The expression of the colour concepts 'Blue' and 'Green' in Sepedi (Sepedi)

Abstract

Like other Bantu languages, Sepedi tends to utilise one basic colour term (tala) to refer to both the colour concepts ‘blue’ and ‘green’. This does not of course imply that the speakers of this language are unable to distinguish between these two categories and/or talk about them. Sepedi employs various other terms in order to designate these concepts. However, to date no in depth study has been undertaken as to precisely how this encoding takes place, exactly which terms are utilised in which contexts, how salient these terms are (i.e. how frequently and widely they are used), and which terms can be regarded as being basic terms. In this mini-dissertation an investigation into the various ways in which Sepedi encodes the concepts ‘blue’ and ‘green’ was undertaken. In order to accomplish this, a review of the literature was undertaken, the electronic Pretoria Sepedi Corpus was utilised and finally fieldwork was also conducted. In this manner, a comprehensive list of terms used to express the colour concepts ‘blue’ and ‘green’ were collected and analysed. Based on statistical comparisons between the collected terms, the findings were that the terms most frequently used to express the concept ‘blue’ are talalerata ‘sky-blue, lit. blue of the sky’, mmala o mo talalerata ‘colour of the blue sky’, tala ‘blue’, talaleratadima ‘blue of the sky’ and leratadima ‘sky, i.e. blue colour of the sky’ and the most frequently used terms when expressing the concept ‘green’ are tala ‘green’ and talamorogo ‘lit. green of vegetables’ Furthermore, it emerged that many of the terms used in Sepedi to express the colour concepts ‘blue’ and ‘green’ are formed by way of loanwords, compounding, phrases and paraphrases. It was concluded that in terms of Berlin&Kay’s (1969) framework for the identification of basic colour terms, only the term tala ‘blue/green’ and perhaps also the term talee (an ideophone signifying ‘green’) could be regarded as basic colour terms. AFRIKAANS : Soos wat dit die geval is in baie van die ander Bantutale, word daar in Sepedi slegs een term (tala) gebruik om na beide die kleurkonsepte ‘blou’ en ‘groen’ te verwys. Dit beteken uiteraard nie dat die sprekers van hierdie taal nie daartoe in staat is om die verskil tussen hierdie twee kleurkategorieë raak te sien en/of daaroor te praat nie. Daar word in Sepedi van ’n veelheid ander terme gebruik gemaak om hierdie konsepte te verwoord. Tot op hede is daar egter nog geen in in-diepte studie onderneem ten einde vas te stel presies hoe hierdie enkodering plaasvind nie, watter terme in watter kontekste gebruik word, hoe dikwels hierdie terme in die alledaagse omgang voorkom en laastens watter terme as basiese terme beskou kan word nie. In hierdie mini-verhandeling word daar ondersoek ingestel na die verskillende maniere waarop Sepedi die konsepte ‘blou’ en ‘groen’ enkodeer/verwoord. Ten einde hierdie doelstelling te bereik, is daar eerstens ’n oorsig van die literatuur onderneem, waarna die elektroniese Pretoria Sepedikorpus geraadpleeg is. Dit is gevolg deur veldwerk. Op hierdie wyse is ’n uitvoerige lys terme met behulp waarvan die kleurkonsepte ‘blou’ en ‘groen’ verwoord word, byeengebring en geanaliseer. Gebaseer op statistiese vergelykings tussen die versamelde terme, is daar tot die slotsom geraak dat die terme talalerata ‘hemelsblou, lett. blou van die hemel’, mmala o mo talalerata ‘kleur van die hemel, hemelsblou kleur, tala ‘blou’, talaleratadima ‘hemelsblou, lett. blou van die hemel’ en leratadima ‘hemel, d.i. blou kleur van die hemel’ die mees gebruiklike terme is in die uitdrukking van die konsep ‘blou’, terwyl die konsep ‘groen’ mees dikwels uitgedruk word met behulp van die terme tala ‘groen’ en talamorogo ‘lett. die groen van groente’. Dit het verder aan die lig gekom dat heelwat Sepediterme wat gebruik word om die kleurkonsepte ‘blou’ en ‘groen’ uit te druk, gevorm word by wyse van ontlening, die maak van samestellings en die gebruik van frases en parafrasering. Daar is tot die slotsom gekom dat, in terme van Berlin&Kay (1969) se raamwerk vir die identifisering van basiese kleurterme, slegs die terme tala ‘blou/groen’ en dalk ook die term talee (’n ideofoon wat ‘groen’ uitdruk) as basiese kleurteme beskou kan word.