"Yágo dootłʼizh"
Translation:Blue
7 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Ahéheeʼ for the answer. Speaking of different types of blue, in your opinion how accurate is Glosbe? Glancing through it right now I didn't know that the Navajo had a word for blue sharks, łóóʼ hashkéhé dootłʼizhígíí, but since anyone can post on Glosbe and no one ever cite where the information comes from I'm hesitant about using information found there.
I am wondering whether "dootl'izh" means something like "color" ? My reasoning is that the word for "green" is "tátl'idgo dootl'izh" . A commenter on the question about "green" explained that "tátl'id" means "river moss" and "-go" is an enclitic. He also said "ch'ilgo dootl'izh" also means "green" . i assume, then, that "yá" means something like "blue sky" ? Anybody know if these thoughts are correct?
932
That is a great question. I am by no means an expert, but it seems that many languages distinguish colors differently than English does.
https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/language-changes-color/
2945
Wiktionary seems to agree. Yá apparently means "sky," and yágo "like the sky." Dootłʼizh is more specific than "color," but covers a range including both blue and green in English (trivia fun fact, the same is true in old Japanese for the word "aoi" - maybe even for almost the same range of shades, and even in modern Japanese they use this word for green vegetables and green traffic lights, even though in modern Japanese it is mostly used to mean "blue", since a newer word "midori" now specifically means "green").