On the colourful variety of colour terms in a Hungarian dialect

Abstract

The paper discusses the basic colour term vörös (vërës) ‘red’ in the Hungarian Kolon dialect, in relation to piros, also ‘red’. At present vörös still has its function, distinguished from piros in terms of both denotation and connotation. Functional differences are also due to the fact that the cognitive processes behind the two colour terms, as shown by their respective etymologies, had different bases. The colour term vörös (vërëss) goes back to vér ‘blood’, whereas piros has its source in pír ‘flush, blush’. In addition, vörös conforms in every way to the criteria of basic colour terms. However, certain signs indicate that vörös is losing ground, according to the statistical data presented in the paper, partly as a result of areal effects.