etymology : previous and current development of the irish colour terms

Figure 12 shows the etymology of the Irish colour terms and the stages they have gone through since they emerged in the language, this information is obtained from Matasovic’s Etymology of Proto-Celtic (2009).

PIE PC EI OI MI MO *bh_eh

2- ‘shine’ *bāno- ‘white, shining’ Bán Bán Bán Bán

*dh_ubh_{- ‘black’ *dubu- ‘black’ Dub Dub Dub(h) Dubh}

*dh_{erg- ‘dark’ *dergo- ‘red, blood-red’ Derg Derg Derg Dearg}

*bodyo- ‘yellow’ *bodyo ‘yellow’ Buide Buide Buíde Buí

*gh_lh

3-(stó) ‘yellow, green’ *glasto- ‘green, blue’ Glass Glas Glas Glas

*gurmo- ‘dun, dark’ - Gorm Gorm Gorm

*pelHi- ‘gray’ *flēto- ‘gray’ Líath Líath Líath Liath

- Úanne Úaine Uaine

*h₁rewdh_{- ‘red’ *rowdo- ‘red’ Rúad Rúad Rúad Rua}

*dh_{ews- ‘dark’ *dusno- ‘dark, brown’ donn donn Donn Donn}

Corcur Corcair Corcra

*windo- ‘white’ Find Find Finn Fionn

*gh_elh

3- ‘yellow, green’ *gelo- ‘yellow, green’ Gel Gel Gel Geal

*prk- ‘speckled’ *brikko- ‘speckled’ brecc Brecc Breac

Figure 12: Etymology of the Irish colour terminology (Matasovic 2009)

During the Proto-Celtic stage of the language, the colour system of Irish was at stage III of the Berlin and Kay sequence, the BCTs being dub ‘black’, find ‘white’, ruad ‘red’ and glas ‘grue’ (Lazar- Meyn 1988: 228). Find originated in Proto-Celtic, meaning ‘white’, and does not have a PIE root form that it was derived from. The Proto-Celtic form rúad ‘red’ was derived from a PIE root form meaning ‘red’, which developed into réad ‘red’ in Old English. These two colour terms, find and rúad, were replaced by bán and derg respectively when the language transitioned into Old Irish, and a fifth BCT appeared: buide ‘yellow’, making it a stage IV system (Lazar-Meyn 1988: 229). Buide is likely a loanword from a non-IE source and its PIE root form developed in Latin into badius ‘bay, chestnut brown’ (Matasovic 2009).

As table 12 shows, derg was a term denoting ‘blood red’ before it became a BCT. It is derived from a PIE root meaning ‘dark’, this same root developed into deorc ‘dark’ in Old English (staying closer to its original meaning). Bán developed as a term meaning ‘white, shining’, before it became a BCT, being derived from a PIE root meaning ‘shine’.

Both glas and geal were derived from the same PIE root form, meaning ‘yellow, green’. When this term developed into the Proto-Celtic forms, a semantic shift occurred. The original meaning ‘yellow, green’ remained current for geal, but changed into ‘green, blue’ for glas. When Proto-Celtic transitioned into Early Irish, the meaning of geal developed into much what it means

today ‘bright’. The PIE root form of donn ‘dark’ developed into dox in Old English meaning ‘dark coloured, dusky’; in Proto-Celtic it was supplemented with an additional hue sense namely ‘brown’.

Other secondary colour terms were not to enter the language until much later. For example the term oráiste, which is still up to this day a noun denoting the citrus fruit, additionally denoting the colour orange, which can therefore not fully be accounted for as a basic colour term. However, as it is likely a loanword from English, the term is used as such – often in favour of the original Gaelic compound flannbhuí. The reasons that this term is not a BCT are clear: it is a compound word (non-monolexemic), plus orange is included in both dearg and buí. Something similar seems to be the case for bándearg, which in Lazar-Meyn’s study into the colour terms of Irish, was not suggested to denote ‘pink’ by any of her informants, instead the loanword pinc (from English) was suggested (Biggam 2012: 57). The colour term for purple (corcra) is is an early loanword appropri- ated from Latin through Welsh (Mac Giolla Chríst 2004: 69). As it appeared in the language during Old Irish period, it is not included in the ‘recent loanword’ section, but instead given the status of an underived colour term.

Other terms that used to be frequent in (Early Modern) Irish, are not used by speakers anymore today. These terms are flann ‘blood red’, lachna ‘dull grey’, ciar ‘pitch black, dark’, odhar ‘dun, greyish brown’, teimhleach ‘dark’ and ríabhach ‘variegated, speckled, striped’. This conclusion is based upon the amount of entries in the Nua Chorpas na hÉireann and information obtained from my informants (see appendices 2 and 3 for usage frequency). In the case of ciar, it was not even recognised as a colour term by six of the informants (informants 6, 12, 13, 15, 19, 20) and oth- ers only recognised it as a colour word when it is compounded with dubh > ciardubh ‘pitch black’. Something similar happened in the case of odhar; there was a lot of variation and uncertainty in the answers. These secondary terms are very likely blocked by the existence of a better, more specific term for the concepts they denote (Plag 2003: 64). Thus the use of buí is blocked in reference to ‘yellow hair’, as there is already a more specific term that covers it: fionn ‘blonde’.

Already in 1988, Lazar-Meyn has pointed out that language contact with English has had substantial effects on the colour system of Modern Irish, colour terms that were previously secondary and restricted terms, have been adapted to serve a role in a ‘proper’ stage VII system (Lazar Meyn 1988: 239). In the remainder of this chapter I will look into the development that has occurred since then.