Do you understand the law of adding "色"? I will continue to explain borrowed words in the third type of color names, specific abstract nouns, too. Please remember the following list;
* "ピンク色" is very rare.
The latter part of the list above are borrowed words from English. I will explain about "オレンジ色" in later article. Today, I will deal with the others. They cannot be added "色" basically. We never speak and write "アイボリー色／アイヴォリー色", "グレー色" and "グリーン色" and we never speak and rarely write "ピンク色". They are usually "アイボリー／アイヴォリー", "グレー", "グリーン" and "ピンク" simply.
Instead of them I would like you to remember "クリーム色 (kuri-mu iro：cream-colored)" and "レモン色 (remon：lemon yellow)". They must be always added "色" when we deal with colors. The differences among them result from whether their original nouns are concrete or abstract for Japanese people.
Lemons and cream are populer foods here in Japan, too. We often eat them in daily life. So, we need to distinguish the original nouns from their color names. However, we do not usually know about pink, ivory, gray and green except for colors. Of course, pink is from the name of flower and the ivory is from the name of elefant's tusks, but we have the other names for them; pinks are "撫子 (なでしこ:nadeshiko)" and ivories are "象牙 (ゾウゲ:zo-ge)". They are much more popular in Japanese. Moreover, almost all Japanese people do not know the origins of gray and green. Therefore, they are very abstract nouns for Japanese people and we need never distinguish them from their origins.
I think you have another question why "緑色", "紫色", "紺色" and "臙脂色" are sometimes allowed to be added "色" (although we usually prefer "緑", "紫", "紺" and "臙脂" simply), but "アイボリー／アイヴォリー", "グレー", "グリーン" and "ピンク" cannot be. I have the same question as you do. In my opinion, the differences are from the length of history. Once, Japanese people were used to use "緑", "紫", "紺" and "臙脂" for their original meanings at least, as you know. Some people sometimes might have distinguished these colors from their origins by adding "色" actually. However, the words of ivory, gray, green and pink were imported as names of colors to the Japanese language at the beginning. These borrowed words do not have any history that they kept their original meaning in Japanese vocabulary, at all. So, I think, Japanese or Chinese original words of "緑", "紫", "紺" and "臙脂" can be sometimes added "色", but English borrowed words of ivory etc. must not be.
As for ivory, you can write both of "アイボリー" and "アイヴォリー". "ヴァ", "ヴィ", "ヴ", "ヴェ" and "ヴォ" are not used in elementary school and you may never look at them. However, we sometimes come across them in novels, poetry, papers and thesises. We write "ヴ" by adding double points to katakana "ウ" on its right shoulder and type "va", "vi", "vu", "ve", "vo" with Japanese input mode. It was created for college students and the other researchers to distinguish "v" from "b" in translating European languages to Japanese by Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901) about 100 years ago.
You can use them to represent "v" if you like. However, once you use "ヴ" in your writing, all spellings for "v" must be written "ヴ", especially in papers and thesises. Also, please do not pronounce "va", "vi", "v(u)", "ve", "vo" for "ヴァ", "ヴィ", "ヴ", "ヴェ", "ヴォ" but "ba", "bi", "b(u)", "be", "bo". I would like you to remember the Japanese pronunciations do not have any "v" at all. "ヴ" is a strange, special letter for borrowed words from European languages, so, it exists only in Katakana but not in Hiragana. Average people and newspapers usually use "バ", "ビ", "ブ", "ベ", "ボ" for "v", and high educated (and intellectual snob, I think) people sometimes prefer "ヴァ", "ヴィ", "ヴ", "ヴェ", "ヴォ". Or some novelists or poets sometimes use them to create their unique world. You can use one group as you like.
As for pink, we rarely use "ピンク色" in both of daily conversation and writing. Some novelists or poets sometimes use it in their works, but a very very rare case.
As for green, there is an astonishing new fact in Osaka which I have never be consious of. Some "大阪のおばちゃん (O-saka no obachan)", those are, middle-aged women in Osaka, always distinguish "グリーン" from "緑". They call only some clear, brite, artificial green "グリーン", and the other green "緑". However, the other people always prefer "緑" and sometimes use "グリーン" for some kind of substitute for plants as a metaphor or a literary expression at least.
There are the other names of colors from English such as "レッド (reddo: red)", "ブルー (buru-: blue)", "ブラック (burakku: black)", "ホワイト (howaito: white)", "ブラウン (buraun: brown)", "イエロー (iero-: yellow)" and "パープル (pa-puru: purple)" and from French such as "ルージュ (ru-ju: rouge)", "ノワール (nowa-ru: noir)" and "ブラン (buran: blanc)" now. However, we usually see them only on TV commercials or some catalogues which show us their products. Cloths and industrial products often prefer these borrowed words, although we rarely use them in daily conversation and writing.
Thank you very much for reading!
Sorry for my poor English.
If you have a question, ask me!
| 緑（みどり：midori） | 緑色（みどりいろ：midori iro） | green |
| 紫（むらさき：murasaki） | 紫色（むらさきいろ：murasaki iro） | purple |
| 紺（コン：kon） | 紺色（コンいろ：kon iro） | navy blue |
| 臙脂（エンジ：enji） | 臙脂色（エンジいろ：enji iro） | dark red |
| オレンジ（オレンジ：orenji） | オレンジ色（オレンジいろ：orenji iro） | orange |
| ピンク（ピンク：pinku） | * ピンク色（ピンクいろ：pinku iro） | pink |
| アイボリー／アイヴォリー（アイボリー：aibori-） | ― | ivory-colored |
| グレー（グレー：gure-） | ― | gray |
| グリーン（グリーン：guri-n） | ― | green |
* "ピンク色" is very rare.
The latter part of the list above are borrowed words from English. I will explain about "オレンジ色" in later article. Today, I will deal with the others. They cannot be added "色" basically. We never speak and write "アイボリー色／アイヴォリー色", "グレー色" and "グリーン色" and we never speak and rarely write "ピンク色". They are usually "アイボリー／アイヴォリー", "グレー", "グリーン" and "ピンク" simply.
Instead of them I would like you to remember "クリーム色 (kuri-mu iro：cream-colored)" and "レモン色 (remon：lemon yellow)". They must be always added "色" when we deal with colors. The differences among them result from whether their original nouns are concrete or abstract for Japanese people.
Lemons and cream are populer foods here in Japan, too. We often eat them in daily life. So, we need to distinguish the original nouns from their color names. However, we do not usually know about pink, ivory, gray and green except for colors. Of course, pink is from the name of flower and the ivory is from the name of elefant's tusks, but we have the other names for them; pinks are "撫子 (なでしこ:nadeshiko)" and ivories are "象牙 (ゾウゲ:zo-ge)". They are much more popular in Japanese. Moreover, almost all Japanese people do not know the origins of gray and green. Therefore, they are very abstract nouns for Japanese people and we need never distinguish them from their origins.
I think you have another question why "緑色", "紫色", "紺色" and "臙脂色" are sometimes allowed to be added "色" (although we usually prefer "緑", "紫", "紺" and "臙脂" simply), but "アイボリー／アイヴォリー", "グレー", "グリーン" and "ピンク" cannot be. I have the same question as you do. In my opinion, the differences are from the length of history. Once, Japanese people were used to use "緑", "紫", "紺" and "臙脂" for their original meanings at least, as you know. Some people sometimes might have distinguished these colors from their origins by adding "色" actually. However, the words of ivory, gray, green and pink were imported as names of colors to the Japanese language at the beginning. These borrowed words do not have any history that they kept their original meaning in Japanese vocabulary, at all. So, I think, Japanese or Chinese original words of "緑", "紫", "紺" and "臙脂" can be sometimes added "色", but English borrowed words of ivory etc. must not be.
As for ivory, you can write both of "アイボリー" and "アイヴォリー". "ヴァ", "ヴィ", "ヴ", "ヴェ" and "ヴォ" are not used in elementary school and you may never look at them. However, we sometimes come across them in novels, poetry, papers and thesises. We write "ヴ" by adding double points to katakana "ウ" on its right shoulder and type "va", "vi", "vu", "ve", "vo" with Japanese input mode. It was created for college students and the other researchers to distinguish "v" from "b" in translating European languages to Japanese by Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901) about 100 years ago.
You can use them to represent "v" if you like. However, once you use "ヴ" in your writing, all spellings for "v" must be written "ヴ", especially in papers and thesises. Also, please do not pronounce "va", "vi", "v(u)", "ve", "vo" for "ヴァ", "ヴィ", "ヴ", "ヴェ", "ヴォ" but "ba", "bi", "b(u)", "be", "bo". I would like you to remember the Japanese pronunciations do not have any "v" at all. "ヴ" is a strange, special letter for borrowed words from European languages, so, it exists only in Katakana but not in Hiragana. Average people and newspapers usually use "バ", "ビ", "ブ", "ベ", "ボ" for "v", and high educated (and intellectual snob, I think) people sometimes prefer "ヴァ", "ヴィ", "ヴ", "ヴェ", "ヴォ". Or some novelists or poets sometimes use them to create their unique world. You can use one group as you like.
As for pink, we rarely use "ピンク色" in both of daily conversation and writing. Some novelists or poets sometimes use it in their works, but a very very rare case.
As for green, there is an astonishing new fact in Osaka which I have never be consious of. Some "大阪のおばちゃん (O-saka no obachan)", those are, middle-aged women in Osaka, always distinguish "グリーン" from "緑". They call only some clear, brite, artificial green "グリーン", and the other green "緑". However, the other people always prefer "緑" and sometimes use "グリーン" for some kind of substitute for plants as a metaphor or a literary expression at least.
There are the other names of colors from English such as "レッド (reddo: red)", "ブルー (buru-: blue)", "ブラック (burakku: black)", "ホワイト (howaito: white)", "ブラウン (buraun: brown)", "イエロー (iero-: yellow)" and "パープル (pa-puru: purple)" and from French such as "ルージュ (ru-ju: rouge)", "ノワール (nowa-ru: noir)" and "ブラン (buran: blanc)" now. However, we usually see them only on TV commercials or some catalogues which show us their products. Cloths and industrial products often prefer these borrowed words, although we rarely use them in daily conversation and writing.
Thank you very much for reading!
Sorry for my poor English.
If you have a question, ask me!
Japanese expressions of colors (1) four adjectives (1)
Japanese expressions of colors (6) specific abstract nouns (1)
Japanese expressions of colors (8) specific abstract nouns (3)
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