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Article published In: NOWELE
Vol. 70:1 (2017) ► pp.22–38

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The color brown in Old Norse-Icelandic literature

 | University of Wisconsin-Madison
Published online: 20 April 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/nowele.70.1.02wol
The article examines the use of the color brown in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, which is encoded by brúnn and jarpr. More specifically, it seeks to determine through linguistic categorization the objects about which brown is used and to determine on the basis of its frequency whether for Old Norse-Icelandic brown should be placed in the earlier stages of the evolution of color terms or if it should be assigned to the later stages. The data show that brúnn is the more frequently used term, though the earliest texts suggest that both brúnn and jarpr were contextually restricted. Gradually, brúnn came to be applied to a wider range of objects, whereas jarpr remained a secondary color term. As a basic color term, brúnn should be assigned a fairly late stage in the temporal-evolutionary order of basic color terms.
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