No, they are actually completely different colors. Moreover, there is no word that encompasses both. It is similar to the distinction between red and pink in English. (I don't think you would normally refer to a pink shade as red unless you were being very technical or something, and I can't think of a word that intuitively encompasses both reds and pinks.)
Looking around a bit, I found an interesting paper on the exact topic I was thinking about[1]. It turns out that the exact difference does affect color recognition, but the effect is "eliminated by a verbal, but not a spacial, dual task".
Of course, I think this is really the same effect as in the original article. The only reason it's important for me is that I experience it directly by knowing both languages.
Interestingly, Finnish had no word for pink (it was called light red, though a case could be made for roosa). There is one now (pinkki), but that's a loanword from English.
>No, they are actually completely different colors.
We use two different color names for dark and lighter blue in my language two.
But I find it hard to believe that Russians consider them "completely different colors".
Red and Green are completely different. Black and white. Orange and purple. The two colors for "blue" variations? Not so much.
And surely Russians can understand that, even if they consider the two different colors by name, because it's inherent in the concept of darker/lighter, or shades, etc.
(see also the answer of "cema", below).
I would guess that a Russian painter for example instinctively uses the exact same process of obtaining the two hues of blue from primary colors as a British painter...
When I think of pink, the first thing tha comes to mind is the "hot pink" used in breast cancer awareness and "girly stuff." This color is a mix of red and blue, putting it just shy of purple. I think magenta is the more correct name for it, but I'm more likely to attach pink to this color than to light red. Native English speaker, but there are probably other factors influencing our perception of colors.
Yes. Pink to my eyes is a kind of watered down red. Do you consider it any more different? Ie the kind of difference you get from purple vs yellow, or red vs green?
Looking around a bit, I found an interesting paper on the exact topic I was thinking about[1]. It turns out that the exact difference does affect color recognition, but the effect is "eliminated by a verbal, but not a spacial, dual task".
[1]: http://www.pnas.org/content/104/19/7780.full
Of course, I think this is really the same effect as in the original article. The only reason it's important for me is that I experience it directly by knowing both languages.