All the colour words in Malayalam — and the surprise inside them: several of the core colours are not adjectives at all. They are verbs. I am Dr. Reshmi R. Nair, an applied linguist from Kerala. I have taught hundreds of learners to speak Malayalam as it is actually spoken. THE WORD FOR COLOUR നിറം (niram) - colour ഏത് നിറം? (ethu niram?) - which colour? ഈ നിറം എനിക്ക് ഇഷ്ടമാണ് (ee niram enikku ishtamaanu) - I like this colour THE BASIC TERMS വെളുപ്പ് (veluppu) - white കറുപ്പ് (karuppu) - black ചുവപ്പ് (chuvappu) - red പച്ച (pacha) - green മഞ്ഞ (manja) - yellow നീല (neela) - blue തവിട്ട് (thavittu) - brown ചാരനിറം (chaaraniram) - grey, from ചാരം (chaaram), ash ഓറഞ്ച്, പിങ്ക്, വയലറ്റ് (oranju, pinku, vayalattu) - orange, pink, violet, borrowed from English THE COLOURS THAT ARE VERBS വെളുക്കുക (velukkuka) - to become white, and also to dawn വെളുത്ത (velutha) - white (the participial adjective) കറുക്കുക (karukkuka) - to become black കറുത്ത (karutha) - black ചുവക്കുക (chuvakkuka) - to become red ചുവന്ന (chuvanna) - red So ഒരു വെളുത്ത ഷർട്ട് (oru velutha shirt) is literally a shirt that has whitened. പച്ച (pacha) — THE MOST INTERESTING WORD IN THE SET പച്ച means green, and also raw, unripe, fresh, uncooked, unprocessed. പച്ചവെള്ളം (pachavellam) - plain unboiled water പച്ചക്കറി (pachakkari) - vegetables പച്ചമാങ്ങ (pachamaanga) - an unripe mango പച്ചയായി പറയുക (pachayaayi parayuka) - to speak bluntly, without softening AND ONE FINDING WORTH KNOWING Across hundreds of unrelated languages, colour terms enter in a fixed order. Malayalam's own etymology preserves that sequence: black, white, red, green, yellow and blue are native Dravidian; brown and grey are built from other native words; orange, pink and violet were borrowed last. What colour is the shirt you are wearing? Answer in Malayalam below. #LearnMalayalam #Malayalam #Kerala