Colors
Pikotika has six color words. Every other color is two of them put together, or something the color of a thing — so the whole system is six roots and one habit.
The six
- rus red
- yoro yellow
- verte green
- asur blue
- anka white, pale
- nero black, dark
The last two are not only colors. anka is anything light-valued and nero anything dark-valued, so they do the work English needs pale and dark for as well.
The word for color itself is koror — color, hue.
Mixing two
Join two color roots and you get the color between them.
- rusyoro orange red-yellow
- rusasur purple red-blue
- asurverte cyan blue-green
- rusanka pink red-white
The color of a thing
The rest are named after something that is that color, with koror as the head:
- terakoror brown earth-color
- risokoror tan, beige grain-color
- rapiskoror grey stone-color
This pattern is open: any thing plus koror is a usable color word, and a listener who knows the thing knows the color.
Saying it
A color is a modifier, so it goes straight in front of what it colors — no verb, no agreement, no change of form.
What color is it?
Tis ri ker koror?This is a yellow fruit.
Tis ri yoro pomo.I want that big red ball.
Eko ri vori a nontis meka rus rotun.Degree words work on colors as on any other modifier — meka nero is deep black, piko verte faintly green.
It's a tea shop that is green.
Tis ri verte arpoaku komparroko.And these red ones — what are they?
Kum tis rus kosa ri ker?Colors carry idioms too, and this one happens to be the same idiom as in English:
The boss gave us the green light.
Opustesta ri vertetika ver ekomen.