Color is an important element of visual information.It is said that human vision can distinguish as many as one million minute color differences, but the color names used as words on a daily basis are limited to a small number such as "red", "green", "blue", and "yellow". Has been done.These color names have changed with the development of language, and Japanese is no exception, and is still evolving.

　The research group showed 57 native Japanese experiment participants 320 chromatic color samples and 10 achromatic colors (white, gray, black) one by one, without using modifiers or compound words. The color name was named by one word color name ("yellowish green" and "light purple" are prohibited).

　As a result of the analysis, the existence of 19 color categories common to Japanese speakers was confirmed.They are in 11 basic color categories (red, green, blue, yellow, purple, pink, brown, orange, white, gray, black) used in many modern cultural areas, and XNUMX color categories (water (color)).・ Skin (color) ・ Matcha ・ Yellow clay ・ Enji ・ Yamabuki ・ Cream) was added.

　Of the latter, "water (color)" is used by 98% of the experimental participants and is considered to be a strong candidate for the 12th color name in the Japanese basic color category. A previous study of the Japanese color category conducted 30 years ago concluded that "water (color)" was not included in the basic colors, because for the same color sample, "blue" and "water". This is because there were many participants in the experiment who used "(color)" without distinction.
Also, in the previous research, "grass (color)" was reported as a color name frequently used to refer to yellow-green, but in this research, the answer "matcha" was replaced with a typical color name to refer to yellow-green. I understood that.
These results, like other features in language, show how the vocabulary of color names changes over time.

　On the other hand, there are some that have not changed for a long time, but one of them is a mixture of "blue" and "green".A survey of the usage of blue and green in Japanese poetry before the Heian period revealed that "Ao" was clearly used for both blue and green, and "Midori" was the same. I understand.Even now, in Japanese, traffic lights, young leaves, vegetables, etc. are sometimes referred to as "blue", but in other cases, blue and green are clearly distinguished.

　It is possible to visualize how color information, which is the most basic visual information of human beings, is formed in the brain and is affected by individual differences and language differences, using computational and statistical methods. Indicated.The results of this research can be expected to give suggestions for information expression for higher quality communication.