(Phys.org)—That there are universal patterns in the naming of colors across languages has long been a topic of discussion in a range of disciplines, including anthropology, cognitive science and linguistics. However, previous color term research has not applied an evolutionary framework to the analysis of these worldwide patterns. Recently, scientists at Yale University traced the history of color systems in language by applying phylogenetic methods across a large language tree. They not only validated the phylogenetic approach to culture, but also generated a precise history of color terms across a large language sample drawn from the Pama-Nyungan languages of Australia, and moreover provided evidence supporting the loss and, as had been previously known, gain of color terms in the evolutionary process.