Blue and its shades in Macedonian and Albanian

Abstract

Blue is one of the least used colours in the folk culture, and the lexeme responsible for this meaning is not always clearly defi ned. However, in the South Slavic and Balkan folk cultures blue is used in the protective magic, within birthmarks ceremonies, funerals and wedding celebrations. Another side of the issue is dark and light differentiation of the colour. Taking into account only the material of the Slavic languages of the Balkan Peninsula one could not turn to this side, however, the neighboring Albanian language distinguishes these shades, and hence, it is possible to fi nd the infl uence. The article considers the correlation not only in terms of the degree of the lexeme use, but also it considers comparing the meanings of the main lexemes in Macedonian and Albanian.