The Semantics of Colour Terms in Igbo: A Cognitive-Linguistic Investigation of Colour Categorisation and Cultural Meaning

This study investigates the semantics of colour terms in Igbo from a cognitive-linguistic perspective, examining the architecture of Igbo colour categorisation, the mapping between colour lexemes and cultural meanings, and the points of correspondence and divergence between Igbo colour semantics and the cross-linguistic universals proposed in Berlin and Kay's basic colour term theory. Research on colour terminology in African languages has expanded significantly over the past decade but Igbo colour semantics remains incompletely described. The study elicits colour term data from one hundred and twenty native speakers using the standardised World Color Survey instrument, the Munsell colour chip array, and a cultural meaning association task for colour concepts. Data are collected from speakers in Anambra, Imo, and Enugu states to capture any regional variation. The analysis maps Igbo colour terms against the focal colour boundaries predicted by universal categorisation theory and examines cultural meaning associations linked to primary colour categories. Findings identify eight basic colour terms in Igbo, including a category without a direct English equivalent that covers a range spanning pale yellow, off-white, and light grey. Cultural meaning associations for colour terms are dense in the domains of spiritual significance, social status, and gender, with several colour-meaning mappings unique to Igbo that do not appear in comparable studies of neighbouring languages. Keywords: Igbo colour terms, cognitive linguistics, colour semantics, categorisation, cultural meaning.