The basic colour terms of Chichewa

Abstract

Abstract We report a field study of the colour tems of Chichewa. Our results identify the colour term inventory of Chichewa and permit a further test of Berlin and Kay's (1969) theory of colour universals. Two samples of Chichewa speakers — a rural sample and a sample of university students — performed a list task (“tell me as many colour terms as you know”), and the rural sample also performed a colour mapping task. The list task elicits the most salient colour terms, and the mapping task allows the referents and the best exemplars of each term to be determined. The results indicate that Chichewa has five basic colour terms — terms for white, black, red, grue (green with blue) and yellow — a combination which is consistent with Berlin and Kay's theory. The range of signification of these terms is wider than is suggested by the English glosses, and there is some evidence that their ranges may be narrowing as the language acquires new terms.