Colours
In many cultures, including Irish, colours are intimately connected to a concrete ‘thing’ rather than to a wavelength of light. Which colours deserve names varies by culture, depending on what colours are most encountered. Irish colours cannot simply be given by a simple hue thumbnail. Even gradients of the spectrum do not adequately capture just how this concept of colour is codified into the Irish language. Below is a gallery of Irish colour references based where possible on traditional descriptions.
Irish Colour References
Sources:
Carmody, Isolde Ó Brolcháin. 2016. Many Shades of Darkness: Irish Colour Words and concepts. Conversations on Irish Mythology: Story Archaeology.
Ó Sé, Diarmuid. Unpublished. The Colour Terms of Irish. School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistics: University College Dublin.
Swinkels, Inge. 2015. Unusual feature in the Colour Classification of Modern Irish. Master Thesis. Centre for Linguistics: Universiteit Leiden.
