Terms of Colors in Saek Language, Baan-Ba-Wa, Tha-ruea Sub-district, Na-wa District, Nakorn Phanom Province

Abstract

There were two objectives in this study: 1) to explore terms of colors both in basic and non-basic terms, and 2) to examine strategies of creating non-basic terms of colors in Saek language, at Baan-Ba-Wa, Tha-ruea Sub-district, Na-wa District, Nakorn Phanom Province. The data were collected from 6 language informants between the ages of 50-70. The finding revealed that there were totally 12 basic terms of color in Saek language at Baan-Ba-Wa, Tha-ruea Sub-district, Na-wa District, Nakorn Phanom Province; those were, /haaw¹/ (white),  /ram²/ (black),  /riiŋ²/ (red), /waaŋ³/ (yellow), /heew¹/ (green), /phaa⁵/ (light blue), /nam⁶ ŋən³/ (blue), /nam⁶ taan²/ (brown), /thaw³/ (grey), /ʔit³/ (purple), /bua²/ (pink), and /sam⁵/ (orange).  The development of basic terms of colors was on stage 7 in accordance with Berlin and Kay’s theory. There were 4 strategies of creating non-basic terms of colors; those were, 1) specific terms of colors, 2) compound of the 2 terms of colors, 3) compound between terms of colors and modifier, and 4) proper words of objects as the terms of colors, which were mostly used as terms of colors.