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Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for June 16, 2012
June 15, 2012
June 17, 2012
Transcript:
Phoebe: I declare our slumber party complete, and a success! And I have to say it may be my greatest achievement yet! Marigold: MINE is still the time I discovered the color blue. Not that i had heard about. Phoebe: Nobody before you had ever seen a blue thing?
Basqueian almost 13 years ago
There is some backup to this statement, per Homer’s epic poetry, which does not mention the color blue
algebraboyymxb almost 13 years ago
yes, but in the original hebrew the color blue was not there at all.
Weapon Brown almost 13 years ago
Yeah, but SHE didn’t think of making RAY out of it… So THERE!
puddleglum1066 almost 13 years ago
WNYC’s “Radiolab” show on color had a fascinating segment on the matter of “discovering” the color blue. Homer’s poetry mentions lots of colors, but no blue. Same with a lot of ancient writings. Did people not see blue, or did they have no reason to give it a name, or what? One theory holds that we tend not to notice a color (in the sense of giving it a name) until we can make it artificially, and blue is one of the hardest (and last) pigments to make. Here’s a link to the segment, if anybody’s interested: http://www.radiolab.org/2012/may/21/sky-isnt-blue/
Happy, happy, happy!!! Premium Member almost 13 years ago
…i know blue.
Comic Minister Premium Member almost 13 years ago
Until now.
John W Kennedy Premium Member almost 13 years ago
It has been proven that it is not a question of /seeing/. There are still primitive tribes with only a few color words, but tests show that they can tell the difference. Even today, you can’t take it for granted that colors are always the same. For example, there was no word for “orange” in English until just a few centuries ago, and most languages don’t have a word for “pink”. On the other hand, Russian and Italian have words for “sky blue”, and, in the Welsh language, the lines between brown, green, and blue are different, so that, in Welsh, grass is "blue"—although this is changing now, due to influence from English.
Some years ago, it was demonstrated that languages seem to pick up color words in a particular order, starting with “red”. See “Color Words” in Wikipedia.
Elderflower almost 13 years ago
Wow! What fascinating comments today. So much about colour we take for granted.
StrangerCoug almost 13 years ago
I think someone’s made the comment before that Marigold is a lot like Llewellyn.
TayoEXE almost 13 years ago
@Dana SimpsonYou know French? I now have enough more respect for you. (That’s mainly just because I’m a linguistic nerd.)
John W Kennedy Premium Member almost 13 years ago
“Oeuvre” is French for “Opera” [Latin] (but “Opéra” is French for “Opera” [Italian]).
Mister-Edd almost 13 years ago
Blue was one of the most elusive colors when the ancients were creating dyes..There’s a reason it’s called “Royal Blue”.. And yes, blue is a nice color.
Weapon Brown almost 13 years ago
Uhm… As in “blu-ray”, mynx.
Love2laugh almost 5 years ago
Isn’t there a sky in Unicornville?