bash version of colorise python script

Well not exactly it only does a word not a string but i guess you get the idea.
Here is the python version.
script in python

#!/bin/sh

col=""
function colorize {
            case "$1" in   
                "red" )
                                   col=1;;
                    "green" )
                                   col=2;;
               "yellow" )
                                  col=3;;
                   "blue" )
                               col=4;;
                     * )
                          echo "wrong color dude"
                          exit;;
          esac

returnstring="\033[;3${col}m${2}\033[0m"
echo -e  $returnstring

}

strings=($*)

for(( i=1;i<$#;i++))
do
colorize $1 ${strings[$i]}
echo -en " "
done
echo