Category Archives: Proverbs

Folk Sayings and Complaints

Age: 39
Hometown: Enid, OK
Location: Oklahoma

Context:
I first heard this phrase from my dad, who is originally from Oklahoma. He told me that he heard this saying from his parents and other older relatives and family friends. He uses it as a response if someone is complaining a lot.

Content:
“You’d complain if you were hung with a new rope”

Analysis:
This is a folk saying or proverb that is used to comment on one’s behavior. It utilizes an exaggeration as well as dark humor to reinforce a cultural value of toughness and not overreacting to minor problems. The phrase functions as a form of social regulation as it discourages complaints by making them seem menial or unreasonable. Overall, it shows how folklore communicates norms and expectations through memorable phrases.

Karnataka Proverb

Age: 20

“Everything that’s gold doesn’t glitter.”

Text

Informant: “I’m from Southern India. A place that’s called Karnataka and so we speak this language called Kannada and in Kannada it translates to “Everything that is white is not milk.” I think it’s supposed to be like…I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the saying in English that’s like, “Everything that’s gold doesn’t glitter.” So she’d always say it to me when I would be more dramatic or if I made a generalization she’d say it in Kannada to me. I feel like it has to definitely do with something with the fact that I’m vegetarian we eat a lot of… Hindu’s and people like that have a lot of respect for cows and so our form of gold is milk, I guess. I don’t know if that’s necessarily an equivalent.”

Context:

The informant is from Karnataka, a state in India, and retells a proverb that their family often tells them. It’s meant to teach people to not judge things by how they appear because it may be deceptive.

Analysis:

This text from Karnataka would be classified as a folk speech and a proverb in folklore. It’s informal and is passed down by families over generations. It fits the criteria of a metaphorical advice or wisdom. In other words, the proverb is saying that you can’t judge things based on what they look like. The piece of advice being taught is that looks can be deceiving. It’s also in the “topic + comment” structure. The topic is “everything that’s gold” and the comment is “doesn’t glitter.” At the same time, proverbs can give a glimpse into the culture. In Chapter 5 of ‘Living Folklore,’ Sims and Stephens write that “proverbs are frequently culture specific – express knowledge in terms that people from that culture or group will understand.” Since Karnatakans view cows in high regard, this proverb equating milk to gold makes sense in their culture.

A Georgian Animal Proverb

Interviewer: Can you think of a proverb you’ve heard a lot in your childhood:

MK: Sure, one of the more common ones I heard from my parents was this:

original: 

თაგვმა თხარა, თხარა, კატა გამოთხარაო. 

translation: 

The mouse dug and dug, only to dig out a cat. 

Context: This phrase was recorded from an older relative of mine, but I myself have heard it many times. It is a fairly common proverb in Georgia. 

Analysis: 

This proverb teaches a lesson through a short, memorable animal image. The proverb warns about the possible unintended consequences of ill-motivated curiosity. Animal imagery is used to better communicate with the intended audience of children. Proverbs work as vernacular pedagogy and teach about cause and consequence. Self-restraint is a common issue children struggle with, and this proverb is designed to function as a teaching tool. 

“Keep your door open slightly” Minor Genre

Text: Here’s a performance describing the folk proverb “Keep your door open slightly.”

Interviewer: Are there any family sayings that have been passed down or that you’ve heard?

Interviewee: Yeah, so my parents would always say growing up 门开紧, in Shanghainese that roughly translates into “Keep your door open only slightly” or “Only open your door just a little bit” and I think the closest equivalent to that in English is, like, “Keep a tight circle” or, like, “People don’t have to know everything about, like, your life.”

Context:

This excerpt is from a conversation with a college student studying Biology after a MMA (mixed-martial arts) practice. The student was raised in Walnut, California and has parents that are both Chinese immigrants. According to the interviewee, the proverb was used when his family was trying to communicate to him growing up that “you [should] keep to yourself and, um, like ‘Mind your own business’. It’s almost like you’ll stay on the straight path and people, like, can’t really like mess your life up.”

Analysis:

This proverb exemplifies family in-group and out-group wisdom. The folk speech effectively communicates that amongst people that are not within the family, you should not share too much personal information. This protects the family unit, and solidifies that unit in contrast to relationships with those outside of it. Also, when the interviewee tried to describe the saying, and express it in English, the interviewee used many folk expressions to try to relay the meaning, such as “stay on the straight path” and “mind your own business”. This explanation is interesting in that folk speech holds vernacular authority, so in order to translate the vernacular authority of a folk expression, the use of another folk expression is extremely useful. This pairing also illustrates how the same piece of wisdom is shared across American and Chinese cultures, even if they are worded differently.

“A stitch in time saves nine”

text: “a stitch in time saves nine”

Context: after telling my partner the Chinese proverb “未雨绸缪 (wèi yǔ chóu móu) or “repair the roof while the sun is shining” she said that another English proverb with the same message a “stitch in time saves nine”. She said that he learned the proverb from her grandmother who lived in rural America. It represents a universal truth about efficiency.

Analysis: Proverbs are often used from parents, telling their children a warning in order to induce better behavior and to instill a moral within children. This is an older proverb that has withstood the test of time which is impressive in our fast paced consumer culture, and has been passed on through oral tradition. This also demonstrates multiplicity and variation of folklore as two different proverbs from two completely different languages have the same meaning and cultural effect, employed in the same way in order to teach lessons.