Letter: Loss of color terms not demonstrated

Abstract

Haynie and Bowern (H&B) (1) use promising computational phylogenetic methods to test the standard view of color terminology structure, epitomized in the World Color Survey (WCS) (2). H&B matched Bayesian phylogenies for 189 Pama–Nyungan languages with the color terms in each vocabulary. Their inferred ancestral state reconstructions found the expected “general support for the WCS model of color term development....” However, H&B unexpectedly claimed to find “extensive evidence for the loss (as well as gain) of color terms” and “exceptions to their [WCS] predicted patterns, such as the loss of color terms in multiple subgroups." Show more