rainbow: number of colours/colors

[TitTornade]

Hello,
According to Newton's studies, the tradition in France says that a rainbow is made of 7 colours :
Fr. Violet, indigo, bleu, vert, jaune, orange, rouge (Eng. violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red)

Actually, the number of colours is infinite...

My question : how many colours do you traditionnally see in a rainbow according to your language/culture ?
I would like to know if the lack of a colour word (e.g. orange) could lead to rainbows with less colours or if your language possesses other specific colours that we could find in a rainbow with 8 or 9 or more colours.

 

[rusita preciosa]

Russian: 7
красный /krasnyi/ - red
оранжевый /orangevyi/ - orange
жёлтый /joltyi/ - yellow
зелёный /zelenyi/ - green
голубой /goluboy/ - light blue
синий /sinyi/ - blue
фиолетовый /fioletovyi/ - purple

(interestingly, the French rainbow seems to start from the opposite side of the spectrum compared to the Russian one )

 

[merquiades]

I never thought of this before. I checked in English and it seems like it is the same as in French but starting with red, orange, yellow, green, blue... and ending with indigo and purple. I didn't know about the indigo stage. Personally looking at a rainbow I agree with Rusita that there is a sky blue and navy blue stage.

 

[ilocas2]

I don't think that in Czech there is a fixed list of colours of rainbow. So I'll only translate it.

red - červená
orange - oranžová
yellow - žlutá
green - zelená
light blue - světle modrá
blue - modrá
purple - fialová

 

[rusita preciosa]

The fact that there are languages where the list of colors is not fixed, surprised me.

In Russian there is even a little mnemonic to remember the 7 colors in order - a sentense where each word starts with the same letter as the corresponding color: каждый охотник желает знать где сидит фазан (every hunter wishes to know where sits [the] pheasant).

 

[ilocas2]

I just looked at a site with Czech mnemonics and there are 4 about the order of colours in the rainbow. One is with 7 colours - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple and 3 are with 6 colours - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

 

[binary_death]

In Catalan:

red - vermell
orange - taronja
yellow - groc
green - verd
light blue - blau clar
blue - blau fosc
purple - porpra

In Spanish:

red - rojo
orange - naranja
yellow - amarillo
green - verde
light blue - azul claro
blue - azul oscuro/marino
purple - púrpura

 

[TitTornade]

Thank you for your information !

Rusita : I never notice that the order between red and violet or between violet and red was important ! It is intersting to know that the mnemonic in russian is choosen for an order: from red to violet !
In French, everyone wonders what this "indigo" colour is, because we can't really see it between violet and blue. The Czech, Spanish, Catalan and Russian are more clear by distinguishing blue and light blue !

I'm very interested in the Czech version given by Ilocas, because it reduces the 7 colours from Newton to 6. Certainly because there is no specific word for "light blue" !

Any other languages with different colours ?

Actually, before Newton, some scientifics said that a rainbow was made of 4 or of 5 or of 6 colors, according to their point of view...

 

[Selyd]

Ukrainian: 7
червоний /chervonyi/ - red
помаранчевий /pomaranchevyi/ - orange
жовтий /jovtyi/ - yellow
зелений /zelenyi/ - green
блакитний /blakytnyi/ - light blue
синій /synii/ - blue
бузковий /buzkoovyi/ - purple

 

[Rallino]

In Turkish: 7

Mor - Purple
Lacivert - Dark blue
Mavi - Blue
Yeşil - Green
Sarı - Yellow
Turuncu - Orange
Kırmızı - Red

I remember a mnemonic from my physics classes: MALIM YASTIK (The consonants give the initials in the right order, starting from the darkest colour.)

 

[apmoy70]

In Greek the rainbow colours are also 7:

«Κόκκινο» ['kocino] (coll.), «Ερυθρό» [eri'θro] (form.) --> red
«Πορτοκαλί» [portoka'li] --> orange
«Κίτρινο» ['citrino] --> yellow
«Πράσινο» ['prasino] --> green
«Γαλάζιο» [ɣa'lazi.o] --> light blue
«Μπλε» [ble] (coll.), «Κυανό» [ci.a'no] (form.) --> blue
«Μοβ» [mov] (coll.), «Ιώδες» [i'oðes] (form.) --> violet

 

[TitTornade]

Thank you for your contributions...
I notice that most of the rainbows have 2 blue parts. Almost each language has a specific word for each blue, expect Czech and Spanish / Catalan that indicates light and dark blue (or something).

Apmoy: the colloquial words for blue and violet look very French ("bleu" & "mauve", prononced something as "Μπλε" and "Μοβ")... Any connection ?

 

[ahmedcowon]

In Arabic they are the same 7 colors:

أحمر (Ahmar) - Red

برتقالي (Bortuqali) - Orange

أصفر (Asfar) - Yellow

أخضر (Akhdar) - Green

أزرق (Azraq) - Blue

نيلي (Neeli) - Indigo

بنفسجي (Banafseji) - Violet

 

[L'irlandais]

I just looked at a site with Czech mnemonics ... and 3 are with 6 colours - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

Mnemonic in English - Richard of York gave battle in vain.

Red
Orange
Yellow
Green Blue
(Indigo) *must go, going, going, gone!
Violet

*However now-a-days (21st Century) it is generally accepted (in scientific circles, perhaps not yet by linguists ) that indigo and violet are just different shades of one and the same colour.
The spectrum now being divided up by precise waveband lenghts, rather than simply by eye.

 

[mataripis]

In Tagalog it is called "balangaw" (General) or "Bahaghari" (in Katagalugan only). Most People are not aware about the exact numbers of colors in rainbow spectrum. Here are the Tagalog terms for colors. 1.) Red= Pula(h) 2.) Orange= Dalandan 3.) Yellow= Dilaw 4.) Green= Lunti/Luntian 5.) Blue= Bughaw 6.) Indigo= bulaw na lila(h) 7.) Violet= Lila(h)

 

[L'irlandais]

En français, la concaténation de la première lettre de 7 couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel, (dans leur ordre spectral) forme le mot suivant : VIBUJOR

Violet, Indigo, Bleu, Vert (V représenté par U dans l’alphabet romain), Jaune, Orange, Rouge.

 

[apmoy70]

Thank you for your contributions...
...
Apmoy: the colloquial words for blue and violet look very French ("bleu" & "mauve", prononced something as "Μπλε" and "Μοβ")... Any connection ?

Hi TitTornade I apologize for my late response, but you have guessed right, both «μπλε» and «μοβ» (which are colloquialisms) are French loan words and quite recent ones (early 20th c.). We've also "borrowed" «ροζ» [roz] from rose for pink, «μπορντό» [bor'do] from bordeaux for claret, and a few more

 

[bibax]

English uses "violet" (hence ultraviolet - UV) for the spectral color, not "purple". Purple is a non-spectral color (it is a mixture of colors).

Similarly other European languages: Spanish - violeta (not púrpuro), Czech - fialový, Ukrainian - фіолетовий, Hungarian - ibolya, Croatian - ljubičasta, Greek - Ιώδες, etc.

All from the plant viola/violet (Viola odorata), = fialka in Czech (Russian, Ukrainian, ...), = ibolya in Hungarian, = ljubica in Croatian, = Ίον in Greek, etc.

 

[e2-e4 X]

English uses "violet" (hence ultraviolet - UV) for the spectral color, not "purple". Purple is a non-spectral color (it is a mixture of colors).

Sorry, I can't understand... Human's eye is not a spectroscope, all it can do is to generate a certain colour sensation out of a mixture of waves, which as well corresponds to the mixture of waves that consists of a single wave with a certain wavelength — that's why we can feel the colours on a computer's screen, a three-wave mixture gets into the eye, but we feel it like it was a single wave with a certain colour and intensity. At least, so do I understand the question.

Therefore, there are no non-spectral colours, and the division of the spectrum may be arbitrary in different languages. So, in some languages the purple may as well make a part of the spectrum division, just like any other colour range may.

 

[merquiades]

Well, let's not mix scientific precision and linguistic habits. Violet is obviously more precise than purple, that's why it's used in all the science documents regarding rainbows, etc. etc. Hence ultraviolet ray... Yet in common English people refer to violet colour as purple. Violet is rather technical, you can also see it in fashion magazines too. They would say golden, violet and azure tones rather than yellow, purple and blue colours, for example. As far as our rainbows I can see both being correct in their appropriate contexts. But people obviously understand both when they hear them.
In Spanish and French for example, the opposite occurs... violeta/violet is much more commonly used when speaking than púrpura/pourpre, in most contexts I would venture to say.

 

[bibax]

Sorry, I can't understand... Human's eye is not a spectroscope, all it can do is to generate a certain colour sensation out of a mixture of waves, which as well corresponds to the packet of waves that consists of a single wave with a certain wavelength — that's why we can feel the colours on a computer's screen, a three-wave packet gets into the eye, but we feel like it was a single wave with a certain colour and intensity. At least, so do I understand the question.

Therefore, there are no non-spectral colours, and the division of the spectrum may be arbitrary in different languages. So, in some languages the purple may as well make a part of the spectrum division, just like any other colour range may.

However, the established terminology is that violet is a spectral color existing in the spectrum, while purple is a combination of two spectral colors (red and blue). Seeing purple you can see a similar color like violet, but it is not violet (i.e. spectral color). Pure violet cannot be exactly reproduced by a RGB color system. In any RGB system violet only can be approximated by mixing blue and red. The (normal) human eye is able to detect a difference.

Interestingly the word for the spectral color violet is etymologically related to the plant viola/violet in most European languages.

 

[Yondlivend]

Even though the English rainbow has already been posted (and as in post #14, we tend to start with "red," not "violet") I figured I'd mention that growing up I didn't learn a phrase using the first letters of each color. Rather, the first letters formed a name:

Roy G. Biv (/ɹɔɪ ʤiː bɪv/)

People have even made up stories about this character, but I can't remember any at the moment.

 

[origumi]

Two observation about Hebrew:

* In Hebrew there are no commonly used words for purple vs. violet vs. indigo. Lacking a way to directly describe these colors changes the way we grasp them. It's difficult for me as a native Hebrew to intuitively understand the discussion above about the differences. For us a color in this family is either red (adom), blue (kakhol), purple (sagol, 1:1 red and blue), or a fuzzy mixture.

* Although Hebrew and Arabic are of the same language family and have usually many cognates, non of the seven colors listed above for Arabic has a similar name in Hebrew.

 

[rusita preciosa]

English uses "violet" (hence ultraviolet - UV) for the spectral color, not "purple". Purple is a non-spectral color (it is a mixture of colors).

Similarly other European languages: Spanish - violeta (not púrpuro), Czech - fialový, Ukrainian - фіолетовий, Hungarian - ibolya, Croatian - ljubičasta, Greek - Ιώδες, etc.

I also am not sure I understand your point. May be this is a question of "false friends" between English and other European languages and not the question of technical terminology? In Russian фиолетовый /fioletovyi/ (cognate of "violet") is a "generic" name for a range of colors between red and blue. In English such "generic" name is "purple". If you ask me to translate "фиолетовое платье" into English I'd say "purple dress", not "violet dress".

 

[e2-e4 X]

Violet is obviously more precise than purple, that's why it's used in all the science documents regarding rainbows, etc. etc. Hence ultraviolet ray... Yet in common English people refer to violet colour as purple. Violet is rather technical, you can also see it in fashion magazines too. They would say golden, violet and azure tones rather than yellow, purple and blue colours, for example. As far as our rainbows I can see both being correct in their appropriate contexts. But people obviously understand both when they hear them.

Thank you for the point. Yes, this one looks to be a false friend. For example, in Russian, on the contrary, we only use «фиолетовый» in everyday life, while «пурпурный» is reserved for the high style of the old books. The question is, whether in English violet and purple are really different colours, or the difference is entirely stylistic. As for Russian, I don't know.

 

[bibax]

Rusita, you are right. Real objects (like your dress) are purple, not violet. But you have used the term "purple" in connection with rainbow. I wanted to point out that in this context English uses "violet" (at least in physics), i.e. the spectral color of the shortest wavelengths of visible light.

Most colours we are able to see are non-existent in the spectrum. They are non-spectral (extraspectral) as they are combinations of spectral colours (white is the most prominent example). On the other side some spectral colours like violet (emitted by a monochromatic light source) cannot be accurately reproduced by any combination of red, green, blue.

 

[OneStroke]

In Hong Kong Cantonese, the 'layman's' colours are: 紅 [hung4, red]、橙 [caang2, orange]、黃 [wong4, yellow]、綠 [luk9, green]、青 [cing1(formal)/ceng1(informal), light green (in modern Chinese) or blue (in older Chinese)]、藍 [laam4, blue]、紫 [zi2, violet] (I don't know if this is the case in other dialects).

The odd one out is obviously 青, which, aside from not being included in the 'official' spectrum of 紅橙黃綠藍靛紫 (red orange yellow green blue indigo violet), is also not very clear semantically.

 

[ilocas2]

Croatian:

6 or 7 colours (i.e. one or two kinds of blue)

crvena - red
narančasta - orange
žuta - yellow
zelena - green
plava - blue, svijetloplava - light blue
(modra - dark blue, indigo - indigo, modroplava, indigoplava, tamnoplava - dark blue)
ljubičasta - violet