Chinese colour words

[dreamon]

Excuse me, just a quick question: could someone tell me the difference between color words 红 and 赤, as well as between 青 and 蓝? I am not color-blind, just learning color words for the first time. Google images don't tell them apart.

[Hofmann]

赤 and 紅 are the same color.

青 can be green.

[skylee]

青 can be black too.

[dreamon]

I expected 青 to be the color between green and blue (i.e. cyan) but that's not what I found in Google Images: most are even bluer than those for 蓝. For 赤 and 紅: since these are two different words still in heavy use, there must be some difference in meaning or usage. One has extra meaning "naked", the other "revolutionary", but Google Images failed to show any detectable difference in the frequency of naked or revolutionary images.

[Glenn]

I imagine those other meanings are only as parts of other words, like 赤裸, for instance.

[roddy]

Google Images failed to show any detectable difference in the frequency of naked or revolutionary images.

But you've now been identified as a Communist pervert. Good luck with getting security clearances in the future . . .

[semantic nuance]

I have always been puzzled by that too, 青 ,綠, and 藍 because the Taiwanese pronunciation of 綠 is 青. I never figure out if 青 is more of 綠or more of 藍.

[renzhe]

Nowadays, you'll mostly find 青 and 赤 in words and fixed phrases. I think that they are less commonly used on their own to describe colours in modern speech, at least compared to 蓝, 綠 or 紅.

青 is both green and blue (and sometimes black, like skylee pointed out), and anything inbetween. People who have studied logic will know the concepts of grue and bleen ;)

"Revolutionary" is an abstract meaning, derived from the colour red (red flag, red army, etc.)

[Hofmann]

because the Taiwanese pronunciation of 綠 is 青

I believe the Taiwanese (Hokkien) pronunciation of 綠 is [lek̚˦].

[semantic nuance]

I believe the Taiwanese (Hokkien) pronunciation of 綠 is [lek̚˦].

What does that symbol sound? Taiwanese is my mother tongue and I'm pretty sure it's 青.

Example: 綠 in 紅綠燈 (written as 青紅燈) is prounced as 青。 Please listen it here.

Chhi̍h白話字iah是台語漢羅會tàng連去台語文語詞檢索系統，查台語文語料庫內底這個詞ê前後文；華語詞連去中研院華語平衡語料庫。台語羅馬字 漢羅 華文 英文 1 chheⁿ-âng-teng / chhiⁿ-âng-teng 青紅燈 紅綠燈

Quoted from http://203.64.42.21/iug/ungian/SoannTeng/chil/chha.asp

[Murray]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but how do you express a color with multiple properties in Mandarin? I've never thought of it until now; you know, things like "reddish brown" and "off-white"?

For the former, I guess I could say something like “红色的咖啡色”？No idea about the latter though.

[Hofmann]

What does that symbol sound? Taiwanese is my mother tongue and I'm pretty sure it's 青.

Example: 綠 in 紅綠燈 (written as 青紅燈) is prounced as 青。

That's IPA. What you mean is probably that when you want to say something that means "green," you say 青. I don't think it's the case that 綠 is pronounced [tsʰẽ˥] or [tsʰĩ˥] or [tsʰeŋ˥]. There is also the character 綠. An analogy is in English and German, where German speakers usually say "Hund" where English speakers say "dog." That doesn't mean English speakers pronounce "Hund" as "dog" because there is another English word "hound."

[semantic nuance]

台語有分讀音和語音兩種， 通常屬於文言文, 成語, 或詩詞就會使用讀音，而一般生活用語, 白話, 就會使用語音，除了慣用既定的念法以外。

例如: 雨後春筍 (讀音) 下雨 我早就放下，讓它放水流了。

As for 綠, it applies to the rule too. When you say for example 綠色和平電台, you use [lek̚˦] , and it's 讀音。 When we say 綠色的衣服， we say '青[tsʰẽ˥] or [tsʰĩ˥色的衣服'. That's why I couldn't figure out the difference of 青 and 綠, when it refers to color.

An analogy is in English and German, where German speakers usually say "Hund" where English speakers say "dog." That doesn't mean English speakers pronounce "Hund" as "dog" because there is another English word "hound."

This analogy shows that the same idea (dog, in this case) with two different words from different languages. What does it have to do with 綠 in this case? I don't get it.

[dreamon]

renzhe> Nowadays, you'll mostly find 青 and 赤 in words and fixed phrases. I think that they are less commonly used on their own to describe colours in modern speech, at least compared to 蓝, 綠 or 紅.

OK, thanks! Are there some basic colors (e.g. Chinese rainbow colors) that a beginner should learn besides 红, 橙, 黄, 绿, 蓝, 紫 (or 绀?) and 白, 灰, 黑? How about 褐?

roddy> But you've now been identified as a Communist pervert.

My native keywords find that just as effectively!

renzhe> 青 is both green and blue (and sometimes black, ...

Did it mean a specific color before time t, for some t?

Murray> Don't mean to hijack this thread, but how do you express a color with multiple properties in Mandarin? I've never thought of it until now; you know, things like "reddish brown" and "off-white"?

I would also like to know that, thanks for asking! If anyone did hijack the thread, it was semantic nuance because she took it to a much higher level of Chinese than I can dream of

[semantic nuance]

i If anyone did hijack the thread,t was semantic nuance because she took it to a much higher level of Chinese than I can dream of

terribly sorry for that! But that's also my puzzlement about 青 and 綠. Sounds like my posts are not welcomed here.

[dreamon]

semantic nuance> Sounds like my posts are not welcomed here.

I was joking of course! Why always it is only the guys who are required to have a sense of humor?

[gougou]

I was wondering about color names a while back as well, and found this chart (note that it continues in a second post).

Don't know how accurate it is though, maybe somebody else can comment on this?

[renzhe]

Did it mean a specific color before time t, for some t?

No, the "grue" was just a lame joke of mine. 青 can refer to any colour from blue to greeen and anything inbetween.

terribly sorry for that! But that's also my puzzlement about 青 and 綠. Sounds like my posts are not welcomed here.

I think he was paying you a compliment, in his odd way. Your posts certainly are welcome.

[dreamon]

renzhe> No, the "grue" was just a lame joke of mine.

The joke was good and to the point, but my question had a serious meaning too: did 青 refer to a specific color in the past, e.g. in classical Chinese? Otherwise we have to assume that the character was originally invented for an abstract notion like "grue", which was probably too much for pre-Confucian logicians.

[Mark Yong]

Strictly speaking, there is a difference between 赤 and 紅. 紅 is better defined as vermillion. 說文解字 gives 帛赤白色, and 釋名 gives 紅絳也白色之似絳者, i.e a lighter colour than red. Of course, this distinction - like many words in Chinese - has been gradually lost with modernisation.