Russian proverbs originated in
oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
and written texts dating as far back as the 12th century. The
Russian language
Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...
is replete with many hundreds of
proverbs (пословица ) and
sayings (поговорка ).
The
proverbs express a universal concept, have a
moral
A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...
lesson and provide an insight into many aspects of
history,
culture, and national
character of the people who created them. By the 17th century, the proverbs were collected and documented. They were studied in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Vladimir Dal was a famous
lexicographer of the
Russian Empire whose collection was published in
Russian language
Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...
in the late 19th century as ''The Sayings and Bywords of the Russian People,'' featuring more than 30,000 entries. They continue to endure in modern literature and
folklore. Evidence of this is seen in the collection of Russian
anti-proverbs collected by Reznikov.
[Reznikov, Andrey. 2009. ''Old Wine in New Bottles. Modern Russian Anti-Proverbs.'' Proverbium Supplement Series, Volume 27. ]
See also
*
List of Russian proverbs (Wikiquote)
*
List of Russian proverbs (Wiktionary)
*
Trust, but verify
*
Vladimir Dal
References
Bibliography
*Anikin, V. P. ''Russian proverbs and sayings.'' Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, Moscow (1988).
*
Dal, Vladimir I. ''Proverbs of Russian People.'' М.: Russian Book (1993).
*Danko, S. G., et al. "Comparison of the effects of the subjective complexity and verbal creativity on EEG spectral power parameters." ''Human Physiology'' 35.3 (2009): 381-383
link to article*Gibian, George. How Russian Proverbs Present the Russian National Character. ''Russianness: Studies on a Nation’s Identity''. Ed.
Robert L. Belknap
Robert Lamont Belknap (December 23, 1929 – March 17, 2014) was an American scholar of Russian literature. He was a professor at Columbia University, where he served as interim dean of Columbia College, and director of the Harriman Institute. He ...
. Ann Arbor (1990): 38-43.
*Gluski, Jerzy. ''Proverbs: A Comparative Book of English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian Proverbs with a Latin Appendix''. Elsevier Science Limited, 1989.
*Guershoon, Andrew. ''Certain aspects of Russian proverbs''. F. Muller ltd., 1941.
*Krylov. C. A. ''Russian Proverbs and Sayings in Russian and English''. US Army Russian Institute, 1973.
*Langna, I. A. ''1200 Russian proverbs''. Philosophical Library, 1960.
*Mertvago, Peter. ''The comparative Russian-English dictionary of Russian proverbs & sayings'': with 5543 entries: 1900 most important proverbs highlighted: English proverb index. Hippocrene Books, 1995.
*Permiakov, Grigoriĭ Lʹvovich. ''From proverb to Folk-tale: Notes on the general theory of cliche''. Nauka, 1979.
*Politis, Vera, Richard Robert Sheldon, and Alan A. Reich, eds. ''Russian Proverbs: 100 Favorites of Professor Nadezhda Timofeevna Koroton.'' Dartmouth Triad Associates, 1998.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russian Proverbs
Proverbs by language