[Sigia-l] Classification is an essential skill

[Jon Hanna]

> A new standard for wireless is called "Bluetooth" after a Danish Viking
> king. He was called Bluetooth because he had a black tooth. If you don't
> believe me, I can ad that the Vikings called the Africans
> "Bluemen"! So they
> actually did not distinguish between blue and black. Why not? Perhaps
> because blue was a very rare color before artificial colors were
> invented by
> the French and the Germans, so you did not have much need for this
> distinction.

I was going to reply to Gerry's post saying that the problem isn't so much
with classification not scaling as with classification not translating. This
gives me a perfect example though.

In Irish "blue" is also used for people with black skin. Only it isn't
really, "gorm" is used and that isn't an exact translation of "blue".
(Incidentally in Irish people would be called "red", "fair" or "black" on
the basis of their hair colour, hence "dubh" which is a closer translation
of "black" signifies a white person with black hair).

Its only when we attempt to simultaneously use one classification (English
language terms for ethnicity and skin colouration) with another (Irish
language terms for the same) that we get apparent absurdities. This may or
may not also be the same with the Vikings.

Perhaps it is also worth considering that the move to a lifestyle that
involved more sea-adventure, and hence more data that didn't fit so well
into the classification system, happened relatively quickly as religious
persecution by Christians put strain on their resources and hence made such
adventure more profitable in comparison to the alternative. Such experiences
can put strain on the classification offered by a lexicon (compare with the
Native American names still in use in English for many new-world plants,
even those as common now as potatoes). Comparably sudden expansion can put
strain on an IA classification.