# All Slavic languages: blue



## DaleC

I am curious about the words Slavic languages have for the color "blue". 

Here is a question I have had since I studied Russian, over 30 years ago. They taught us that the Russians do not think of _голубой _(_goluboj_), the color of the sky (nebo, obloha),as a variation of _cиний _(_sinij_), but rather as a color in its own right, just as green and yellow are different basic colors. Is this true about the Russian mind? 

To the English speaking mind, _голубой _is a "light" or "pale" _cиний_. I see from www.slovnik.cz that Czech has the same conception. _голубой__ =_ bledě modrý; and modré obloha = _голубоe нeбo. _

How about the rest of the Slavic languages? Thank you. 

See also 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colorshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colorshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue



Web colorsblacksilvergraywhiteredmaroonpurplefuchsiagreenlimeoliveyelloworange*blue*navytealaqua


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## Jana337

DaleC said:
			
		

> To the English speaking mind, _голубой _is a "light" or "pale" _cиний_. I see from www.slovnik.cz that Czech has the same conception. _голубой__ =_ bledě modrý; and modr*á *obloha = _голубоe нeбo. _


I confirm (with a tiny correction - obloha is feminine, hence modrá).

Jana


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## MindStorm

Yep, there are different words for blue and light blue, they are синий and голубой, that's right. And what so strange about that? they can de easily differentiated int the rainbow specter, maybe it is the reason..


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## cyanista

For a native speaker of Russian синий and голубой are as different as, for example, red and pink. I remember when I started learning English as a child it was hard for me to put up with the fact that there was no separate English word for голубой. We have words that literally mean "light blue", "бледно-синий" or "светло-синий", but these are other hues!

I've thought it over once again

it seems to me that our синий is darker than the "English" blue, it's almost navy blue. And голубой is (typically) what you would call azure. But I'm sure there are individual differences in perception of colours that make it next to impossible to define such things for once and forever


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## DaleC

Cyanista, thank you for explicitly confirming that. I wonder if it's the same in the other two East Slavic languages, Belarussian and Ukrainian? 

Is your purest, or truest, голубой a bright sky on a cloudless day? I noticed from early on the similarity of голубой to голубь, pigeon. 

Very few languages distinguish the color of the sky from blue. That makes Russian (and maybe also Ukrainian, Belarussian) special. Spanish seems to be getting there, because they don't like to call the color of the sky blue (azul). They call it "skyish" (celeste, from cielo). 



			
				Cyanista said:
			
		

> But I'm sure there are individual differences in perception of colours that make it next to impossible to define such things for once and forever


 Actually, in 1969 it was discovered (as published by professors Brent Berlin and Paul Kay) that there's a limit to the subjectivity of color perception. The main color distinctions that humans can make are hardwired into our brains, and are almost the same for all. 

The world's languages don't all recognize the same number of basic colors. Berlin and Kay's two most important findings were: (1) humans are hardwired to agree -- pretty closely -- on which red is the "reddest red", which green is the "greenest green", and so on. (2) with minor exceptions, all languages that recognize X basic colors recognize the same X colors. (For example, all languages with seven have čërnyi, belyi, krasnyi, zelënyi, žëltyi, sinii, koričnevyi (brown). Some languages add these four: pink, gray, purple, orange. Russian also adds goluboj.) 

These findings are not exactly accurate across languages, but they have been found to be *almost *exactly accurate.



			
				Cyanista said:
			
		

> it seems to me that our синий is darker than the "English" blue, it's almost navy blue. And голубой is (typically) what you would call azure.


That's very interesting because it significantly diverges from Berlin and Kay 1969 in two respects. According to that research, your синий should be our *blue*. Apparently, not only have you added a basic color, голубой, but the focus (or archetype) of your existing blue has shifted.


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## Sybil

"Blue" in Polish is "niebieski." You can also hear "błękitny," "modry," or "lazurowy."


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## Anna Mary

In Croatian we have just one word for blue- PLAVO, but you can specify the variety of blue - AZURNO PLAVA, TAMNO PLAVA etc.

Anna


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## cyanista

> Very few languages distinguish the color of the sky from blue. That makes Russian (and maybe also Ukrainian, Belarussian) special.



Yes, Belarussian has this distinction as well:"сіні" for blue and "блакітны" for "sky-blue". Don't know about Ukranian but it wouldn't surprise me if it were the same story.

While we're at it, what about one more colour that isn't a separate one in most  languages? I'm talking about hair colours: Russian has "русый" which is  "light brown" to "dark blonde" in English. Do other Slavic languages have this one?

 (Jana, don't hesitate to split the thread if you feel that's another subject.)


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## _sandra_

> Very few languages distinguish the color of the sky from blue. That makes Russian (and maybe also Ukrainian, Belarussian) special. Spanish seems to be getting there, because they don't like to call the color of the sky blue (azul). They call it "skyish" (celeste, from cielo).


Just to add my 2 cents to what Sybil wrote:
In Polish we have different words for blue = _niebieski_; and light blue = _błękitny_ (or literally _jasno niebieski_). '_Modry'_ is an old fashioned word, mainly used in literature, proverbs and so on. '_Lazurowy_', on the other hand, is more common, but still if anyone would say: 'Spójrz jakie niebo jest lazurowe ' -- Look how _blue _the sky is  -- it would sound ..well.. overly poetic IMO. 
Anyway, błękitny is an equivalent of light blue, and originally was used for describing the colour of the sky. Now of course you can also use it while talking about sea, T-shirt. (and you can use _jasno niebieski, niebieski_ for the sky as well)
You mentioned Spanish, but similar thing with Italian, I guess (Jana, correct me if I'm wrong --> Light blue = celeste, azzurro. (Celeste also from cielo - sky) = Polish błękitny. //But while you would use Italian celeste for the sky, and azzurro for both sky, and e.g. eyes - in Polish it's always błękiny. //

Take care, 
Sandra


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## ytre

One not often used but 100% correct: blankytná modř - that's sometimes used to refer to the sky blue in Czech mentioned earlier.


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## skye

We have no special word for the colour of the sky either. The standard word for blue is modra. In colloquial language and dialects you can also hear plava. The word sinji also exists, but it's not often used and I'm not quite sure what kind of colour it describes - I guess it's something blue, it's usually used to describe the sky - sinje modro nebo. Otherwise blue is just blue, it can be either light or dark, but it's still blue.


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## Ora

Hello, for dark blue there is also the word _granatowy_ in Polish. Does anybody know if this word is used for blue in other (slavic) languages?

Ora


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## Tobycek

If you really want to distinguish more in English, you can:
we have cyan, which is greenish-blue
we have azure, which is more of a sky blue
and there's even magenta, although I'm not quite sure what that is! 
But we don't use these too often - except in paint shops!
It must be true in other languages as well.

I suppose the words are always there, it's a question of whether the speakers of a language feel they need a separate word for everyday use.


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## kali

in ukrainian we also have two diferent words for "blue" color - a sky blue or light blue is блакитний and for a normal blue o dark blue the word is синiй.
the official name of our flag is "жовто-блакитний" and no "жовто-синій"
but there are a lot of modifications, like light sky blue o dark blue... its very complicated


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## Zetarun

In bulgarian, as long as I am aware, we have a single word for blue which is син (sin) and we compose the nuances of the blue by defining them:

небесно син - celestial blue
светло син   - light blue
тъмно син    - dark blue
морско син  - sea blue
etcetera...


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## cecoll

металическо син - metallic blue


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## Tinu

Hello, I just thought I colud add some interesting factom Czech and ask if there are any similarities in our "Brethern-tongues"
In Czech one can meet both words "plavý" (as in Croatian) and "sinný" (as in Eastern S. languages) but neither has anything to do with blue, which I find interesting.
"Plavý" means something like "blonde" (I would compare it to colour of lion´s fur or Sahara sand) - once I heard it can have this meaning even in Croatian, but I´m really not sure, while "sinný" which is pretty old-fashioned now describe, if I am not much mistaken, an odd kind of paleness and also grey colour (often it is/was used specially for unhealthy greyish tone of skin). There is also derivated verb "zesinat" , "to turn oddly greyish", which we just only in connection with persons.


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## iretta

In Ukrainian language, as kali said, we dintinguish two colours - dark blue and light blue...For the forst we have синій (syniy) and for the second one we have two words - блакитний (blakytnyy) and  голубий (holubyy) - these two words are synonyms but there is a slight difference between them...Blakytnyy seems to be more traditional for ukrainian language and poetic also. In Ukrainian we call sometimes sky as блакить (blakyt') and голубінь (holubin') so you can see that this colour is closely connected with the colour of sky...


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## Primorec

In Slovene language we say:

modra barva: blue (colour)
sinja barva: light blue, sky blue (colour)


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## lorenz1616

Hello, 

basic expression for blue in Slovak are

modrý, m. = blue
belasý, m. = light blue
siný, m., sinavý, m. = dark blue to greyish


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## Seana

Hi 
I have just dropped here to add a little about blue colours in Polish language.
Colour blue = *niebieski* takes its name from the sky = *niebo*
But Sybil and Sandra mentioned about it.
Meybe they forgot about cornflower-blue - chabrowy.

I would like to call your attention just for versatility of the colours names.
All countries have the same colours it is obvious and the painters in most countries use the same names for them and you all know these names very well ex. cyan, magneta, ultramarine, indygo, violet and the "most blue" for me - cobalt blue and lapis lazuli ( azure in English)
I am sure they all have very "international" ( most often latin rooted) names. I use them when I buy them in the painter shops in Poland. 

But in the literature or poems are used other various names for blue colour more local and more romantic names.


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## Maja

It is the same in Serbian. Blue is "plavo/plava boja" and we have "teget" which would be dark blue/navy blue. Shades are presented with a preceding word, e.g. "golubije plava", "svetlo plava", tamno plava" etc.
 Hope  this helps


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## Pedja

There are actually three kind of blue in serbian language:

плава (plava) - blue
сиња (sinja) - light blue
модра (modra) - dark blue

_plava _is also used to describe yellow hair


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## Maja

Pa Peđa, ne bih se složila da postoje SAMO tri nijanse plave u srpskom jeziku. Sinja je skoro potpuno van upotrebe, a modra uglavnom kao "modra usta" ili "pomodreo u vodi". 
I da "plavuša" jeste "blond".
Pozdrav


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## Glagol dobro

Back to the initial question - whether Russians really feel that _goluboj_ (light-blue) and _sinij_ (just blue) are totally different colours.

I personally do not feel that way. To me, _goluboj_ is a sub-colour within the range of _sinij_. We can easily say _'sineje nebo'_ instead of _'goluboje nebo'_ even if the actual colour is light. However, the opposite is not true: should a thing be dark-blue one cannot describe it as _'goluboje'_. 

By naming the word _goluboj_ a totally separate colour the teacher, probably, wanted to say that Russians use it much more frequently than one might think by comparing it with the English equivalent 'light-blue' or other. 

P.S. Nowadays, however, people tend to avoid using this word that often as it has another wide-spread meaning - 'gay'.


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## dahut

DaleC said:
			
		

> Spanish seems to be getting there, because they don't like to call the color of the sky blue (azul). They call it "skyish" (celeste, from cielo).


 
Hello,
Sorry to point out this since the thread is in the "Slavic Languages" section, but we don't say in Spanish _the sky is skyish._
_The sky is blue._
Yes, we have the word "celeste", e.g. baby blue is "_azul celeste_". We use it more to define the blue. But if you say, e.g. Which dress are you wearing? _El celeste._ We will understand that it's light blue.

We have the expression "_azul cielo_" (sky blue), which I might say it's a tiny bit darker than "_celeste_".
E.g. _Tiene los ojos azul cielo. _He has sky blue eyes. (Think Paul Newman sort of eyes).
Nobody would say _ojos celestes_, it sounds weird for an eye colour, and it could be misunderstood with "celestial".
_Tiene ojos celestiales._ He has heavenly eyes???? (Way to long poetic).

Ok, Good bye


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## templar414

Anna Mary said:
			
		

> In Croatian we have just one word for blue- PLAVO, but you can specify the variety of blue - AZURNO PLAVA, TAMNO PLAVA etc.
> 
> Anna


 
Anna, you seem to forget that beside PLAVO we also have the word MODRA


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## dihydrogen monoxide

Do all Slavic languages have two words for the colour blue (modr-,plav-) or one or more than two?


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## Boniej

We also have "siny", a (grey) blue in Polish.

In both Lower and Upper Sorbian it would be "módry".


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## Kanes

Only one in Bulgarian, sinio.


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## Piotr_WRF

_Siny_ is the colour of a bruise. _Siniak_ is the Polish word for _bruise_.


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## echo chamber

"Sino" is "blue" in Macedonian. We say "modro" when a very dark shade of blue is in question. "Nebesno sino" is a light shade of blue. =)


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## Tagarela

Ahoj,



echo chamber said:


> " "Nebesno sino" is a light shade of blue. =)



Does "*nebesno [sino]*" have something to do with sky? 

Na shledanou?


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## jazyk

Yes, there is.


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## Kanes

Tagarela said:


> Ahoj,
> 
> 
> 
> Does "*nebesno [sino]*" have something to do with sky?
> 
> Na shledanou?


 
nebe = sky


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## iobyo

jazyk said:


> Yes, there is.



There are actually 3 in Macedonian. We have _сина, модра_ and _сина боја_. 

The first is the standard and most common word for blue, the second is a dark blue (the way we'd refer to a bruise) and the last is a substandard "dialectal" word from the North but just as common as the first.

Then of course you have _темносина_ ("dark blue") and _светлосина боја_ ("light blue").


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## Kanes

_сина боиа_ just means _blue paint_


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## zigaramsak

I'd say that "plav" comes from German "blau"...

In addition "sinji" in combination with some nouns is also possible in Slovenian (sinje nebo = blue sky), but I think it's rarely used nowadays, esp. in colloquial language.


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## dihydrogen monoxide

Slovene plav is borrowed from Bavarian german plau meaning the same. So we can say that plav is related to English blue, German blau and so on... On a side note there is a word plav 'light,blue,yellow' which is related to
a) latin pallidus
b) Slovakian plavy (with an accute above y)
c) Polish płowy
d) Albanian plak 'old man'
Look it up in Bezlaj's etymological dictionary.


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## echo chamber

Tagarela said:


> Ahoj,
> 
> 
> 
> Does "*nebesno [sino]*" have something to do with sky?
> 
> Na shledanou?



Yes, there is. "Nebo" means "sky" in Macedonian. "Nebesno/a" is the adjective from "nebo". So, nebesno sino/nebesno sina boja (boja=colour) is the blue shade of the sky. =)


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## Tagarela

Ahoj,

Thank you for answering about Macedonian _nebesno_.

How about Czech, is *modrý* the only word? Or are there other options? 

Na shledanou.:


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## winpoj

Well, there is "blankytný" for deep blue, used especially about the sky.
The word "sivý" also exists. I think it denotes greyish blue but am not 100% sure.


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## dihydrogen monoxide

That's interesting, because in almost all Slavic languages siv is grey, yet in Czech is greyish blue. Could you confirm that, is there a Czech-Czech dictionary available where you can look it up or I'll wait for someone else (not being rude).


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## winpoj

Can't confirm. As I said, I'm not completely sure. However, "šedý" and "šedivý" are the Czech words for "grey".


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## jazyk

Accordin to the dictionary, sivý means gray:

sivý = bookish word, šedivý, šedý, šedavý: sivý holub; sivá hlava - popelavá


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## echo chamber

winpoj said:


> However, "šedý" and "šedivý" are the Czech words for "grey".



We use the word "sed"(m.)/"seda"(f.) in Macedonian for a person who has a greyish hair. =)
However, "siv/siva/sivo" means "grey". =)


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## Jana337

jazyk said:


> Accordin to the dictionary, sivý means gray:
> 
> sivý = bookish word, šedivý, šedý, šedavý: sivý holub; sivá hlava - popelavá


For me, "sivý" is "grey with bluish undertones". 

Note that in other Slavic languages they have a word for blue related to holub (pigeon), and "holub" is indeed what I think of immediately when I hear "sivý".


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## Darina

In modern Bulgarian there is only one word for blue - син, and it indicates any kind of blue, light blue, dark blue or middle. Of course, if we want to be more precise we will say: небесносин, морскосин, синьозелен, сивосин, etc.  As kind of grey mixed a just little bit with blue is гълъбово сив, so goluboj in Bulgarian is grey, as the pigeons are 
However, we have an old expression - модроок, meaning darkblue-eyed but as far as I know the color модър means something like deep purple.


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