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Sociolinguistic aspects of Old English colour lexemes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

C. P. Biggam
C. P. Biggam
Affiliation:
Strathclyde University
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Extract

This paper presents an experimental attempt to investigate the social contexts of certain Old English vocabulary belonging to a particular semantic field, namely that of colour. Sociolinguistic studies are concerned with language variations between social classes, age groups, the sexes and other social groupings, so it is obvious from the outset that this sort of evidence will be difficult to retrieve from a dead language. However, in the case of this particular semantic field, textual information can often be augmented by comparative evidence from the colour semantics of living languages, and by the theories about colour term acquisition and usage developed by linguists and anthropologists.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 24 , December 1995 , pp. 51 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 Berlin, B. and Kay, P., Basic Color Terms: their Universality and Evolution (Berkeley, CA, 1969).Google Scholar

2 Ibid. p. 6. See also below, n. 10.

3 Ibid. pp. 14–36.

4 The evolutionary sequence of Basic Colour Term acquisition, first presented by Berlin and Kay (ibid. p. 4), was updated in the following papers: Kay, P., ‘Synchronic Variability and Diachronic Change in Basic Color Terms’, Lang. in Soc. 4 (1975), 257–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Witkowski, S. R. and Brown, C. H., ‘An Explanation of Color Nomenclature Universals’, Amer. Anthropologist 79 (1977), 50–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kay, P. and McDaniel, C. K., ‘The Linguistic Significance of the Meanings of Basic Color Terms’, Language 54 (1978), 610–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Berlin, B., Kay, P. and Merrifield, W. R., ‘Color Term Evolution: Recent Evidence from the World Color Survey’ (a paper presented to the 84th Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, DC, 1985).Google Scholar Part of the sequence was also updated in Kay, P., Berlin, B. and Merrifield, W. R., ‘Biocultural Implications of Systems of Color Naming’, Jnl of Ling. Anthropology 1 (1991), 12–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 See, for example, Saunders, B. A. C., The Invention of Basic Colour Terms (Utrecht, 1992).Google Scholar

6 Lazar-Meyn, H. A., ‘The Colour Systems of the Modern Celtic Languages: Effects of Language Contact’, Language Contact in the British Isles: Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on language Contact in Europe, Douglas, Isle of Man, 1988, ed. Ureland, P. S. and Broderick, G. (Tübingen, 1991), pp. 227–42, esp. 237.Google Scholar

7 Berlin, B. and Berlin, E. A., ‘Aguaruna Color Categories’, Amer. Ethnologist 2 (1975), 61–87, esp. 83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 The presumed purposes of the following sample categories are: glossaries, to explain Latin words; place names, to indicate particular places; Christian teaching, to inculcate Christian tenets and behaviour, either directly or through narrative; poetry, to entertain and inform in poetic style.

9 It is to be regretted that the relatively small size of the Old English corpus rarely produces totals of colour words, which, when divided into the suggested categories, comprise statistically significant samples.

10 A Basic Colour Term must be monolexemic, it must not be a hyponym, it must not be collocationally restricted and it must be psychologically salient. This means it must not consist of more than one lexeme, as does blue-green, it must not denote a part of the meaning of another word, as scarlet denotes a part of the meaning of red, it must not be restricted to use with a particular subject, as blonde is restricted to use with human hair, and it must be considered an obvious colour word, widely used in a similar way by all native speakers. Berlin and Kay suggested a further four criteria to be used if the first four did not establish beyond reasonable doubt the basicness of a particular word, see Berlin, and Kay, , Basic Color Terms, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar It has been stated in some sources that the fourth criterion of psychological salience has since been abandoned; see, for example, Saunders, , Invention of Basic Colour Terms, p. 87.Google Scholar This is because part of Berlin and Kay's description of the fourth criterion stipulates that the colour term must demonstrate ‘occurrence in the ideolects of all informants’ (see Berlin, and Kay, , Basic Color Terms, p. 6)Google Scholar, but Kay later showed that different speakers in the same speech community can be at slightly different stages of the evolutionary sequence, so that a particular word may be basic for some speakers but not others; see Kay, ‘Synchronic Variability’. However, the importance of the fourth criterion, it seems to me, is increased, not made redundant, by Kay's article, since it introduces the possibility of recording the progress of a particular colour term towards basic status. If a term is not basic for all informants, it should not be considered a Basic Colour Term of the language at the time under consideration, but, where a term is basic for certain informants and not others, it would be reasonable to assume that it has the potential for basicness, and may be evolving towards that status. Finally, it should be pointed out that, in studies of dead languages, psychological salience is usually replaced as a criterion by frequency of occurrence in surviving texts.

11 Biggam, C. P., ‘A Lexical Semantic Study of Blue and Grey in Old English: a Pilot Study in Interdisciplinary Semantics’, 2 vols. (unpubl. PhD dissertation, Strathclyde Univ., 1993), hereafter referred to as ‘Blue and Grey’.Google Scholar

12 It has been my experience that many people find this point hard to accept, thinking that the suggestion is that the Anglo-Saxons could not name a blue pigment or dye. This is not the case, since the suggestion is concerned exclusively with the lack of a Basic Colour Term, as strictly defined, and does not preclude the existence of any number of non-basic colour terms for blue.

13 Pokorny, J., Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2 vols. (Bern, 1959).Google Scholar Pokorny traces hæwen and many other words back to Indo-European * kei. Several Germanic examples show an involvement with the concept of some kind of outer covering, for example, Old Norse bý ‘down, complexion’, Swedish by ‘skin, complexion’ and Gothic hiwi ‘appearance’. de Vries, J., Altnordiscbes etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed. (Leiden, 1977), under bý, suggests more cognates. Many of these are from more recent forms of the languages, but they exhibit considerable agreement in their concern with coverings such as skin, down and mould. Examples include: Faroese hýggi ‘thin layer of mould’, Norwegian by ‘down, mould, membrane’ and Shetland Norn be ‘down’.Google Scholar

14 Although hæwen denotes all shades of blue in extant Old English texts, as befits an emerging Basic Colour Term, a strong connection with paleness is suggested by its use to translate Latin subalbidus ‘whitish’ in the Old English Herbarium. See The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de Quadrupedibus, ed. de Vriend, H. J., EETS os 286 (London, 1984), 174–5 and 192–3.Google Scholar The former citation requires further explanation, for which see Biggam, , ‘Blue and Grey’ I, 249.Google Scholar

15 Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics, ed. Fehr, B., Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa 9 (Hamburg, 1914), 29.Google Scholar

16 It is also likely that hæwen means ‘mouldy’ in a second case, occurring in the Lacnunga. In a recipe for a salve, a mixture of plants is to be pounded, boiled in butter, and left in a brazen vessel oppæl hit hæwen sy ‘until it is mouldy (?)’. See Grattan, J. H. G. and Singer, C., Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine Illustrated Specially from the Semi-Pagan Text Lacnunga (London, 1952), p. 118.Google Scholar

17 Examples of such contexts include: woad dye (The Old English Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal library, 1650 (Aldhelm's De laudibus virginitatis), ed. Goossens, L., Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Letteren 74 (Brussels, 1974), 220)Google Scholarex … iacintho ‘of … blue dye’ is glossed with of wade ’of woad’ and with [ve] l hæwenre dæage ‘or of a blue dye’; sapphire (King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care, ed. Sweet, H., EETS os 45 and 50, 2 vols. (London, 1871) II, 411)Google Scholar ‘ & swaðeah ðæs bleoh ðæs welhæwnan iacintes bið betera ðonne ðæs blacan carbuncules …’ ‘And yet the colour of the vivid blue sapphire is better than that of the pale carbuncle …’ (for the argument that the iacint is the sapphire, see Biggam, , ‘Blue and Grey’ 1, 256)Google Scholar; indigo (Stryker, W. G., ‘The Latin-Old English Glossary in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III’ (unpubl. PhD dissertation, Stanford Univ., 1951), p. 263)Google Scholarindicum ‘indigo’ is glossed with basu ‘purple’ and with hæwen (for the argument that these two adjectives should be retained as separate glosses, as they appear in the manuscript, see Biggam, , ‘Blue and Grey’ I, 243–5)Google Scholar; cinders (Meritt, H. D., Old English Glosses: a Collection (New York, 1945), p. 49)Google Scholarhacinthinis ‘with blue’ is glossed with i. suidur haye ‘that is, cinder blue’ (for arguments concerning the reconstruction of the gloss and the colour it represents, see Biggam, , ‘Blue and Grey’ I, 261–2)Google Scholar; aerius (Steinmeyer, E. and Sievers, E., Die althochdeutschen Glossen, 5 vols. (Berlin, 1879–1922) I, 488)Google Scholaraeri ‘of pale blue’ is glossed with varying spellings of hæwen from six manuscripts; cyaneus (Oliphant, R. T., The Harley Latin-Old English Glossary, Janua Linguarum, Series Practica 20 (The Hague, 1966), 118), cyanea lapis ‘blue stone’ is glossed with hæwenstan ‘blue stone’.Google Scholar

18 These citations are: Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics, ed. Fehr, , p. 29Google Scholar, possibly concerning the Eucharist becoming mouldy; Grattan and Singer, Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine, p. 118Google Scholar, possibly concerning an ointment growing mould; Cockayne, O., Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, 3 vols., RS (London, 1864–6) II, 24, 338 and 344Google Scholar, all three referring to cloths which may be soft (downy) rather than blue; Cockayne, , Leechdoms II, 338Google Scholar, a woollen cloth which may be downy; Grattan, and Singer, , Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine, pp. 98 and 100Google Scholar, both citations referring to linen cloths which may be downy.

19 Biggam, , ‘Blue and Grey’ I, 190–2Google Scholar: hæwen catalogue numbers 7(Lap 13.10), 8 (AldV 1. 5197), 11 (OccGl 96.1.35.2), 12 (CIGl 1.C.691), 13.(ClGl 1.G.57), 14 (ClGl 1.1.444), 16 (HIGI 1.C.698), 17 (Med 3.154.15), 18 (Ex 477), 19 (Lch 1.248.18), 20 (Lch 1.274.16), 29 (HIGI 1.C.2265), 30 (Mart Kotz 2.1.265.13), 31 (HyGl 3.286.5), 32 (PrudGl 4.27.14), 34 (OccGl 45.1.2.4.10), 36 (OccGl45.1.2.4.12), 37 (ClGl 1.M.218), 40 (ErfGl 1.221), 41 (ErfGl 3.82.18), 43 (CollGl 38.5.200.14), 47 (Lev 8.7), 48 (AldV 1.612), 50 (CP II.411.28), 51 (CIGl 1.F.I58), 55 (ClGl 1.C.575), 56 (CIGl 1. C.575), 57 (LdGl 66). In addition, the plant name hæwenhnydele has been taken as a single example, since elements such as hæwen are not in free use in onomastic contexts. For citations which are considered to be related, see Biggam, , ‘Blue and Grey’ I, 198–9.Google Scholar Groups of related citations are counted as contributing only a single representative catalogue number to the above list.

20 Biggam, , ‘Blue and Grey’ I, 190–2.Google Scholar Hæwen catalogue numbers for glossary items: 12–14, 16, 29, 37, 40–1, 43, 51, 55–7. Catalogue numbers for glosses: 8, 11, 31–2, 34, 36, 48. The short titles of all the texts referred to in this note are listed in n. 19.

21 For a list of poetic words in Old English, see Griffith, M. S., ‘Poetic Language and the Paris Psalter: the Decay of the Old English Tradition’, ASE 20 (1991), 167–86, esp. 183–5.Google Scholar

22 Biggam, , ‘Blue and Grey’ I, 190–2.Google ScholarHasu catalogue numbers: 1 (Brun 62), 2 (Rid 11.1), 3 (Pboen 121), 4 (Rid 24.4), 5 (GenA 1451), 6 (Ex 284), 7 (Rid 1.7), 8 (Rid 13.9), 9 (Phoen 153) and 11 (Rid 40.61). The gloss is catalogue number 10 (PrudGl 4.27.14).

23 Edgeworth, R. J., ‘What Color is Ferrugineus?’, Glotta 56 (1978), 297–305.Google Scholar

24 Biggam, , ‘Blue and Grey’ I, 165–7.Google Scholar

25 The unusual nature of the vocabulary in Exodus is further discussed below.

26 Kindschi, L., ‘The Latin-Old English Glossaries in Plantin-Moretus MS 32 and British Museum MS Additional 32246’ (unpubl. PhD dissertation, Stanford Univ., 1955), p. 180Google Scholar, and Whitelock, D. et al. , The Will of Æthelgifu: a Tenth Century Anglo-Saxon Manuscript (Oxford, 1968), p. 13.Google Scholar

27 Isidore, , Etymologiarum sive originum Libri XX, ed. Lindsay, W. M., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1911), XIX.xxviii. 8.Google Scholar

28 Æthilwald, ‘Carmen de transmarini itineris peregrinatione ad Wihtfridum’, Aldhelmi Opera, ed. Ehwald, R., MGH, Auct. antiq. 15 (Berlin, 1919), 532, line 162.Google Scholar

29 Kindschi, , ‘Latin-Old English Glossaries’, p. 180.Google Scholar

30 Whitelock, et al. , Will of Æthelgifu, p. 13.Google Scholar

31 See, for example, Loyn, H. R., The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England, 500–1087, Governance of England 1 (London, 1984), 111Google Scholar, and Kelly, S., ‘Anglo-Saxon Lay Society and the Written Word’, The Uses of Literacy in Early Mediaeval Europe, ed. McKitterick, R. (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 36–62, esp. 46.Google Scholar

32 Winchester, A., Discovering Parish Boundaries (Princes Risborough, 1990), pp. 36–7.Google Scholar

33 Ibid.

34 Chaplais, P., ‘Some Early Anglo-Saxon Diplomas on Single Sheets: Originals or Copies?’, Prisca Munimenta: Studies in Archival and Administrative History Presented to Dr A.E.J. Hollander, ed. Ranger, F. (London, 1973), pp. 63–87, esp. 68.Google Scholar Chaplais points out that King Hlothhere of Kent's charter to Abbot Brihtwold of Reculver, dated 679, includes the phrase notissimos terminos a me demonstrates et procuratoribus meis, ‘well-known boundaries demonstrated by me and by my administrators’, which may refer to an actual perambulation. This charter is numbered 8 in Sawyer, P. H., Anglo-Saxon Charters: an Annotated List and bibliography, R. Hist. Soc. Guides and Handbooks 8 (London, 1968).Google Scholar

35 Harmer, F. E., Anglo-Saxon Writs (Manchester, 1952), pp. 253–6.Google Scholar Harmer mentions a memorandum which lists the names of the persons present when Abbot Ælfwine of Ramsey proved his right to the boundary of his land. Among the witnesses were ordinary men, two described as fishermen. The surviving copies of the memorandum present various difficulties, and are post-Conquest in date, but they may have been based on a pre-Conquest document of the reign of Edward the Confessor.

36 The Concise Scots Dictionary, ed. Robinson, M. (Aberdeen, 1985)Google Scholar contains an entry for haw with two definitions: ‘1 of a bluish, leaden, livid or dull colour … 2 of a pale, wan colouring, tinged with blue or green’. Although these meanings are only recorded from modern times, the late sixteenth century at the earliest, they may indicate that hæwen survived in the Northumbrian dialect, which made a considerable contribution to Scots. It is apparent that Scots haw was not a Basic Colour Term, since it appears to be a hyponym of both blue and green.

37 The Battle of Maldon and Other Old English Poems, trans. Crossley-Holland, K. and ed. Mitchell, B. (London, 1965), p. 9.Google Scholar

38 Wrenn, C. L., A Study of Old English Literature (London, 1967), p. 98.Google Scholar

39 Hill, T. D., ‘The Virga of Moses and the Old English Exodus’, Old English Literature in Context: Ten Essays, ed. Niles, J. D. (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 57–65 and 165–7, esp. 63–5.Google Scholar

40 Parkes, M. B., ‘The Literacy of the Laity’, Literature and Western Civilisation: the Medieval World, ed. Daiches, D. and Thorlby, A. (London, 1973), pp. 555–77, esp. 557–61.Google Scholar

41 Whitelock, , Will of Æthelgifu, p. 13.Google Scholar

42 This paper should be read as an introduction to the possible potential of the subject, which needs further research. Having completed a detailed study of the colour areas blue and grey, I intend to complete a study of red, which is in progress, and then research the remaining colour areas.