Traditions and Transitions folk narrative in the contemporary world
16-20
July 2001 The University of Melbourne, Australia
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Traditions and Transitions folk narrative in the contemporary world |
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The oldest known Hungarian proverb dates back to 1495,
and the first collection of proverbs was published in 1598. In the past four
centuries several characteristic types relating to the appearance, change and
disappearance of Hungarian proverbs could be established. These might equally
apply to other languages as well. This paper will discuss:
Appearance of proverbs. Inheritance from unknown sources, loan from the proverb
stock of another language, folklorization of literary texts, new phenomena
giving rise to new proverbs, splitting of long proverbs, amalgamation of short
proverbs.
Change of proverbs. The scale of the change: between zero (no change), to one
hundred per cent (total transformation or disappearance). Less important words
may be omitted, words may be shortened and short forms appear (the rest being
implied). 'Old' words are replaced by more contemporary usage, a change of
words may result in applied or distorted forms. Some proverbs may become known
only in small regions, others may spread in large areas, e.g. in Europe or the
Far-east, or all over the world.
Disappearance of proverbs. Some reasons: the wording or the subject becomes
obsolete, the use of another proverb expressing the same basic idea becomes
predominant, leading to an extinction of a formerly popular one.
Examples are given from Hungarian (with English translation) and in some cases
from Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
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