Color‐Category Evolution and Shuswap Yellow‐with‐Green

Shuswap speakers use one color term to name both pure yellow and pure green. The yellow‐with‐green category is not part of Berlin and Kay's empirically established sequence of basic color‐category evolution, nor does it square with neurological facts that might explain the sequence. Although the category is rare throughout the world, it is widely diffused in the Pacific Northwest. Here diverse languages accepted the concept that yellow and green should be categorized under one name, but they accommodated the innovation by distinct cognitive strategies and they named it with unrelated terms.