men, was Homer incapable of perceiving and naming colors? (Ask any woman what color her dress is, and she'll tell you: "Aquamarine with an ecru collar." Ask her husband, and he'll say, "Uh, kinda light blue, I guess, with white on it.") For all we know, as Homer was penning "The Iliad," Mrs. Homer was hovering over her husband, muttering, "It's deep blue-green, with a tinge of moss closer to shore. Can't you see that?!"
While I'm applying for grants, I'm going to get one to test Russians and Americans on names of colors. A small sample shows that "purple" is in the eye -- and language -- of the beholder.
It's a bit confusing in Russian from the start. The word for color and flower are the same (цвет), presumably because flowers were first perceived as "those colored things in the garden." The only trick to remember is that the plural of color is цвета, while flowers are цветы. Luckily, the Russian propensity for diminutives helps us: Какие красивые цветочки! (What beautiful flowers!)
The primary colors are основные цвета: жёлтый, красный и синий (yellow, red and blue). Other forms of red are малиновый (raspberry, a bright rosy red, with less purple than the American counterpart), алый (scarlet, a deep bright red), пунцовый (poppy, crimson; used to refer to rosy cheeks -- пунцовые щёки), розовый (rose-colored, pink), бордовый (magenta, literally the color of Bordeaux), клубничный (strawberry red), and the false friend пурпурный, which is a deep cardinal red.
Colors that are problematic for cross-cultural communication are in the dark blue-purple range. Синий is dark, navy blue; anything else is a form of голубой, which we usually translate as "light blue." But note that the blue in the Russian flag is considered голубой, and my mini-focus group identified the color electric blue as ярко-голубой (literally "bright light blue"). Синий can refer to the color of eggplants, which are also called, especially in Ukraine, синенькие ("little blue things"). The rule of thumb seems to be that if it is such dark blue that it is almost indistinguishable from blackish purple, it's синий; anything else is a form of голубой or described by one of the more specific Russian color terms, such as аквамариновый (aquamarine), бирюзовый (turquoise) or лазурный (azure).
Many Russian color names come from flowers and the French. What we Americans call "light purple" or "purple" are described by Russians as лиловый (a form of violet), фиолетовый (violet) or сиреневый (from сирень -- lilac). Сиреневый is the palest of the three, but my sample argued over the difference between the other two. More research required.
If you can't remember your crayon box colors like ochre or burnt sienna, in Russian you can combine words. Just replace the adjectival ending of the first color with the adverbial "o": зелёно-голубой (green-blue) or красно-коричневый (red-brown). If you want to say "pale" or "light," add блёкло: блёкло-оранжевый (pale/washed-out orange). Пыльно- or more commonly тускло- can be prefixed to mean "dusty" or "dull": пыльно-розовый (dusty rose), тускло-бордовый (dull magenta). Or you can add the prefix серовато- to mean "a grayish tinge," such as серовато-зелёные глаза (grayish-green eyes).
If you are at a total loss, try adding the suffix –оватый to any color that is more or less in the range you are trying to describe: It means "ish." Я купила розы красноватого оттенка. (I bought roses that were sort of red/reddish.) It's not Homer, but at least you'll be in the right ballpark.
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
By Michele A. Berdy
Винноцветное море: wine-dark sea.
About 3,000 years ago, Homer described the evening sea as oinos, translated as "wine-dark," starting off a debate on language and perception that has yet to be resolved. Was this a poetic reference to the sea burnished by the magenta sunset? Was wine in those times bright red? Or did Greeks use one word for "dark color" that could be applied to red wine or a blue-green sea at twilight?
Or, like most men, was Homer incapable of perceiving and naming colors? (Ask any woman what color her dress is, and she'll tell you: "Aquamarine with an ecru collar." Ask her husband, and he'll say, "Uh, kinda light blue, I guess, with white on it.") For all we know, as Homer was penning "The Iliad," Mrs. Homer was hovering over her husband, muttering, "It's deep blue-green, with a tinge of moss closer to shore. Can't you see that?!"
While I'm applying for grants, I'm going to get one to test Russians and Americans on names of colors. A small sample shows that "purple" is in the eye -- and language -- of the beholder.
It's a bit confusing in Russian from the start. The word for color and flower are the same (цвет), presumably because flowers were first perceived as "those colored things in the garden." The only trick to remember is that the plural of color is цвета, while flowers are цветы. Luckily, the Russian propensity for diminutives helps us: Какие красивые цветочки! (What beautiful flowers!)
The primary colors are основные цвета: жёлтый, красный и синий (yellow, red and blue). Other forms of red are малиновый (raspberry, a bright rosy red, with less purple than the American counterpart), алый (scarlet, a deep bright red), пунцовый (poppy, crimson; used to refer to rosy cheeks -- пунцовые щёки), розовый (rose-colored, pink), бордовый (magenta, literally the color of Bordeaux), клубничный (strawberry red), and the false friend пурпурный, which is a deep cardinal red.
Colors that are problematic for cross-cultural communication are in the dark blue-purple range. Синий is dark, navy blue; anything else is a form of голубой, which we usually translate as "light blue." But note that the blue in the Russian flag is considered голубой, and my mini-focus group identified the color electric blue as ярко-голубой (literally "bright light blue"). Синий can refer to the color of eggplants, which are also called, especially in Ukraine, синенькие ("little blue things"). The rule of thumb seems to be that if it is such dark blue that it is almost indistinguishable from blackish purple, it's синий; anything else is a form of голубой or described by one of the more specific Russian color terms, such as аквамариновый (aquamarine), бирюзовый (turquoise) or лазурный (azure).
Many Russian color names come from flowers and the French. What we Americans call "light purple" or "purple" are described by Russians as лиловый (a form of violet), фиолетовый (violet) or сиреневый (from сирень -- lilac). Сиреневый is the palest of the three, but my sample argued over the difference between the other two. More research required.
If you can't remember your crayon box colors like ochre or burnt sienna, in Russian you can combine words. Just replace the adjectival ending of the first color with the adverbial "o": зелёно-голубой (green-blue) or красно-коричневый (red-brown). If you want to say "pale" or "light," add блёкло: блёкло-оранжевый (pale/washed-out orange). Пыльно- or more commonly тускло- can be prefixed to mean "dusty" or "dull": пыльно-розовый (dusty rose), тускло-бордовый (dull magenta). Or you can add the prefix серовато- to mean "a grayish tinge," such as серовато-зелёные глаза (grayish-green eyes).
If you are at a total loss, try adding the suffix –оватый to any color that is more or less in the range you are trying to describe: It means "ish." Я купила розы красноватого оттенка. (I bought roses that were sort of red/reddish.) It's not Homer, but at least you'll be in the right ballpark.
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
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thank you for the article
Date: 2004-06-11 09:53 am (UTC)correction
Date: 2004-06-22 11:14 pm (UTC)Not exactly. A color is "цвет", a flower is "цветок".
(But maybe "цвет" was also "flower" in the old Russian language, and цветок than was a kind of diminitive.)
> the plural of color is цвета, while flowers are цветы.
Correct.