Orð og tunga - 01.06.2010, Blaðsíða 134

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Orð og tunga
to the yellow spectrum, bleikr, seemingly a macro-color, began to shed
some of its semantic portfolio, including the yellowish hues suggested
by its use to describe the sun and gold, both strong collocates for yel-
low. Grœnn, then, should be assigned a stage before gnlr, although, as
noted, in the earliest texts it seems contextually restricted and often
appears seemingly without appreciation of the color and more in the
meaning of fertile.
The assignment of grœnn to a stage before gulr does not have im-
plications for Berlin and Kay's temporal-evolutionary order, and the
data do not challenge Berlin and Kay's claim that green and yellow are
non-ordered alternants, which can appear in a language in either or-
der. The conclusion of this analysis is that grœnn should be assigned a
stage after hvítr, svartr, rauðr, and grár, while gulr should be assigned a
later stage, but probably a stage before blár. Accordingly, the sequence
proposed for the first five stages of Old Norse-Icelandic is as follows:
I: white and black, II: red, III: grey, IV: green, and V: yellow.
Appendix I
The texts excerpted comprise: Bandamanna saga (ed. Mageroy 1981),
Barðar saga Snæfellsáss (ÍS l),21 Bjarnar saga Hítdœlakappa (ÍF 3),22 Drop-
laugarsona saga (ÍF 11), Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar (ÍS 1), Eiríks saga
rauða (ÍF 4), Eyrbyggja saga (ÍF 4), Finnboga saga ramma (ÍS 1), Fljóts-
dœla saga (ÍS 1), Flóamanna saga (ÍF 13), Fóstbrœðra saga (ÍS 1), Gísla
saga Súrssonar (ÍS 1), Grettis saga (ÍS 1), Grœnlendinga saga (ed. Ólaf-
ur Halldórsson 1978), Gull-Þóris saga (ÍS 2), Gunnars saga Keldugniíps-
fífls (ÍS 2), Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu (ÍS 2), Hallfreðar saga (ed. Bjarni
Einarsson 1977), Harðar saga ok Hólmverja (ÍS 2), Hávarðar saga ísfirðings
(ÍS 2), Heiðarvíga saga (ÍS 2), Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða (ÍS 2), Hœnsa-Þóris
saga (ÍF 3), Kjalnesinga saga (ÍS 2), Kormáks saga (ÍF 8), Króka-Refs saga
(ÍS 2), Laxdœla saga (ÍF 5), Ljósvetninga saga (ÍF 10), Njáls saga (ÍF 12),
Reykdœla saga ok Víga-Skútu (ÍS 2), Svarfdœla saga (ÍF 9), Þórðar saga
hreðu (ÍS 2), Þorsteins saga hvíta (ÍS 2), Þorsteins saga Síðu-Hallssonar (ÍS
2), Valla-Ljóts saga (ÍF 9), Vápnfirðinga saga (ÍS 2), Vatnsdœla saga (ÍF 8),
Víga-Glúms saga (ÍF 9), and Víglundar saga (ÍF 14))
21ÍS = íslendinga sögur og þættir.
22ÍF = íslenzkfornrit.