The Effects of Bilingualism on Basic Color Terms in Persian

Abstract

This study is to determine how bilingualism could influence the list of Persian basic color terms and their order. Using a monolingual Persian and a bilingual Kurd sample students, and a color list task, it is assumed that bilingualism could change the ordering of the non-basic color terms in the second language, but not the basic ones. Another assumption is that, the old usual methods for obtaining mean position and saliency, based on Sutrop (2001) would not determine the BCTs in Persian. The data suggest that Persian has 6 BCTs; Qermez, Âbi, Sabz, Zard, Siyâh, and Sefid. The BCTs are retrieved by monolinguals much faster than bilinguals. Mean Position and frequency in school and university students had differences in number supporting the hypothesis that staying for more than two years in a bilingual environment and L2 use frequency are the two effective factors in BCTs order.