The color brown in Old Norse-Icelandic literature

Abstract

The article examines the use of the color brown in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, which is encoded by brunn 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 brunn is the more frequently used term, though the earliest texts suggest that both brunn and jarpr were contextually restricted. Gradually, brunn came to be applied to a wider range of objects, whereas jarpr remained a secondary color term. As a basic color term, brunn should be assigned a fairly late stage in the temporal-evolutionary order of basic color terms.