This lesson will cover, well, the colors of the selsimicu lexicon! But it'll also tell you how to cite your sensory source when you say things... kinda. So let's get into it!
Selsimicu's color words belong to their own lexical and grammatical category, so they work a little different compared to others. In their base forms, they are stative adjectives (is yellow, is black, is blue) and they all end in -az, from "kaz" meaning color, pigment or dye.
If you sub in that -az for -as, they become nouns (the color yellow, the color black, the color blue).
If you sub in -az for -āze, they become attributive adjectives (yellow road, black hole, blue print). The macron (syllable stress) on -āze replaces any existing one (āfiukaz → afiukāze, nūsukaz → nusukāze) but itself goes away if the base form is two syllables ansd thus the -aze variant is three (luzkaz → luzkaze, riokaz → riokaze).
Alright, buckle up! Here's every selsimicu color, all listed here! Get ready, this is a long one.
izrekaz (izrekas, izrekāze) is a band of infrared that selsians are capable of seeing, that we humans are not. their vision caps at around a wavelength 850nm, compared to our 750nm. anything from around 850nm to 680nm is izrekaz, so this also includes purer reds that we CAN see. It's red and hot, hence coming from the word for "fire", izraj.
saiñokaz (saiñokas, saiñokāze) encompasses colors that are red or warm orange, from around 680nm to 600nm. It's a very common warm color that they associate with the sky in daylight, hence coming from the word for "sky", saiño.
olekaz [olekas, olekāze] encompasses yellows, both orangey and limey, from around 600nm to 560nm. It comes from the word for "dragon scale", olek.
nimekaz [nimekas, nimekāze] encompasses cyans, from around 505nm to 485nm. It's a color important to selsian culture, coming from the word for "mist" and "mystery", nime.
āfiukaz [āfiukas, afiukāze] encompasses more neutral blues, from around 480nm to 455nm. Importantly, it's the color of a cyanotype print, thus coming from the word for "archive", āficzu.
nūsukaz [nūsukas, nusukāze] encompasses dark blues and purples, like those seen in the night sky, around 460nm. They have to be dark, otherwise āfiukaz makes more sense. It comes from the word for "night sky", nusu.
monrikaz [monrikas, monrikāze] encompasses intense purples, at around 445nm to 410nm. It's preferable that they be saturated and/or light, otherwise nūsukaz makes more sense. It comes from the word for "injure", monxri, since their primary predator is this color.
binikaz [binikas, binikāze] encompasses magentas and pinks, either outside the natural light spectrum or around 550nm to 500nm. But... isn't that green? Not for selsians! Almost all selsians have a mutation that doesn't allow the function of their "green light" cone unless the other cones are firing. Colors that are primarily green don't activate, and are instead seen as magenta and amplified by the brain. This is a native term, from which the -kaz suffix was later extracted and generalized. Later, bini was backformed into a word meaning "old".
francaz [francas, francaze] is white, or other colors that are much lighter than they are colorful. Like binikaz, it's a native term from which the -kaz suffix was extracted. This is because selsians are primarily white, pink and black. Speaking of...
luzkaz [luzkas, luzkaze] is black, or other colors that are much darker than they are colorful. It comes from the word for "eye", luz, since a selsians' sclera is black.
riokaz [riokas, riokaze] encompasses browns and brown-y grays, reds and oranges. It is to saiñokaz what nūsukaz is to monrikaz, basically. It comes from the word for "dirt", rio.
kātukaz [kātukas, katukāze] encompasses beiges; light and pale gray yellows. It comes from the word for "bamboo", katu, since the insides are this color.
zaokaz [zaokas, zaokaze] describes things that are glowing on their own, as their own "color". It comes from "Sun", za'o.
soñakaz [soñakas, soñakāze] describes things that are see-through or transparent as their own "color". It comes from "glass", osoña.
ēifakaz [ēifakas, eifakāze] encompasses the greens that selsians can't see. It is exclusively to be used post-human contact, as it's named after Ava, the first human on Niburu and whose name is the word "human" itself, eifa.
You do see! And, hey, how do you say something "looks like" something? Because selsians have a specific way to say it!
To say something "looks like" something else, you say it is something "to the eye", luz fej. You might also consider using an unsure time & source particle, in case you're especially unsure.
"This flower is pink"
"This flower is pink, to the eye (This flower looks pink)"
"He was changing"
"He was probably changing, to the eye (It looked like he was changing)"
This doesn't just have to be the eye too! Wanna say something sounds like something? Smells like something? Feels like something? Just switch out the organ!
For sight, use "eye", luz. For smell and hearing, use "antennae", lalakos (plural of lakos). For tactile sensations or taste, use "palm", joñpei. You could even do others as long as they make sense!
However, consider what you're doing when you're saying this! Take this example:
"This bag is leather"
If you change this to "this bag feels like leather"... what does that mean? Well, that depends on what the bag actually is!
"This bag is leather, to the palm (This bag feels like leather)"
"This bag is like leather, to the palm (This bag feels LIKE leather)"
If you intend to say that you can tell the bag is leather by its texture, the first sentence is more adequate. But if you wanna say it has a similar txture to leather, without saying it is, then the second sentence, using xixe, makes more sense. It's important to realize that, even with the extra postpositional phrase, the default state of the sentence is that the thing IS that. A flower that looks pink is pink. If it's not, you might wanna clarify that:
"This flower is like the color pink, to the eye (This flower looks pink)"
This is an extra bit of nuisance that you should likely understand. However, it's not necessary to specify if the nature is clear. Just watch out so you can clear up misunderstandings!
"The road looks straight."
"You smell different."
"Your child looks really like you!"
"It's logically obvious that I won!! (tempu fej = to the brain)"
"I am measurably not very tall (scoms fej = to the measurement, from scom "compare, measure")"
"I feel like it'll rain. (nemons fej = to the sensing, from nemon "sense, feel")"
"My friend has obsidian that's black and cyan"
"I only have obsidian that's dark cyan"
"We have black cyan obsidian" (could be either...)
Congratulations! You're now one step closer to learning Selsimicu! You'll like having this one under your wing, trust me.