The accepted model of color naming postulates that 11 "basic" color terms representing 11 common perceptual experiences show increased processing salience due to a theorized linkage between perception, visual neurophysiology, and cognition. We tested this theory, originally proposed by Berlin and Kay in 1969. Experiment I tested salience by comparing unconstrained color naming across two languages, English and Vietnamese. Results were compared with previous research by Berlin and Kay, Boynton and Olson, and colleagues., Experiment 2 validated our stimuli by comparing OSA, Munsell, and newly rendered "basic" exemplars using colorimetry and behavioral measures. Our results show that the relationship between the visual and verbal domains is more complex than current theory acknowledges. An interpoint distance model of color-naming behavior is proposed as an alternative perspective on color-naming universality and color-category structure. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals.