On the perceptual/linguistic origin of the twelfth basic color term in the Italian color lexicon

Color categorization is a cognitive mechanism that assigns a linguistic label to a color stimulus. In their pioneering study of 1969, Berlin and Kay proposed the existence of eleven universal basic colors, founding the “universalist” theory on color naming. From then different studies have been proposed either supporting or refusing such a conjecture based on new evidence. One of the most fascinating elements of this research is the debate on the nature of the color naming mechanism: is it a perceptual or a linguistic effect? An inherent aspect of the Berlin and Kay’s conjecture is the “weak relativist hypothesis” concerning the emergence of additional basic color categories besides the established 11, specific to a certain language. In this paper investigate these two issues and propose some arguments in favor of the existence of a twelfth basic color term in the Italian language. Following the indications of the results of our previous work, two experiments were performed, focusing on the linguistic and the perceptual aspects, respectively. Results support the hypothesis on the existence of an additional basic category named “azzurro” (light blue) as it is the case for Turkish, Greek, Russian and Maltese.