ANITRA ROZE

Institute of Latvian Language, University of Latvia

Areas of research: lexicology, semantics, onomastics, lexicography, color terms, neologisms (Latvian language).

BORROWED WORDS—ONE OF THE SOURCES OF COLOR-NUANCE TERMS IN THE LATVIAN LANGUAGE

Borrowed color names—one of the ways of designating shades in the Latvian language

ABSTRACT

Alongside adverbs that designate various nuances of a given color in Latvian, for example, gaiši (light-), tumši (dark-), koši (bright-), bāli (pale-), etc., a whole range of borrowed color terms is also used to name color shades.

The article presents three groups of borrowed color terms and the characteristics defining these groups. Individual borrowed color terms are examined by the author in greater detail: their semantics, usage in the language, and first registration in lexicographic sources are taken into account; in some cases, other sources are considered as well, chiefly periodicals.

KEYWORDS: Latvian language, lexicology, semantics, borrowings, color terms.

ANNOTATION

Besides modifying colour names with such adverbs as gaiši, tumši, koši, bāli, etc. which express the intensity of colour, the Latvian language also employs a wide range of terms borrowed from other languages to denote various colour shades and nuances.

The article discusses three groups of borrowed colour names in Latvian. The characteristic features of each group as well as the semantics of each of these words are provided

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by also including their first mention in lexicographic publications or other sources (mostly mass media).

K E Y W O R D S: Latvian language, lexicology, semantics, loan words, colour names.

Colors are one way of perceiving the world around us, an integral part of our everyday lives. But how is the concept of “color” defined? The answer to this question can be found in explanatory dictionaries of the Latvian language. The “Dictionary of the Latvian Literary Language” defines the word color as follows: ‘A visual sensation, a perception caused by waves of visible light; the sense of vision, a perception traditionally associated with the image of certain objects and substances’ (LLVV IV 398). A similar concept of color is also expressed in the “Dictionary of Modern Latvian” (MLVV).

The nature of color is immaterial; Simona Sofija Valke describes it as follows: “Without light there is no color, and color itself has no material existence in the real world; it is a product of sensory interpretation. Our brain translates information about electromagnetic frequencies as color; an object has no color, but the structure of its surface allows it to reflect frequencies, creating the perception of color” (Valke 2012: 133). Thus, it cannot be denied that the perception and interpretation of color are based on highly subjective factors and depend, among other things, on the age group to which an individual belongs, their sex, nationality, cultural environment, and the unpredictable psychological and emotional characteristics of the particular person.

Many fields of research—physics, psychology, aesthetics, art, and many others—focus attention on colors as one of the principal means of perceiving the world. Colors may also be considered from a linguistic perspective, by analyzing color names, which are an integral part of the vocabulary and help us express the world around us. Therefore, many linguists, especially researchers of linguistic semantics, have directed their attention to color terms and their semantics, which is often not easy and at times even problematic to express.

Monika Mihališina expresses the idea that color names designate a specific phenomenon existing in nonlinguistic reality, which can be characterized by the laws of physics. However, an attempt to define colors using the terminology of physics does not make it possible to correctly disclose in any way the semantics of color descriptors in a particular language. Research on color terms is not merely a description of their physical characteristics (Mihališina 2002: 75).

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As for the semantics of color terms, physical characteristics effectively become a secondary concern. The use of color names and their nuances in a language is more important. The definition of a color term must include information about how color is perceived in the minds of language users, as well as about its specific features in a cultural context (Mihališina 2002, 75).

Relatively few linguists have addressed the study of Latvian color terms from a linguistic perspective. Among other things, Pēteris Šmits studied colors describing ancient Latvian clothing (Šmits 1923: 7–33); Daina Zemzare investigated color terms describing the coloration of cows (Zemzare 1971: 189–200); Inese Ēdelmane wrote about basic Latvian colors (Ēdelmane 1971: 73–85); Antonia Ahero focused on complex color names (Ahero 1965: 31–38); Gunta Leiniece described the color term mēls (Leiniece 1979: 153–156); Rasma Grīsle studied the colors of horses’ coats (Grīsle 1995: 40–43); and Laimute Balode wrote about the color black in hydronyms (Balode 2001: 110–122). The author of the article has also considered color names from a linguistic perspective in numerous publications (see, e.g., Roze 2010a: 57–67; Roze 2010b: 50–61; Roze 2012: 292–307).

This article is also devoted to a separate group of color terms.

From a linguistic perspective, color names can be divided into simple and complex; according to their mode of formation, into primary and secondary; and according to their origin, into inherited and borrowed.

Among the primary Latvian color terms denoting a basic color (dzel­tens ‘yellow’, sarkans ‘red’, zaļš ‘green’, zils ‘blue’, etc.), there are also primary color terms denoting color nuances. Most of these names are borrowings, such as bēšs, i.e., beige ‘light brown’, palss, ‘grayish-pale-yellow in color; yellow’, šatens, i.e., chestnut-haired ‘chestnut-brown’, bordo, i.e., burgundy ‘dark red’, marengo, i.e., marengo ‘dark gray’, etc.¹ Moreover, these color terms have a very high degree of generalization, which makes defining primary-color names sufficiently difficult from a linguistic perspective. This is demonstrated by the method used to formulate definitions of such color terms in explanatory dictionaries, where instead of a definition of the color we find a description of the color using:

¹ Moreover, the semantics of a borrowed color name does not always correspond to the semantics of the name in the donor language (or intermediary language). This applies particularly to the word marengo, which in Latvian means ‘dark gray’, whereas in French it means ‘brownish red’.

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1) names of realia to which the given color is most characteristic (this method is used to characterize basic color terms, e.g., zils ‘Tāds, kam ir, piem., skaidras debess, rudzuplūķu, neaizmirstuļšu ziedu krāsa’² (MLVV)), 2) other color terms (this method is used to describe color terms denoting color nuances, e.g., roza ‘light pink’³).

This approach is used because color names are one of the lexical groups considered extralinguistically (analogous are groups of lexemes describing sensory impressions—taste, smell, touch, hearing (on this issue, see Büss 2014).

At times, the boundaries of a color term designated by a single word are very broad, and a specific nuance can be determined only from the context or on the basis of previous experience, as well as on the basis of an associative connection between the color and the realia. If there is no previous experience, it is necessary to remain within the range of tones and nuances of a particular color disclosed by explanatory dictionaries.

In this article, color terms are considered from a linguistic perspective; the author focuses on one of the groups of primary color terms—simple borrowed color terms.

From the entire range of color names in Latvian, the author selected borrowed color terms used to represent color tones and nuances. These color terms are examined by comparing the age of the borrowing, as well as the distribution of these color terms in contemporary Latvian.

The color terms discussed in the article entered the language at different times, and their distribution is also quite varied. The aim of this study is to collect the aforementioned color terms in order to determine which of them are more familiar and more frequently used by language users—older or more recent borrowings—and also what the newest ways of designating color nuances are.

The task we will attempt to accomplish is to collect the data obtained in the course of the research and draw the relevant conclusions in order to understand whether lexicographic sources can be considered a reliable criterion for determining the time of a word’s borrowing, or whether they do not always show the actual time when that word arose in Latvian. Another task is to clarify whether the semantics of the word has changed, by comparing more

² Blue ‘one that has the color of a clear sky, cornflowers, forget-me-nots’.

³ Pink ‘light scarlet’.

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older (seventeenth to early twentieth century) and contemporary (late twentieth to early twenty-first century) sources.

Although, as mentioned above, some articles on various Latvian color terms have been published, borrowed color terms denoting color nuances have not previously been examined as a group. Therefore, this study should be regarded as the first attempt to analyze the aforementioned color terms of this kind.

These lexicographic sources were selected for the study because they are precisely the most significant lexicographic sources of Latvian for the period in question. Moreover, these dictionaries often specify the semantics of a particular color term.

Regarding the definitions used in the article, it should be explained that by underived words are meant simple color terms formed without the aid of prefixes and suffixes. A donor language is defined as the language from which a particular word was borrowed, while an intermediary language is the language through whose mediation the word was borrowed (see VPSV 301, 373).

The Latvian language contains a fairly significant number of color terms of non-Latvian origin. Alongside adverbs that designate various nuances of a given color in Latvian, for example, gaiši (light-), tumši (dark-), koši (bright-), bāli (pale-), etc., a whole range of borrowed color terms is also used to name color shades. The main difference between the two lies in the undisputed compactness of borrowed words, in the possibility of describing a color nuance in a single word, whereas inherited lexemes require a more detailed description (a similar picture can be seen in Russian, for example, бордовый—dark red, пурпурный—bright reddish-purple, хаки—greenish-brown, оранжевый—bright reddish-yellow or yellowish-red, etc.). Borrowed words provide a detailed characterization of a color nuance, clearly enabling the characterization of the appearance of the environment or realia; moreover, some of them possess a certain exoticism and unusualness.

The adjectives denoting color nuances that are the subject of this article were divided into three groups:

– the earliest and/or best-known and most widespread borrowings (lillā ‘lilac’, violets ‘violet’, oranžs ‘orange’, rozā ‘pink’) were assigned to the first group;

– later and/or less familiar borrowings (bēšs ‘beige’, blonds ‘blond’, brunets ‘brunette’, šatens ‘chestnut-haired’, palss, pāls,

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pāts ‘pale, yellowish, yellowish-gray’, karmīns ‘carmine’, purpurs ‘purple’) were assigned to the second group; and the latest and least familiar borrowings (indigo ‘indigo’, bordo ‘bordeaux, burgundy’, haki ‘khaki’, marengo ‘marengo’)—the third group.

In this article they are considered, first, with regard to their first registration in a linguistic source, which (at least approximately) helps determine the time of borrowing, that is, the word’s appearance in Latvian; second, the origin of the word is indicated (which sometimes shows a semantic connection with the donor-language word), and the word’s usage in both older and contemporary sources is taken into account in order to identify possible semantic differences.

The first group of Latvian borrowed color terms consists, as already mentioned, of relatively old borrowings, which are also often perceived as an organic part of Latvian and have firmly entered everyday usage, rarely being perceived as “foreign.” These are the color terms oranžs ‘orange’, rozā ‘pink’, as well as lillā ‘lilac’ and violets ‘violet’ (which essentially denote the same color).

The color term lillā ‘lilac’ was borrowed into Latvian from German⁴. It first appears in a Latvian-language lexicographic source in the second half of the nineteenth century—in 1880, in K. Ulmann and G. Brasche’s “German-Latvian Dictionary,” where German lila is translated as jarkani fils, lila (Ulmann, Brasche 1880: 490). Somewhat earlier, the color term lillā was recorded in periodicals, for example, [...] filgans lilla tibet mehtelis [...] ‘a bluish-lilac Tibetan coat’ (Latviešu Avīzes), [...] gabals pafčauftas drahnas, kleites teefa, pelleka un lilla [...] ‘a piece of homespun cloth for a dress, gray and lilac’ (Mājas Viesis).

In contemporary Latvian, the meaning of the color term lillā ‘lilac’ has scarcely changed. Like violets ‘violet’, discussed below, it denotes a reddish-blue (or bluish-red) color and is even explained in explanatory dictionaries by the analogous borrowed color term violets ‘violet’ (LLVV IV 712). This method of definition seems to indicate that lillā ‘lilac’ is less suitable for use in the literary language. However, the author would not agree with this interpretation, as demonstrated by the use of lillā in the language, including in literary sources.

⁴ Compare German lila ‘fliederblau’, i.e., the color of lilac (Kluge 1975: 441).

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The color term lillā is used both in its literal sense (e.g., lillā virši ‘lilac heather’, lillā ceriņi ‘lilac-colored lilac’) and figuratively:

• meaning ‘drunk’ (in context: “[...] biju gluži lillā.”—“Kad tad tu neesi «lillā»?” Līze rupji iesaucās. «Kauns gan ir, kad apdomā, ka tik jauns cilvēks jau tik liels dzērājs!» (“[...] I was completely (literally) lilac.”—“When are you not (literally) ‘lilac’?” Līze exclaimed rudely. “It is shameful to think that such a young man is already such a drunkard!” (Blaumanis 1993: 377))⁵; • meaning ‘(to live) easily, without obstacles, without problems’, e.g., dzīvot opā lillā! (to live lilac!).

The color term violets ‘violet’ was also borrowed into Latvian from German⁶. It first appears in a Latvian-language lexicographic source at the beginning of the twentieth century—in 1906—in E. Dravnieks’s dictionary of foreign words Svešu vārdu grāmata: violets, i.e., violet ‘ie zils, zils kā vijolīte’ (‘bluish, the color of a violet’) (Dravnieks 1906: 289).

It is used only to characterize color (e.g., violetas ēnas ‘violet shadows’, violeti īrisi ‘violet irises’, violeti saulrieta mākoņi ‘violet sunset clouds’).

The etymon of the following color term—oranžs ‘orange’—is French orange ‘orange’. This color term, denoting a reddish-yellow or yellowish-red color and having the dictionary definition ‘reddish-yellow, the color of an orange’, entered Latvian relatively recently. As far as is known, this color term does not occur in bilingual dictionaries published from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century; it was first recorded only in the first half of the twentieth century. In K. Ductmanis’s “Political and General Dictionary of Foreign Words,” we find the adjective oranžs ‘orange’, defined as ‘yellow-scarlet’ (Ductmanis 1921: 265), while in the dictionary Latviešu konversācijas vārdnīca, the entry oranžs includes an indication that the word was borrowed from French,

⁵ According to the author, this semantic shift has two possible explanations: 1) a connection based on phonetic similarity with the word pilns (also colloquial pillā), literally ‘full’, with the meaning ‘in a state of severe intoxication’; 2) a metaphorical connection with the complexion (nose) of a drinking person (cf. the word ziliķis (LLVV VIII 633—zildegunis) ‘bluish-nosed person’, meaning ‘alcoholic, drunkard’).

⁶ German violett also denotes a color between blue and red (in der Färbung zwischen Blau und Rot liegend ‘veilchenfarben lila’, i.e., a coloration between blue and red—lilac, the color of a violet (EW 1517)).

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Borrowed words—one of the sources of color- nuance terms in the Latvian language

and the definition ‘a mixture of red and yellow resembling gold’ (LKV XV 29914).

The illustrative material shows that this color term has quite numerous “visual” nuances. They encompass tones ranging from those close to red to those close to yellow. In Latvian, the adjective oranžs ‘orange’ is used mainly to designate the color of surrounding realia. The range of orange must be considered rather limited; the number of realia characterized by the color term oranžs ‘orange’ is also limited. This is because, as soon as the color characteristic of a given realia is closer to yellow or red, instead of the word oranžs, the terms oranždzeltens ‘orange-yellow’ or oranžsarkans ‘orange-red’ are used.

Much less often, oranžs ‘orange’ is used figuratively; moreover, in these cases the connection with the designation of the color is preserved. In Latvian, parties, organizations, and the like that have chosen orange as the color of their logo are called orange and associated with orange (oranžie, oranžisti). The most common uses of the terms oranžs, oranžie in Latvian are associated with:

• the designation of Ukraine’s democratic forces at the beginning of the twenty-first century (the Orange Revolution, the orange parties, the orange forces, in Ukraine the orange forces are celebrating victory, etc.);

• the Latvian People’s Party (Tautas partija) and its members (the orange government, orange ministers, orange deputies, orange Latvia, etc.); but after this party’s departure from Latvia’s political scene, this designation became obsolete.

The next borrowed color term—rozā ‘pink’, which concludes this group—was borrowed from German rosa ‘pink’. The designation scarlet or reddish color rozā was first recorded in Latvian lexicographic sources in the second half of the nineteenth century—in F. Mekons’s (1878) “Book of Foreign Words” (Svešu vārdu grāmata), with the definitions rožūfēruigs ‘rose-colored’, gaišisarkans ‘scarlet’ (Mekons 1878: 33), where it is rather closely associated semantically with one specific realia—roses. Such a close association does not exist in contemporary Latvian; another color term, rožains ‘rose-colored, pink’, is more closely associated with roses and the color of roses.

The “Dictionary of the Latvian Literary Language” and the “Dictionary of Modern Latvian” define this color term as gaiši sārts ‘light scarlet’ (LLVV VI² 699; MLVV).

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In fact, rožā denotes the same color tone as the color terms sārts ‘scarlet’, gaiši sarkans ‘light red, scarlet’, iesarkans ‘reddish’, etc.

It should be mentioned that this color has a rather broad range, which expands the perception of the color term, as indicated by complex color terms with the component rožā ‘pink’ in the second part of the word, e.g., gaišrožā ‘light pink’, tumšrožā ‘dark pink’, vecrožā ‘pink with a grayish or lilac tint’, bēbīšrožā ‘light, bright pink, characteristic of children’s clothing and children’s things’.

The color term rožā is also used figuratively:

• designating something bright, rainbow-like, perhaps unreal, e.g., skatīties caur rozā brillēm ‘to look through rose-colored glasses’, auk­lēt rozā cerības ‘to cherish rosy hopes’;

• ‘associated with girls, young women, women, with something girlish or feminine’, for example, the pink commune ‘a women’s dormitory’; an example in context: Now we will turn to the more feminine part of Ukraine, the more sexual part, the pink part, to Ukrainian weddings (LTV1);

• ‘associated with female homosexuality’ (e.g., pink girls, pink love).

The second, largest, group of borrowed color terms in Latvian comprises color terms that, although not to the same extent as those already mentioned, have nevertheless been part of Latvian vocabulary for a sufficiently long and stable period. Despite their firmly established place in the language, they are still psychologically perceived as borrowed and rather foreign. These are the color names: bēšs ‘beige, beige-colored’, blonds ‘blond’, brunets ‘brunette’, šatens ‘chestnut-haired’, palss, pāls, pāts ‘pale’, ‘pale gray’, ‘pale yellow’, karmīns ‘carmine’, purpurs ‘purple’.

In Latvian lexicographic sources, these color terms were first recorded between 1638 (palss, pāts) and 1980 (šatens ‘chestnut-haired’). The place of these color terms in Latvian

⁷ Turning to the color term rožains ‘scarlet, pink’ (whose equivalent is the phrase rožū krāsa ‘the color of a rose’), it should be noted that, in the author’s view, rožains ‘scarlet, pink’ and rožū krāsa ‘the color of a rose’ denote one of the nuances of pink and are not identical designations of this color. It is presumably possible that the color term rožains ‘scarlet, pink’ (as well as the derivative form rožīgs ‘pinkish’) is the Latvian equivalent of the borrowed color term rožā ‘pink’. In the author’s view, the color term sārts ‘scarlet’ has an analogous, if not identical, semantics as well (see Roze 2015: 215, 216, 229, 300, 301).

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is stable but less current than that of the color terms in the first group. At the same time, they are not as problematic as those borrowings to which we will turn a little later.

The frequency of use of these words is relatively low; they are all used only to characterize objects in the surrounding environment. Some of them have restrictions on their use.

Let us examine them in greater detail.

The color term bēšs ‘beige, beige-colored’ derives from the French beige ‘sand-colored, light brown’ (SVV 1999: 101). It most likely entered Latvian through German or Russian. It first appears in a Latvian lexicographic source relatively late—only in 1973, in the “Dictionary of the Latvian Literary Language,” where it is defined as ‘sand-colored’ (LLVV II 62); the word was also recorded several years later in the “Frequency Dictionary of the Latvian Language” (LBV). This word was not found in any other dictionary—neither in a foreign-word dictionary nor in a spelling dictionary. Apart from the 1976 dictionary, the adjective bēšs is found in several other lexicographic sources with analogous explanations: ‘light brown, sand-colored’ (SVV 1978: 102), ‘sand-colored, light brown’ (SVV 1999: 101), ‘sand-colored’ (LVV 2006: 165), and ‘sand-colored, brownish’ (MLVV). Summarizing the dictionary data, one can conclude that the borrowed color term bēšs corresponds to the analogous complex Latvian-origin color designation smilšu krāsa, smilškrāsa ‘sand-colored, sandy,’ which, for example, is defined in the “Dictionary of the Latvian Literary Language” as ‘light brown with a yellowish tint’ (LLVV VII² 51).

The fact that the word bēšs was used in Latvian before its first registration in a lexicographic source in 1973 confirms its relatively widespread use, for example, in periodicals from the 1930s, where bēšs is used to describe many realia (shoes, clothing, accessories, and less often the coloration of animals), for example: Sensacionāla prāva Rīgas miertiesā par bēša krāsas rokas somiņu. (Rīts) ‘A sensational court case in the Riga magistrate’s court concerning a beige-colored handbag’ / Uzmanību! Kas būtu atradis vai pircis [...] no jaunekļa bēša krāsas sporta uzvalkā dāmu veczelta kabatas pulksteni [...], ļoti lūdzu paziņot pret atlīdzību. (Jaunākās Ziņas, 18. 06. 1938.) ‘Attention! Anyone who may have found or bought [...] from a young man in a beige-colored sports suit a ladies’ old-gold pocket watch [...], please notify us in return for a reward.’

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In contemporary Latvian, the semantics of the color term bēš have practically not changed. It is mainly used to designate the color of various realia (primarily clothing and interior furnishings), as well as the coloration of animals, e.g., Viņš iznā́k, mazliet saguris uz priekšu, bēšā vējaka ir daļēji aizvērta (jauns.lv/raksts/zinas) ‘He comes out, leaning slightly forward, his beige jacket partly closed.’ / Viesistabā, melodiski ņaudēdams, ieskrēja bēšs kaķis ar viegli rudiem rakstiem. (www.kurbijkurne.lv/daildarbi) ‘A beige cat with a light reddish pattern ran into the living room, meowing melodically.’

As often happens with color names, the adjective bēš has a completely abstract semantics. Formally, in texts it is used either independently, i.e. on its own (e.g., bēš telefons ‘beige telephone’, bēš krēsls ‘beige chair’, bēši svārki ‘beige skirt’), or in combination with an adverb that nuances the intensity of the color tone (e.g., gaiši bēšs, viegli bēšs ‘light beige’, tumši bēšs ‘dark beige’), or in combination with the noun krāsa ‘color’ (e.g., bēša krāsas kleita ‘a beige-colored dress’, suns bēšā krāsā ‘a beige-colored dog’), or in combination with an adverb that nuances the color of the basic component (e.g., pelēki bēšs ‘grayish beige’, dzelteni bēšs ‘yellowish beige’).

The second color term in this group—blonds—was borrowed from the French blond ‘light (of hair), fair-haired’ (SVV 1999: 110). It most likely entered Latvian through German or Russian.

The first registration of the color name blonds in Latvian lexicography was found in the foreign-word dictionary Svešu vārdu grāmata: grāmatniekiem un laikrakstu lasītājiem by Jēkabs Dravnieks, with an indication that it was borrowed from French and with the definition ‘light (with a fair face and yellowish hair)’ (Dravnieks 1906: 39; Dravnieks 1914: 49).

The color term blonds is used only to describe the color of hair (less often, of mustaches or a beard), and also to designate a person whose hair is that color.

In contemporary lexicographic sources, this color term is defined as follows: ‘light (of hair); fair-haired’ (SVV 1978: 110; SVV 1999: 110); ‘light (of hair)’ (LLVV II 104); ‘light, yellowish (of hair); having light, yellowish hair; fair-haired’ (LVV 2006: 176); and ‘light (of hair); fair-haired’ (MLVV).

Since the word blonds designates only the color of human hair, it is impossible to distinguish semantically the intensity of the color tone or to determine the color itself precisely if it is unknown what the real object looks like.

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Unlike the definitions in other dictionaries, where the adjective blonds designates only the light color of human hair (mustaches, beard), the sole clarification that this color is probably one of the shades of yellow is given in LVV 1987 and LVV 2006: ‘light, yellowish (of hair); having light, yellowish hair; fair-haired.’

In practice, the adjective blonds denotes a color ranging from light brown to platinum white. The following examples illustrate the use of the adjective in the language and also provide clues to its semantics: Lipsts pameta ar īkšķi uz krauju un domīgs nopurināja blondo bārdu. (Zeberiņš: 8) ‘Lipsts pointed with his thumb toward the precipice and thoughtfully shook his fair beard.’ / Jaunais cilvēks bija blonds, gaiši blonds, tā kā sudrabainiem matiem; seja šķita kaila, skropstas tik tikko atšķiramas no baltās sejas […] (www.atena.lv) ‘The young man was blond, light blond, as if with silvery hair; his face seemed bare, his eyelashes barely distinguishable from his white face […]’ / Blonds tu pats ar gaišiem linu matiem. Tad tev labi piestāv zilas acis. Manam mīļam gan, tam tumši mati. (Rainis 1948: 464) ‘You yourself are blond, with light flaxen hair. Blue eyes suit you then. My beloved, on the other hand, has dark hair.’

In addition, colloquial speech has the idiom blondais grēks ‘fair-haired sin,’ which designates a sexually attractive fair-haired person, i.e. someone whose appearance evokes sinful thoughts and the desire to sin (commit adultery) (see LVSV 2006: 175). The use of blonds in a figurative sense is also found, meaning ‘someone with a relatively low level of intelligence, slow-witted (usually said of a woman).’

The next adjective in the first group—brunets ‘brunet’—was borrowed from the French brunet ‘a person with brown, dark hair; dark-haired’ (SVV 1999: 116); it entered Latvian through German or Russian.

The first registration of the color term brunets in a Latvian lexicographic source was found in the foreign-word dictionary compiled by Jēkabs Dravnieks (Jēkabs Dravnieks), Svešu vārdu grāmata: grāmatniekiem un laikrakstu lasītājiem, where the color term brunets, with the variant brinets, is given with an indication that it was borrowed from French and with the definition ‘with a dark face and dark hair’ (Dravnieks 1906: 42; Dravnieks 1914: 52).

This color term is used only to designate the color of a person’s hair (mustaches, beard): ‘a person who has brown, dark hair’ (LLVV II 132), ‘with brown, dark hair (of a person)’ (MLVV).

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In practical textual usage, the adjective brunets is likewise used only to designate the color of human hair (mustaches, beard), e.g.: Šarlotes iela joprojām stāv sardzē [...] brunets vīrietis [...] (www.google.lv) ‘On Šarlotes Street, a brunet man is still standing guard [...]’ / Sēdeju kādu vakaru dāmu garderobes istabā aiz kulisēm, un man blakām, skatos, sēd bruneta jaunkundze ar melnām, dzirkstelīgām acīm [...] (www.tvnet.lv/apollo/arhivs/327979-par_pirmo_latviesu_sabiedribas_elku) ‘One evening I was sitting in the ladies’ dressing room backstage, and next to me, I saw, sat a brunet young woman with black, sparkling eyes [...]’.

The adjective brunets is used relatively rarely. A possible reason may be that the word brunets is unfamiliar to most language users; if someone has heard it, then, even with the phonetic-association link brunets – brūns, the more familiar designation brūniem matiem, tumšmatain­s ‘with brown hair, dark-haired’ prevails.

The next color term, šatens, was borrowed from the French châtain ‘chestnut-colored (only of the color of human hair)’ (SVV 1999: 767).

The first registration of šatens in a Latvian-language lexicographic source was found in 1991, in the “Dictionary of the Latvian Literary Language,” where it is defined as ‘chestnut-colored (of human hair, of the color of human hair)’ (LLVV VII² 338; MLVV). But here too, the first registration does not mean the same thing as the first use. The fact that the color name šatens was known in Latvian much earlier is confirmed by its use in periodicals from the 1930s, e.g.: Esmu 21 g[adu]. v[eca]., šatena, sl[aida]. aug[uma]., dzīves priecīga. jaunava [...] (Jaunākās Ziņas, 31.03.1938) ‘I am 21 years old, slender, chestnut-haired, and cheerful [...]’ / Latgales apgabaltiesas 1. kriminālnodaļa [...] meklē [...] apsūdzēto [...], kura sevišķas pazīmes: vidēja auguma, šatens. (Valdības Vēstnesis) ‘The 1st Criminal Division of the Latgale Regional Court [...] is seeking [...] the accused [...], whose distinguishing features are: medium height, chestnut-haired.’

The adjective šatens is also used in contemporary Latvian to designate hair color, as the following examples attest: Ņem nost tankistu cepures, bet zem tām šateni cekuli [...] (Rīgas Laiks) ‘They take off the tankers’ caps, and beneath them are chestnut curls [...]’ / [...] Merlina nebija dabiska blondīne. Viņas dabiskā matu krāsa ir šatena [...] (spoki.tvnet.lv) ‘Marilyn was not a natural blonde. Her natural hair color is chestnut [...]’

The color term palss, the next in this group, was borrowed from the German dialectal form falch (ME III 63). Along with the word discussed below

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pāts, it appeared in Latvian very early. Thus, the first registration of palss in a lexicographic source dates back to the seventeenth century: in G. Mancelius’s dictionary Lettus (1638), where the German phrase fahl Pferd is translated as pallp Sirrx (Mancelius 1638: 273). In the eighteenth century, in G. F. Stender’s dictionary (1789), the color name fahl is translated in the German–Latvian section as bahls, palfs (Stender 1789: 227), while in the Latvian–German section the color term palfs is translated as fahl, falb, gelblich (Stender 1789: 186). In the nineteenth century, in G. Brasche’s dictionary (1875), we find the color term palfs with the German translation fahl, gelblich (Brasche 1875: 121); palfs also occurs in the dictionary of K. K. Ulmann and G. Brasche (1880).

In summary, it can be concluded that the semantics of the word palss in seventeenth- to nineteenth-century lexicographic sources is associated with a pale-yellow color used to describe the coloration of horses.

The sole reason for assigning the adjective to the second group is the fact that both the word itself and its semantics are not sufficiently familiar to native speakers.

In explanatory dictionaries of contemporary Latvian, the semantics of palss is almost analogous: 1. ‘dull, also gray’; 2. ‘dull yellow, yellowish, with a grayish tint (of a horse’s coloration)’ (LLVV VI¹ 219); ‘dull, pale, grayish’ (LVV 1987: 568); ‘whitish color, whitish, grayish, brownish’ (LVV 1993: 536).

Examples of the use of the word palss in most cases do not fully reveal the word’s semantics: Uz ezermales teciņas stāv zirgs – plats, lēnīgs un palss. (Jaunā Gaita Nr. 144, 1983) ‘On the path by the lakeshore stands a horse—broad, placid, and whitish.’ / Asu priekšā joņoja zirgi – palsas krēpes plandot. (Repše 1990: 187) ‘Horses galloped right before my eyes, their whitish manes flying.’

Some examples suggest that the color may also refer to the coloration of other animals: Atālam pārlido Svētelis palss […] (www.dzeja.info) ‘A whitish stork flies across the mown meadow […]’ / Palss kaķitis pavīdeja aiz ceriņiem, piesaistīdams bērna uzmanību. (Bels 1987: 234) ‘A whitish kitten flickered into view behind the lilac bush, attracting the child’s attention.’

The adjective pāls was first registered in a lexicographic source in 1927—in K. Mīlenbahs’s “Dictionary of the Latvian Language,” where we find two meanings: German bleich ‘pale’ and German isabelfarben ‘grayish-whitish’ (ME III 147).

In dictionaries of contemporary Latvian, the semantics of the word differs: we no longer find the meaning ‘pale’; instead, the meaning ‘light with a yellowish tint (of a horse’s coloration)’ has appeared (LLVV VI¹ 218)) and ‘light grayish-yellow’ (LVV 1987: 568; LVV 2006: 767).

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The color name pāls is used mainly to designate a horse’s coloration, e.g.: Lielais pālais Ksars [zirgs] nāca pa priekšu. Pirmajā acu uzmetienā viņš nemaz nelikās tik liels, vajadzēja ieskatīties viņa garajās kājās, muskuļos un kustībās. (Хемингуэй 1971: 104) ‘The large whitish Ksar [horse] went first. At first glance he did not look large at all; one had to look more closely at his long legs, muscles, and movements.’

Underlying the next adjective in this group, pāts, is Livonian and Estonian pāt ‘pale, dull’ (ME III 191). The first registration in a Latvian-language lexicographic source appears in the second half of the eighteenth century—in J. Lange’s dictionary, where we find the phrase Pahtajs firgs with the interesting German translation ‘ein Rehhaar, al. Eiergelb,’ i.e. ‘yellowish in coloration (Lat. ar pātu spalvu), the color of egg yolk’ (Lange 1773: 225), and in G. F. Stender’s dictionary, where the color term occurs in the phrase pahtajs firgs with the German translation Rehhaar Pferd ‘deer-colored horse’ (Stender 1789: 185).

In K. Mīlenbahs’s “Dictionary of the Latvian Language,” the color term pāts is given the German translation ‘isabellfarben,’ with an indication that the color name is used to describe the coloration of a horse or cow whose color resembles that of a deer (Lat. briezā spalvā) (ME III 191).

In dictionaries of contemporary Latvian, the color term pāts is characterized quite thoroughly: ‘brownish-yellow, yellowish-brown, with a black, brown, or grayish-yellow tail and mane (of the coloration of animals)’ (LLVV VI¹ 527). Thus, the semantics of the color term is almost the same as in the dictionaries of the eighteenth century.

Uses of this word in fiction and reference works show that pāts is mainly used to describe the coloration of horses: Visu Zirgu Pilnsapulcē melnie, baltie, bērie un dūkanie, sirmie, pā­tie un ābolainie teica: «Var gadīties, ka mašīnas visu uzvar un mums būs jāiet bojā.» (Ziedonis 1997: 25) ‘At the General Assembly of Horses, all—the black, white, bay, dark-brown, light-gray, yellowish, and dappled horses—said: “It may happen that the machines defeat everyone and we shall perish.”’ / […] kad Teitoņa ordenis iekaroja Austrumprūsiju, šīs zemes milzīgajos mežos bijis daudz losa, pāta un pelēka apmatojuma savuļas zirgu. (Baltakmens, Stukuls 1978, 8) ‘[…] when the Teutonic Order conquered East Prussia, the vast forests of that land contained many wild horses with yellowish, grayish-yellow, and gray coats.’

The next color term of the second group is karmins ‘carmine.’ The word derives from the French carmin (SVV 1999: 343), which goes back to Medieval Latin carminium, which in turn derives from Arabic qirmiz ‘dark red’; the form of the word was influenced by the Latin word minium ‘cinnabar’ (OED).

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Examining Latvian lexicographic sources, we find the word karmīns in Friedrich Mēkons’s dictionary Svēšu vārdu grāmata, where karmīns (also karmetīns; cf. German das Karmesin ‘karmīns’) is identified as a color term and defined as ‘light red’ (Mēkons 1878: 16). This definition does not at all correspond to the color designated by the word karmīns in contemporary Latvian, i.e. a dark-red color.

In K. Valdemārs’s Russian–Latvian–German dictionary, we find the word карминъ, Latvian karmins (ļoti sarkana krahsa, i.e. ‘bright red color’), German carmin (Valdemārs 1872: 199). The explanation in parentheses, ļoti sarkana krahsa, indicates the saturation of the color but does not provide complete certainty that the reference is specifically to a color rather than a coloring substance.

Regarding the word карминъ (as with the subsequent пурпуръ), it should be noted that at least in Russian the specific case refers to a coloring substance rather than a color, since the adjectives карминовый and карминный are ordinarily used to designate the color; they are based on the noun кармин (Садыкова 2008).

Of all dictionaries of contemporary Latvian, only MLVV defines karmīns as a color name: ‘a dark-red coloring substance obtained from females of several species of scale insects; the corresponding color, shade’ (MLVV). LLVV and LVV 2006 define the word karmīns only as a coloring substance (LLVV IV 166; LVV 2006: 487).

With the meaning of a color, karmīns most often occurs as part of a compound word—karmīnsarkans ‘carmine-red.’ Much less often it is used independently as a color designation; such use is found, for example, in the name of the mushroom karmina bērzlape [Russula carminea] ‘carmine brittlegill.’ In addition, autonomous use of the color term karmīns is occasionally found in fiction, periodicals, and catalogs: Kvėl rozes karmīnā – es dzeru smaržas kāri – Aiz loga kokos karmīns, oranžs, zelts […] (Dаrbs) ‘The roses blaze carmine—I avidly drink in their fragrance—Beyond the window, in the trees, carmine, orange, gold […]’ / Ziedi vienkrāsi – purpura, violeti, karmīna. (www.vidzemescerini.lv/lv/cerinu-katalogs) ‘The flowers are single-colored—purple, violet, carmine.’

The color designation karmīns is officially designated as the color of the flag of the Republic of Latvia, e.g.: Valsts karoga sarkanajai krāsai (karmīns) […] jāatbilst […] likumā pielikumā dotajam paraugam (www.saeima.lv/simbolika/karogs) ‘The red color of the national flag (carmine) […] must correspond to […] the specimen provided in the appendix to the law.’

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The borrowed color term purpurs derives from Latin purpura ‘murex (Lat. purpurglīemetis); red color,’ which is based on Greek porphyra ‘dark-red color’ (SVV 1999: 648). In Latvian, purpurs already appears in E. Glück’s translation of the Bible (seventeenth–eighteenth centuries), but the texts do not make clear whether it is used to designate a color or a fabric.

The first registration in a Latvian-language lexicographic source was likewise found in the seventeenth century, in G. Mancelius’s dictionary (Mancelius 1638: 138); there, however, it does not have a color meaning: the German Purpur is translated (explained) as dahrgha Drehbe / sweșcha Drehbe, i.e. ‘expensive foreign fabric.’

It first occurs as a color term in K. Valdemārs’s dictionary (1872), as part of a compound word: Russian багрь, Latvian purpurēhrwe, German Purpurfarbe; Russian багряный, Latvian purpursarkans, turnșči sarkans, German purpurroth (Valdemārs 1872: 6).

Several years later, in F. Mēkons’s dictionary Svēșu vārdu grāmata, the word purpurs is defined as ‘skaists sarkanuмs,’ i.e. ‘beautiful red color’ (Mēkons 1878: 31), while in the dictionary of K. K. Ulmann and G. Brasche, the German purpurn and purpurroth are translated into Latvian as șarkans kā purpurs, purpur̦sarkans, i.e. ‘purple-red’ (Ulmann, Brasche 1880: 583).

The distinction between a color, a dye, and a fabric in the use of the word purpurs can still sometimes be difficult to establish.

Definitions that include the notion of a fabric of a particular color, the dye with which that fabric was dyed, as well as the color itself, can be seen, for example, in the “Dictionary of the Latvian Literary Language” (LLVV), the “Dictionary of the Latvian Language” (LVV 2006), and the “Dictionary of Contemporary Latvian” (MLVV). As an example, consider the definition of purpurs in LLVV: 1) ‘a dark-red dye with a slight violet tint (in ancient Greece and Rome), obtained from murex and used to dye fabrics; a particular color, shade’; 2) ‘dark-red fabric with a slight violet tint; clothing made from such fabric’ (LLVV VII² 445).

A similar use can be seen in examples from fiction: Mila Mel̦ka […] g̦ērbusies līdz zemei gaisī purpurā […] (Repše 1998: 142) ‘Mila Melka […] dressed in light purple […]’ / Caur šauro logu līja iekšā sarkana rīta blāzma, tērpdama jaunek̦a plecus purpurā […] (Grīns 30) ‘Through the narrow window, the red glow of dawn poured inside, enveloping the young man’s shoulders in purple […]’.

This dual (or triple) meaning of the word, which we can observe in eighteenth-century dictionaries, has been preserved in contemporary Latvian as well.

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The last — third — group of borrowed color terms comprises borrowed words that appeared in the vocabulary of the Latvian language relatively recently and continue to be perceived as somewhat foreign and not fully assimilated into the language system; these are the color terms haki ‘khaki’, indigo ‘indigo’, marengo ‘marengo’ and, to a somewhat lesser extent, bordo ‘burgundy’. These color terms entered the language in close connection with a real-world object or phenomenon that had the respective color; they are not always immediately clearly distinguishable from that referent and continue to retain their original close connection with it, both in everyday life and in the language.

The name haki ‘khaki’ derives from English khaki, which in turn derives from Urdu khāki ‘dust-colored’ (SVV 1999: 264). In a Latvian lexicographic source, the word was first recorded in 1975—in the “Dictionary of the Latvian Literary Language”: in the first sense, ‘greenish-brown color; fabric of this color,’ and in the second sense, usually in combination with the word “color,” functioning as an adjective, ‘greenish-brown’ (LLVV III 188). In the “Dictionary of Contemporary Latvian,” the definition is more precise and comprehensive: ‘brownish-yellow, brownish-green color; fabric of this color,’ and, functioning as an adjective, ‘in combination with the word “color”: brownish-yellow, brownish-green’ (MLVV).

The concept of the color term haki is primarily visually associated in the consciousness of language users with an image of the appearance of a specific fabric or clothing made from this fabric, which, in turn, is associatively linked to the recognizability of the color and, consequently, variations in tone are insignificant⁸. This assumption is also supported by explanatory dictionaries, in which haki is described as: zaļganbrūna krāsa; audums šādā krāsā ‘a greenish-brown color; fabric of this color’.

At the same time—in 1975—the color term indigo ‘indigo’ was also mentioned for the first time in a lexicographic source of the Latvian language, with the meaning ‘a dark-blue crystalline substance; the corresponding dye, the corresponding color, tone’ (LLVV III 455), a borrowing from Spanish indigo, based on Latin indicŭm ‘Indian (color)’ (SVV 1999: 302). In Latvian it came through

⁸ This associative connection can be represented as haki ‘khaki’ → an army uniform or clothing of the corresponding color.

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the mediation of German or Russian⁹. In the meaning of a color, it is most often used in the combinations indigo zils ‘blue like indigo’ and indigo krāsa ‘indigo color’. Without the color-designating adjective zils ‘blue’, the color term indigo ‘indigo’ occurs rather rarely, mainly with the meaning of a dye or when referring to the colors of the rainbow. Recently, indigo has often been used in the combination indigo bērns, i.e. an indigo child—‘an especially sensitive child who perceives the world in their own way’ (MLVV).

The question of the origin of the next color term in this group—marengo ‘marengo’—in both its original and, for that matter, present-day semantics is rather problematic. The name is based on the toponym Marengo in Italy, the name of the area where a fierce battle with Napoleon’s army took place. According to legend, so much blood was shed in this battle that the entire ground became brownish-red. Since then, for example, in French the word marengo has denoted a brownish-red color. Later, this word acquired other meanings as well, e.g., пестрый ‘variegated’ (without indicating specific colors). In Latvian (as also, for example, the corresponding word in Russian), marengo denotes a dark-gray color. Later, the color marengo ‘marengo’ came to denote black with small white or gray speckles, while in eighteenth-century Russia the word marengo denoted a chestnut color, which accordingly was a synonym for brown, the equivalent of French marengo ou brun (see ИСГРЯ 2010).

This color term was first mentioned in a Latvian lexicographic source in 1978, in the «Dictionary of Foreign Words», where the color term маренго, with an indication of its etymology (i.e. derived from the toponym Маренго in Italy), is defined as ‘a dark-gray color’ (SVV 1978: 449). The connection between this color term and the realia is expressed particularly clearly. Taking into account the word’s origin and its close connection with

⁹ In German, Indigo denotes a blue dye obtained from the indigo plant (in the East Indies); through Greek it entered Europe and received its name from its place of origin—from Greek Indikón (Ἰνδικόν) ‘Indian, from India’. In Latin, the borrowed form Indicum leads onward to Late Middle Low German indich and Early New High German endich, endit. The form Indigo, which became dominant from the seventeenth century onward, did not originate (as is commonly believed) from Spanish índigo, but from Low Dutch indigo, indaco, since trade with the East was conducted through Italian ports (EW 1989–1995). In Russian, индиго entered either from German Indich (ИСГРЯ 2010), or, as another source indicates, from Spanish indico and Latin indicum (СИС). Another source states that Russian индиго ‘blue dye and the corresponding plant’ was most likely borrowed from Latin indicum, Greek ἰνδικόν, through German Indigo or Spanish indigo (ЭСРЯ 1964–1973).

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the realia characteristic of this color, i.e. with marengo fabric, the use in Latvian of the color term marengo separately from the name of a specific fabric is unlikely. This is also evidenced by the description of marengo in the «Explanatory Dictionary of the Latvian Language»—‘a dark-gray color; woolen fabric of this color (usually for a suit or coat)’ (LLVV V 93). In the «Dictionary of Modern Latvian», both meanings are combined into one: ‘a dark-gray color; woolen fabric of this color’ (MLVV), possibly because it is difficult to determine from the examples whether the reference is to the fabric or to the name of the color.

The author has not found examples that would unequivocally confirm the use of маренго solely as a color name. Of course, one may theoretically assume the existence of combinations such as marengo māja ‘a marengo-colored house’ or marengo automobilis ‘a marengo-colored automobile’, but such usage remains hypothetical and could be regarded only as occasional. In any case, according to the language data, such usage is not current, which, in turn, gives reason to assume that the use of such a specific color term, so closely connected with a particular realia, is rather limited in the language.

The last color term in this group is bordo ‘burgundy’. It derives from French bordeaux¹⁰, which in turn derives from the toponym Bordeaux (Latvian Bordo) in France (SVV 1999: 112).

The color term bordo ‘burgundy’ is not recorded in any lexicographic sources from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. The word was first registered in a lexicographic source in the «Explanatory Dictionary of the Latvian Literary Language» in 1973, where bordo ‘burgundy’ is defined solely as the color term tumši sarkans ‘dark red’ (LLVV II 109–110). Later, the word acquired another meaning, ‘a variety of red wine; wine of this variety’, and the color term ‘dark red’ is mentioned only secondarily (SVV 1999: 112), thus indirectly indicating that bordo ‘burgundy’ denotes precisely the shade of dark red characteristic of this variety of wine.

In Latvian, the color term bordo ‘burgundy’ was familiar at least from the beginning of the twentieth century; it frequently occurs in periodicals of that time—in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as in the 1940s and 1950s, e.g., Lietošanas gaitaibā ogām jābūt […] tumši bordo sārtām […] ‘The ripe berries should be […] dark burgundy […]’ (Darba Zemnieks) / Tēģi ir

¹⁰ Fr. bordeaux ‘Of a color close to that of the red wines of Bordeaux (rouge france)’, i.e. the color of wine made from red grapes of the Bordeaux variety (Hachette 1999: 221).

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dažādās krāsās – bordo, brūnā, bešā. ‘Clothing of various colors—burgundy, brown, beige’ (Cīņa).

As a color term, bordo ‘burgundy’ is used both as part of the combination bordosarkans ‘burgundy-red’ and as an adjective, e.g., bordo kleita ‘burgundy dress’, bordo žakete ‘burgundy jacket’.

In conclusion, one more interesting tendency in the emergence of new color terms in Latvian should be noted. It is not directly connected with borrowed words but, in the author’s opinion, represents the next stage in the development of color terms. This concerns the emergence of color terms in which no color name is mentioned at all and which are not adjectives at all. In such cases, color is designated only by names of realia (and it should also be noted that these often do not possess a specific color or are poetic), for example, saullēts ‘sunrise’, vaņila ‘vanilla’, dzelzs ‘iron’, rudens ‘autumn’, ceriņu dūmakā ‘lilac in the haze’, and so on.

It is still difficult to judge the prospects of this tendency, but subjectively it seems that the aforementioned way of designating color occupies an increasingly larger and more significant place in the space of the language. Characteristically, these conventional color terms occur only in literary texts and various catalogs, not in spoken language. The author assumes that in this way the language, through its speakers, is attempting to solve the problem raised at the beginning of this article: when a color term is used as if independently, even if it is mentioned in context, the nuances of the color are not revealed to an uninitiated reader or listener without the most detailed explanations. The method in which names of realia are used to designate color, without a color name, relies on the associative perception of language users and may achieve the desired result more effectively. Otherwise, i.e. if the desired result remained unattained, the aforementioned way of designating color would hardly have found so many adherents.

CONCLUSIONS

Having summarized the material examined in this article, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1) some of the borrowed color terms that entered the Latvian vocabulary earliest are well known to speakers of the language; however, specific color terms (by

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mostly designations of horse coat colors, borrowed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries palss, pāls, pāts) are little known and rather rarely used outside the circle of specialists in a particular field (e.g., horse breeding, equestrian sport);

2) later borrowings are used less frequently; in part this is because the realia characterized by the given color term is not widespread (e.g., marен-го), and in part because instead of the borrowing, a compound, non-borrowed color term is used more often (e.g., instead of šatens, kastaņbrūns ‘chestnut’ is used; instead of brunets – tumši brūns ‘dark brown’);

3) the first registration of a color term in a lexicographic source does not always indicate when that term arose in Latvian; in some cases, the first use of the word is recorded not in a lexicographic source but in a periodical;

4) when the use of color terms in older and more recent sources is examined, semantic differences between them are practically not found (with the exception of the adjective karmins); in modern sources, some color terms (e.g., oranžs, rozā) are more often used figuratively, but the figurative use of individual color terms (e.g., lillā) is already found in texts from the beginning of the twentieth century;

5) some modern sources show a tendency to use, instead of borrowed color terms, the name of the realia to which a particular color is more characteristic; but this phenomenon is not uniform across all manifestations of the language—it is observed mainly in texts with a specific purpose: in product catalogs, product descriptions (e.g., clothing and household appliances), on labels and packaging, in shops, and so on.

ABBREVIATIONS

Latv. – Latvian; Ger. – German; Fr. – French; Russ. – Russian

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ИСТОЧНИКИ

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Brasche G. 1875: Allererste Anleitung zum Gebrauche der lettische Sprache für Deutsche von G. Brasche. Libau: Verlag von G. L. Zimmermann.

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Darbs 15.09.1927

Dravnieks J. 1906: Svešu vārdu grāmata. Jelgava.

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EW 1989–1995: Etymologisches Wörterbuch (nach Pfeifer). Доступно: www.dwds.de.

EW – Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen. München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1997.

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Hemingveijs Ernests 1971: Kopoti raksti 1. No angļu valodas tulkojusi Vizma Belševica. Rīga: Liesma.

Jaunākās Ziņas 31.03.1938.

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jauns.lv/raksts/zinas

Kluge F. 1975: Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Lange J. 1773: Lettisch Deutscher Theil des vollständigen Lettischen Lexici. Schloß Ober=Pahlen.

Latviešu Avīzes 27.06.1857.

LBV – Latviešu valodas biežuma vārdnīca 4. Rīga: Zinātne, 1976.

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Skolinti spalvų pavadinimai – vienas iš atspalvių žymėjimo būdų latvių kalboje

SANTRAUKA

Greta spalvos intensyvumą apibūdinančių prieveiksminių komponentų gaiši ‘šviesiai’, tumši ‘tamsiai’, koši ‘ryškiai’, bāli ‘blankiai’ ir pan. latvių kalboje gausu skolintų spalvų pavadinimų įvairiems atspalviams žymėti.

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos skolintų spalvų pavadinimų grupės, šių grupių būdingosios savybės detaliau aptariant ir kiekvieno konkretaus skolinio – spalvos pavadinimo – semantiką, vartoseną, taip pat pirmuosius fiksavimus leksikografijos šaltiniuose, kai kuriais atvejais – kituose šaltiniuose (dažniausiai periodikoje).

Į pirmąją skolintų spalvų pavadinimų grupę patenka skoliniai, suvokiami kaip pastovi latvių kalbos leksikos dalis, kurie dažnai vartojami kasdieniame bendravime ir retai asocijuojasi su sąvoka „skolinis“. Tai spalvų pavadinimai oranžs ‘oranžinis’, rozā ‘rožinis’, lillā ‘violetinis’ ir violets ‘violetinis’. Tiek pirmosios, tiek antrosios grupės spalvų pavadinimų skoliniams kalboje būdingos įsitvirtinusios perkeltinės reikšmės.

Antrąją, didžiausią skolinių grupę sudaro naujesni skoliniai. Jie jau rečiau nei anksčiau minėti spalvų pavadinimai vertinami kaip „savi“, neretai vartotojams yra mažiau žinomi ir vartojami. Be to, dauguma jų glaudžiai susiję su konkrečių realijų grupe (pavyzdžiui, žmogaus ar gyvūno plaukų (paukščių plunksnų) danga). Tai spalvų pavadinimai – būdvardžiai bēšs ‘smėlinis’, blonds ‘šviesiaplaukis’, brunets ‘tamsiaplaukis’, šatens ‘šatenas’, palss ‘balkšvas; sartis (apie arklių)’, pāls ‘blyškus; šviesiais sartas (apie arklį)’, pāts ‘sartas (apie arklį)’, taip pat daiktavardžiai karmīns ‘karminas’ ir purpurs ‘purpuras’ (dažniausiai tai sudėtinių spalvų pavadinimų dalys).

Į trečiąją grupę patenka skolinti spalvų pavadinimai, tapę latvių leksikos dalimi palyginti neseniai (dažniausiai XX a. pirmojoje pusėje) – haki ‘chaki’, indigo ‘indigas’, marengo ‘marengas’, bordo ‘bordinis’. Esama tam tikrų problemų, susijusių tiek su šių skolinių semantika, tiek su jų įtraukimu į kalbos sistemą, nes šie pavadinimai pateko į kalbą glaudžiai susiję su tam tikra realija ir ne visada gali būti nuo jos atskiriami – jie išlaiko ryšį su ja ir buityje, ir kalboje.

Įteikta 2018 m. balandžio 27 d.

ANITRA ROZE

LU Latviešu valodas institūts

Akadēmijas lauk. 1–815, Rīga LV – 1050, Latvija

[email protected]

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