Thai basic color categories and monolexemic color terms

Abstract

Abstract The objectives of this study were to: 1) find the number of basic color categories used in Thailand and 2) investigate the derivation of Thai color names. There were 161 Thai native speakers participated, called subjects. The subjects were asked to provide color name for each of 330 Munsell color chips similar as used in the World Color Survey by using monolexemic color terms. All subjects were tested for their normal color vision by using the Farnsworth Munsell D-15 Color Vision Test, only subjects who pass the test could participate in the experiment. The study results showed that the mean number of color terms used per subject was 19.15 ± 5.21. There were 12 color names used by 80% consensus of subjects, consisting of 11 colors which were corresponded to the basic color term (BCTs) as found by Berlin and Kay in 1969 plus fa ‘sky/light blue’. Notice that the result was changed from B&K studied for Thai BCTs. In this study, it was found that Thai subjects provided two categories for blues: fa and nam-ngoen. In addintion, som seems to be added to replace saet, and thao was added for achromatic. It was also found that three non-BCTs were used with 50% of the subjects; khi-ma ‘horse feces’ (75%), lueatmu ‘pig blood’ (68%), and ban-yen ‘four o'clock flower/magenta’ (50%). Regarding the derivation of color names, most color names used by Thai subjects were referred to objects in flora class (31.72%), followed by inanimate nature (17.54%). Which the flowers category and (semi-) precious stones category had the highest number of relevant color names in the flora and the inanimate nature classes, respectively.