My interest

in the Color Words of the ancients

derived from what I regard to be

a misconception

of the Sumerologists

that the Sumerians

were called "black-headed"

as a sign of distinction

as immigrants into a region of the world

where everyone else

was ALREADY black-headed.

Some linguist had erred. We can demonstrate

on the basis of the Indo-European roots

for the word COLOR,

that there was a basic word

for ALL the colors in general, i.e. COLOR,

which was then adapted to different colors by different cultures,

e.g. Latvian KRĀSAINS "colored"

is like Sanskrit KRSNA "black, dark",

Russian KRASNYJ "the color red"

and Old Church Slavic KRASINU,

Latvian KRĀ SNS "beautiful". In my opinion, the description of the hair of the Sumerians is much more likely to have meant "blonde, red-haired, brunette, viz. colored hair",

i.e. in CONTRA-DISTINCTION to the black hair of the native inhabitants of the more southerly regions - As Shakespeare wrote, "the sun-burned races" - this is not a racial slur on my part, it just means that pigmentation increases with increasing exposure to solar radiation, which is why the hair of humans is darker South - it is a normal adaptation we also find in other life forms as well. I myself "tan" quite dark in the Sun, do you? Nothing special about it.

The KR- root is found in English CL- (CoLor), i.e. the conversion R//L

but the KR- forms have already lost the interceding vowel. We find the basic root in Latvian *ZIL-, *ZAL- and *ZEL i.e. ZL- ZIL- "blue" in Latvian,

also the word for "pupil" of the eye

and the blue-grey "forest"

ZAL- "green" in Latvian, also the word for grass

ZEL- "gold, yellow-colored" in Latvian

DZEL- "yellow" in Latvian

ZILumas - "grey" in Lithuanian AZUL- AZUR- "blue" in many languages

ZELenyj "green" in Russian

ZELtyj "yellow" in Russian

ZAIRita "yellow" in Avestan

CAERULeus "blue" in Latin

SAR- "red" in Latvian

SORt "black" in Danish

SVARt "black in Swedish

KR- "color" in Latvian

GRey in English

KELainos"black, dark color"

Greek and in Old Hindic KALA "black"

GALanos "blue" in Greek

but in Lithuanian GELtonas "yellow"

XILos - "grass", XL- "green"

CHR- as in CHRoma "color" in Greek



It is quite clear from the above examples that many of these terms derive from a single "color" root-word which was then adapted in various only slightly dissimilated forms to distinguish the varies shades of "color" in the "color-system". The great German thinker Goethe wrote in his Color Theory

about the color-perception of the ancients: "Their denominations of colours are not permanently and precisely defined, but mutable and fluctuating....Their yellow, on the one hand, inclines to red, on the other to blue; the blue is sometimes green, sometimes red; the red is at one time yellow, at another blue.... If we take a glance at the copiousness of the Greek and Roman terms, we shall perceive how mutable the words were, and how easily each was adapted to almost every point in the colorific circle." Note also that the white-black-grey (brown) system of black and white color has a different root. The Root BL- viz BR- PELEKS "grey" in Latvian

duBLI "mud" in Latvian

whence Old Irish DUB "black" (DUB- Sumerian "tablet")

BLACK in English

BLUE in English

BLONDE in English and

BALINATS "white, bleached" in Latvian

BRown in English The entire issue of colors is significant to our appreciation of the age and origin of any ancient culture.

