Friday, May 27, 2011

Spaces out of colour

Recent cutting-edge blunt-object* research here at Riddled Laboratories reveals that if one plots the popularity of a given colour term as a label for colour samples, against the locations of those samples in the Munsell palette** -- providing a graphic display of the usage of that term -- the result always turns out to be the map on Page 2 of an 800+-page fantasy novel. Always.
Notice the results of rising sea level, between (1) and (2), and (3) and (4):Logic tells us that the converse is true, and that one can take a continent and treat it as a colour term according to its projection on the Munsell palette. 'Africa', for instance, is a sort of yellowish-green that includes dark greens but not light greens or browns. Certain people, alas, did not want their daughter exposed to an experimental test of this thesis.

* Our staff labour under restrictions on how much access they have to sharp implements.
** Data from here, courtesy of Paul Kay who is a saint amongst men.


Maps are for dzhabo from Mawchi; dzhambəlʌ from Vasavi; bur from Bhili; and bhurʌ from Vasavi.

11 comments:

guitarist manqué said...

As my sensei used to say:

SPEAK ENGRISH!

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Spaces out of colour? Well, well, well...

fish said...

I never realized global warming meant a preference for red and orange.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I used to believe that Converse was true, but now I put my faith in New Balance.
~

mikey said...

I like that their book is a nice, even one hundred bucks. Yew Ess, of course. Global Reserve Currency and all that, eh guv?

Seems to me that they ought to learn the lesson that has become known in cross-media advertising circles as the "Billy Mays Method". Also, formerly known as "Ginzu Gambit". Wherein the primary product is grossly overpriced, but then additional trinkets and geegaws are added until the rube is unable to refuse what clearly amounts to a metric tonne of random failed products and impulse buys in exchange for that original, now clearly paltry sum.

Maybe they should include a Sham-Wow and a Snuggy with their academic tome. Hey, just blue skyin' here...

W/V suggests we take the Neanderthal temperature on this campaign by asking: cavesid

Gentlewoman said...

Wow. Science really is fun.

Mikey's right, though. It would be even more fun with a Sham-Wow. Not a Snuggy. A Snuggy would be overkill.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Gentlewoman is right.

A Snuggy would be overkill.
~

Kathleen said...

in which quadrant was the secret child of the king raised as a peasant born?

Hamish Mack said...

I think it is next to the wise old person who talks in riddles, Kathleen.

Smut Clyde said...

But where in the archipelago does one find the island where the dragons nest? Guess I'll have to read the book. Or write it.

How is Ganesh, Gentlewoman?

Substance McGravitas said...

Our staff labour under restrictions on how much access they have to sharp implements.

IMPLEMENTAL INCREASE SOONISH!