Category Archives: Folk speech

The “Sphinx” Riddle

Nationality: Cuban-American
Occupation: Attorney
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish
  1. The “Sphinx” Riddle:

“What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?” “Man”.

  1. My father had heard this riddle a long time ago from one of his professors in college. The professor actually offered extra credit to anyone in the class that was able to solve this riddle. My dad was actually pretty good at solving riddles, but with this one in particular he remembered he had an extremely difficult time solving.
  2. Aside from just being a complex riddle people enjoy sharing with others, this riddle is actually significant in Ancient Drama. In the Greek play titled, Oedipus Tyranny, this riddle is featured as the riddle that destroyed the sphinx. Due to this play, this riddle is commonly recognized as the “Sphinx Riddle”.
  3. I actually thought that this riddle was also extremely difficult to solve as well. Even after the answer was given to me I was still slightly confused by it. After a thorough explanation of the answer, I understood the riddle. I think since the answer itself was as complex as the riddle, this is what truly made it nearly impossible to solve on your own without any extra help or guidance.

The Luck Proverb

Nationality: Cuban
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish
  1. You can have it all- looks, money, and intelligence. But if you don’t have luck, then none of it matters.
  2. This proverb was one my grandmother had heard from her grandmother, and so on. It has been passed primarily through the maternal side of my family for generations. It is a strong belief she has always held, and believes it is applicable to everyone’s lives. Looking back on things she was able to accomplish in her past, she believes that none of it would have been possible had she not credited to at least a little bit of just good luck. This isn’t to say that she believes that other qualities and characteristics do not matter, but she thinks that luck is truly what is the leading force for a lot of her accomplishments and successes.
  3. This is a family proverb that can be shared with other families simply if they believe in and agree with what this proverb is emphasizing; luck is an essential force in helping you reach your personal goals.
  4. I personally do agree with this proverb and would happily share it continuously with my family and future generations. Sometimes being ‘in the right place and at the right time’ can surpass anything else.

The Ghost Joke

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English
  1. Why can’t ghosts ever become comedians? Because they’re dead serious.

OR the alternate ending, because they’re dead. (An ‘Anti-joke’).

  1. The informant actually created this joke and ‘Anti-joke’, herself. It features a classic joke ending, and an Anti-joke ending that she can alternate depending on what she believes her audience will find more enjoyable. Anti-jokes are purposefully set up so that you believe you will get a normal punchline that is found in other jokes. In regular cases for jokes, the punchlines are supposed to be edited so that they’re intentionally funny, but for Anti-jokes this is not the case. Anti-jokes are not intended to be funny, and that itself is the actual punchline.
  2. The informant created this joke during her senior year of high school. She created this Anti-joke during class time when she was bored. She then shared her joke with the rest of her classmates.
  3. I thought that this joke was funny. I actually liked the Anti-joke ending more, because I definitely expected a more complex answer than the one I had received. Again, this is the purpose of an Anti-joke. You are essentially expecting something drastically different than what you are told. This is why I found the alternate ending funnier, since I usually have a good idea as to what the punchline of a joke would be. With this joke, I was definitely surprised by its ending.

The Room Riddle

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English
  1. So you’re in a room with no exit. There’s only a round table and a saw. How do you get out? You cut the table in half, because two halves make a “whole”.
  2. This was a riddle the informant had heard in class one day, at her middle school. She likes to re-tell this riddle because most of the time, she discovered that people are unable to answer it. She likes that they are surprised when they learn what the answer actually is, because it then appears to be rather obvious. She actually learned it from her substitute teacher during their class time. Their teacher was trying to see if anyone in their class could solve this riddle before being released for recess. The informant thinks the riddle is light-hearted enough to tell to others just for fun, or in casual conversation.
  3. This riddle can be shared in normal day-to-day conversation if you wish to incorporate something more entertaining within your conversation. This riddle is good for all ages, from elementary school students to adults.
  4. I thought that this riddle was effective. I actually was not able to solve it, but I found it humorous when the informant eventually told me the answer. I think that I would share this riddle with some of my other friends sometime, just for fun. I would also like to know whether or not they would immediately be able to solve the riddle. I have never heard this riddle before, so it’d be interesting to see if this were a well-known riddle among my peers that I just never had learned prior to speaking with the informant.

Proverbs

Nationality: American - (Scottish, Irish, English)
Age: 57
Occupation: Doctor (Cardiologist)
Residence: Winnetka, IL
Performance Date: Saturday March 26th, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: French

D is a 57 year old man. He is a practicing cardiologist at a hospital in the northern suburbs of Illinois. He identifies as American as he grew up in Boston, but he strongly associates with his Scottish heritage as well. D completed his undergraduate studies at Dartmouth University and he attended Cornell University for his degree in medicine. During his studies, both undergraduate and med school, D studied abroad in France two times. While in medical school, D studied at the Faculté de Médecine et de Maïeutique de Lille in Lille, France. English is his primary language, yet he is also fluent in French.

D: Funny thing, it’s hard to remember proverbs out of the blue. They’re so associated with experiences that I usually only think of them in context. On the other hand, I use them all the time to explain things to patients because they get complex ideas across in a familiar and easy way.

Me: What proverbs do you use often?

D: Well, I just used “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” today when talking with a colleague of mine about treating his wife’s normal blood pressure. She gets distressed in some doctor’s offices & her blood pressure rises. In the end we both agreed that “things are normal & should not be messed with.”

Me: Any other proverbs you use?

D: Another classic I use all the time with patients is “if you don’t use it, you lose it” as a universally-recognized motivation to “get off your butt.”  I’ve tried it with my dad too, but with no success.  My mom and I even mapped out their condo on a piece of paper with distances marked and put it on the fridge in hopes of encouraging him to get out and walk.

D: There’s also: “the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.” This is a recent one which is a favorite of mine, by a pastor in New York named Ralph Sockman, who preached in the 1930s-1960s.  My corollary has been “the more the islands of knowledge, the greater the archipelago of understanding.”

Me: What do you mean by that?

D: What I am trying to say is the more stuff you know, the more stuff you understand. I say this to my son a lot. It’s using the things you learn in life like putting the pieces of a puzzle together in order to understand other stuff.

D, while having a bit of trouble at the beginning trying to remember a proverb, ended up talking about three proverbs that he really likes and uses a lot. He uses proverbs in his everyday life, especially with his patients at work, to get across a point that might otherwise be confusing, or maybe even boring. By using proverbs and saying things in a different way, it is more likely to reach someone than by saying the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different reaction every time. So while proverbs didn’t seem to be a prominent part of D’s everyday speech, they are something he uses very frequently.