Kite's color notation/Translations

Explanation

Color notation, Ups and Downs notation, and Pergens notation can all be translated into other languages. Just like conventional notation, staff notation must be universal, and not vary by language. Many terms can be translated, but a few terms can't be. Just as one must learn a few Italian words like allegro and andante to read conventional staff notation, one must learn a few English words to read color notation. Fortunately, the full word needn't be learned, just the first letter.

The color accidentals w, y, g, z and r must not vary. Spanish speakers shouldn't translate yellow into amarillo, and then shorten it to amo or mo. In order for terms such as 1o, 3u, 17a, etc. to be universal, -o, -u and -a for over, under and all must not vary. Thus wa, yo, gu, zo and ru are also invariant. Po and qu and p and q are invariant.

Not only staff notation but also written chord names must not vary. Ch7 and Cs7 are invariant, thus h and s are also invariant. The words harmonic and subharmonic can vary, and are generally abbreviated to make a concise chord name.

All colors for primes 11 and higher can vary. In many European languages, tho/thu/tha becomes tro/tru/tra. Spanish for 11 is once, and lo/lu/la might become onco/oncu/onca. Or it might remain lo/lu/la, for conciseness. If so, a helpful mnemonic is lavender, since most Western and even some Asian languages have a word very similar to it. Italian for 11 is undici, suggesting uno/unu/una. But if 1o is uno, an "uno chord" would also be a "one chord". Thus 1o becomes either undo/undu/unda or perhaps unó/unu/una, with the accent distinguishing unó from uno.

The short form of temperament names and subgroup names must not vary, because they are likely to be written at the top of the score. In such names, primes 11 and higher must be written in their numeric form. Thus on the score the thulu temperament is written 3u1uT, and the yalatha subgroup is written ya1a3a.

The disambiguation prefix i- is invariant, and is used as needed in all languages. Disambiguation is only necessary if the other word needs to be used in a musical context. The note C sounds like sea, but there's no problem, because noone ever needs to discuss a "sea chord". But "no" as in no5 and nowa is invariant, therefore 19o must be ino in most European languages.

Sometimes one color needs disambiguation from another. In Latin American Spanish, z and s sound the same, and zo and so are a problem. The rule is to add i- to the higher prime's color. Zo is pronounced "so", and 17o is pronounced "iso". I- is used even when 17o is not alone, thus 17oz is isozo. 17o is written as iso not so, to match the pronunciation. Sa becomes isa, to differentiate it from za. Su needn't change to isu, but might for consistency.

Another example: the Dutch word for 17 begins with z, so Dutch might use zo/ru/za for 7 and izo/(i)zu/iza for 17. Or Dutch might borrow from nearby English (seventeen) and German (siebzehn), and use so/su/sa for 17.

Two colors might possibly sound alike and also sound like some musical term. If so, use i- for the higher prime as before, and reuse the final vowel to prefix the lower prime. If z and s sound the same, and the solfege syllable is So, 17o becomes iso and zo becomes ozo.

Another use for i- is for when thick accents make communication difficult. In Castillian Spanish, zo sounds like "tho". A Spaniard pronounces 3o as "tro", so there's no conflict among Spaniards. But a Spaniard might be confused by an American saying 3o as "tho". Therefore the American says zo and itho, and the Spaniard says tho and itro.

In terms like twenty-tho and thirty-wu, the final digit is abbreviated similarly to -wo/-tho/-so/-no. Italian for 31 is trentuno, and 31u is trentunu. But 31o needs to be distinct from 31, and trentuno won't work. The solution is to accent the final syllable, so that 31o = trentunò or trentunó.

L and s are invariant, but the spoken words large and small can be translated. This is analogous to an English speaker seeing "f" or "p" on a score and thinking loud/soft, not forte/piano. The translated words must not have any musical connotations such as major/minor or augmented/diminished or largo (slow tempo).

Roman numerals are invariant, for chord progressions. P, M, m, A and d are invariant, for chord names and pergens. The spoken terms are of course translated into the usual terms for perfect, major, minor, etc. Many countries have adopted jazz chord names such as CM7, even if their word for major is dur. Pergens are never written on the score as quarter-fifth, but as (P8, P5/4). A pergen's enharmonic interval is written as C^^ = C♯. Edos are indicated as ^1 = 1\31.

The symbols ^ v / \ ~ are invariant, but the terms up, down, lift, drop and mid can vary. Up and down may possibly be translated as above/below or top/bottom. Lift/drop may be translated as raise/lower. Lift and drop should be translated into verbs, since ^ is high, but / starts low and goes high. Preferably transitive verbs, drop not fall. All five terms should be words not usually applied to notes or clefs or melodies or intervals, e.g. not high/low or treble/bass or rising/falling or neutral. In temperament names, both "and" and "plus" should have distinct names.

Clear, ca and noca are never used in interval names or chord names. They are never used on staff notation without a lengthy explanation, since staff notation assumes octaves. Thus they can be translated freely. Clear means transparent, not "easily understood". The words plain, central, double, triple, quadruple etc. can also be translated freely. Plain must be distinct from natural and clear, and may be translated as simple. Central must be distinct from mid and neutral

Here are all the invariant color notation terms, with their English meanings:

Invariant terms	Meanings
wa, yo, gu, zo, ru	white, yellow, green, azure/azul, red
w, y, g, z, r	the short forms
-o, -u, -a, ya, za	over, under, all, yellow-all, azure-all
p, q, po, qu	pythagorean-over, pythagorean-under
L, s, no, nowa	large, small, no (as in omit), no-white
h, s	harmonic series, subharmonic series
T, i-	temperament, disambiguation prefix

Languages that use non-Roman alphabets may write these terms in their own alphabets in text, but not on the score. Such languages have two columns in the table, one for each alphabet, and they have rows for the invariant terms.

Western European languages

	English	German	French	Spanish	Portuguese	Italian
11	l-	l-	onz-	onc-	onz-	un-? und-?
13	th-	dr-	tr-	tr-	tr-	tr-
17	s-	s-	s-	s-	s-	s-
19	n-	n-	n-	n-	n-	n-
-1	-w-	ein-	-un-	-un-	-um-	-un-
-3	-th-	dr-	-tr-	-tr-	-tr-	-tr-
-7	-s-	s-	-s-	-s-	-s-	-s-
-9	-n-	n-	-n-	-n-	-n-	-n-
L	large	groß	grand	grande	grande	grande
s	small	klein	petit	pequeña	pequena	piccolo
	central	zentral		central
h	har	natur		armo
s	sub	sub		sub
^	up	oben	haut?	arriba	cima?	su
v	down	unten	bas?	abajo	baixo?	giù
/	lift	heb		levante
\	drop	senk		soltando
~	mid	mitte	milieu	medio	meio	medio
	plain	schlicht?		sencillo
&	and	und		y
+	plus	plus		mas
W	wide	weit		ancho
ca	clear	farblos		claro
2	double	doppel		doble
3	triple	dreifach		triple
4	quad	vierfach		cuad
5	quint	fünffach		quin
6	sixfold	sechsfach
	4thwd	quartwärts?		a cuarta
	5thwd	quintwärts?		a quinta

Disambiguations: (1o refers to 11-over, and -1o refers to -1-over, e.g. -wo in thirty-wo and forty-wo)

English: 1o = ilo ("low C"), 1a = ila (La solfege), 17o = iso (So solfege), 19o = ino ("no 3rd"), 19u = inu ("new key")

German: 19o = ino

French: 13a = itra (tra vs. trois), -3a = -itra-, 19o = ino

Spanish: -1o = -unó (31 vs. 31o), 19o = ino, Latin American Spanish only: 17 = iso / isu / isa (z and s sound the same)

Portuguese: 19o = ino

Italian: 17u = isu (su means ^), 19o = ino, -1o = -unò or -unó (31 vs. 31o)

Notes:

In Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland (and Sweden before about 1990s), B natural is called H and B flat is called B. H7 is distinguished from h7. "Ha sieben" = H7 = H D♯ F♯ A. "NaturSieben" = h7 = w1 y3 w5 z7.

Spanish: the "c" in onco / oncu / onca is pronounced "s", as in once. (Should it be onzo / onzu / onza? onso / onsu / onsa?) 17o is so, not iso, because so and Sol sound distinctly different.

Eastern European languages

	English	Russian	Polish	Hungarian
11	l-
13	th-
17	s-
19	n-
-1	-w-
-3	-th-
-7	-s-
-9	-n-
L	large
s	small
	central
h	har
s	sub
^	up
v	down
/	lift
\	drop
~	mid
	plain
&	and
+	plus
W	wide
ca	clear
2	double
3	triple
4	quad
5	quint
6	sixfold
	4thwd
	5thwd

Disambiguations:

Notes:

Middle Eastern languages

	English	Arabic		Turkish	Persian		Hebrew
w	wa		wa			wa		wa
y	yo		yo			yo		yo
g	gu		gu			gu		gu
z	zo		zo			zo		zo
r	ru		ru			ru		ru
p	po		po			po		po
q	qu		qu			qu		qu
11	l-
13	th-
17	s-
19	n-
-1	-w-
-3	-th-
-7	-s-
-9	-n-
L	large
s	small
	central
h	har
s	sub
^	up
v	down
/	lift
\	drop
~	mid
	plain
&	and
+	plus
W	wide
ca	clear
2	double
3	triple
4	quad
5	quint
6	sixfold
	4thwd
	5thwd

Disambiguations:

Notes:

South Asian languages

	English	Hindi
w	wa		wa
y	yo		yo
g	gu		gu
z	zo		zo
r	ru		ru
p	po		po
q	qu		qu
11	l-		gy-
13	th-		t-
17	s-		s-
19	n-		n-
-1	-w-		(see below)
-3	-th-		"
-7	-s-		"
-9	-n-		"
L	large		baRaa
s	small		chhoTaa
	central		mukhya
h	har		bhu
s	sub		anu
^	up		upar
v	down		neeche
/	lift		uThaa
\	drop		giraa
~	mid		madhya
	plain		saadaa
&	and		aur
+	plus		plus
W	wide		chauRaa
ca	clear		berang
2	double		dvi
3	triple		tri
4	quad		chatur
5	quint		pancha
6	sixfold		shaT
	4thwd		ma ki or
	5thwd		pa ki or

Disambiguations:

Hindi: ina (na means not), isa (Sa means Do)

Notes:

Hindi bhu for "h" comes from svayambhu, a Sanskrit term for overtone that is often used in Carnatic music. Anu for sub is a Sanskrit prepositional prefix corresponding to under- and sub-.

Hindi has a separate word for each number, not formed by combining the tens digit and the ones digit.

	English	Hindi
23-	twenty-th-		te'ees-
29-	twenty-n-		untees-
31-	thirty-w-		iktees-
37-	thirty-s-		saintees-
41-	forty-w-		iktaalees-
43-	forty-th-		taintaalees-
47-	forty-s-		saintaalees-
53-	fifty-th-		tirepan-
59-	fifty-n-		unsaTh-
61-	sixty-w-		iksaTh-

East Asian languages

	English	Mandarin		Japanese		Korean			Vietnamese
w	wa							wa
y	yo							yo
g	gu							gyu
z	zo							zo
r	ru							ryu
p	po							po
q	qu							qu
11	l-				ich-	일	一	il-
13	th-				s-	삼	三	sam-
17	s-				sh-	칠	七	chil-
19	n-				ky-	구	九	gu-
-1	-w-				ich-	일	一	-il-
-3	-th-				s-	삼	三	-sam-
-7	-s-				sh-	칠	七	-chil-
-9	-n-				ky-	구	九	-gu-
L	large					대	大	dae
s	small					소	小	so
	central					가운데		gaunde
h	har					에이치		"aitch"
s	sub					에스		"ess"
^	up					상	上	sang
v	down					하	下	ha
/	lift					승	升	seung
\	drop					낙	落	nak
~	mid					중	中	jung
	plain
&	and					앤드		"and"
+	plus					플러스		"plus"
W	wide					큰		keun
ca	clear					투명	透明	tumyeong
2	double					두번?	-番
3	triple					세번?	-番
4	quad					네번?	-番
5	quint					다섯번?	-番
6	sixfold					여섯번?	-番
	4thwd					사도쪽	-度-	sadojjok
	5thwd					오도쪽	-度-	odojjok

Disambiguations:

Japanese:

Korean: wa is written and spoken as awa (wa means "and" and i means 2)

Notes:

Korean: -u for -under is -유 -yu. Thus g is "gyu", r is "ryu", and 19u is "guyu".