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 ishtamanu - 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 - charaniram - grey, from ചാരം (charam), ash ഓറഞ്ച്, പിങ്ക്, വയലറ്റ് - orange, pink, violet, borrowed from English THE COLOURS THAT ARE VERBS വെളുക്കുക - velukkuka - to become white, and also to dawn വെളുത്ത - veluttha - white (the participial adjective) കറുക്കുക - karukkuka - to become black കറുത്ത - karutha - black ചുവക്കുക - chuvakkuka - to become red ചുവന്ന - chuvanna - red So ഒരു വെളുത്ത ഷർട്ട് is literally a shirt that has whitened. പച്ച — 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 - pachamanga - an unripe mango പച്ചയായി പറയുക - pachayayi 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