Orð og tunga - 01.06.2013, Blaðsíða 142

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Orð og tunga
connection between the colors orange and yellow, it is not surprising
that Berlin and Kay (1969:22) suggest that, when orange is established
as a separate basic color term in a language, it most often "becomes
isolated from YELLOW." There are, however, other instances where
orange is derived from red or considered part of red.23
The examples of compound color terms for orange in Modern Ice-
landic, support the view that orange derives from either red or yellow.
The oldest color terms describing orange objects (rauðbleikr; rauðgulur,
brandgulur) as well as the terms coined when oranges became better
known in Iceland (oransjegulur, orangegulur, óransíugulur) use a hue of
yellow (-bleikr/-gulur) as a suffix, indicating that orange may originally
have been perceived as a shade of yellow by Icelanders.24 Due to the
strong historical association with yellow, a direct translation of 'or-
ange-colored' (gidleplalitaður; appelsínulitaður) or a term with the suffix
-rauður would not have been adequate after the introduction of the
fruit to Iceland. This may explain why appelsínugulur became the pre-
dominant term. The prefix appelsínu- was likely given preference over
rauð-, brand-, or dökk- because of the close connection between fruit
and color. Since the loanword appelsína entered the Icelandic lexicon
very quickly, it likely influenced the creation of the new color term.
6 Appelsínugulur as a Basic Color Term
Though orange may have originally been perceived as a hue of yel-
low in Iceland, it can be argued that today appelsínugulur should be
considered an independent and basic color term despite its com-
pound nature. In a recent study, Regier, Kay and Khetarpal (2007) ar-
gue that "Color Naming Reflects Optimal Partitions of Color Space."
1956:31), or certain dialects in southwest Iran, where orange can be included
in yellow or red, depending on the shade, but it is most frequently associated
with yellow (Friedl 1979:58, fig. 6; 63, fig. 9; 64). Furthermore, Delwin and Brown
(2006:16608-9) illustrate in an analysis of the "World Color Survey (WCS) color-
naming data set by using k-means cluster and concordance analyses" that yellow
and orange are inseparably connected by establishing a WCS chromatic category
" YELLO W-OR-OR AN G E."
23 Examples include the language Malaya (Berlin and Kay 1969:97), the language
of the Aguaruna, the indigenous people of the Peruvian jungle (Berlin and Berlin
1975:68), or Jaqaru, a language spoken in the Andes Mountains in Peru (Hardman
1981:66).
24 The fact that orange juice generally has a yellowish color may add to this percep-
tion, since there is such a close connection between the fruit and color orange.