The Matti Kuusi International Database of Proverbs

Abstract

The Matti Kuusi International Database of Proverbs Outi Lauhakangas (bio) Introduction The Matti Kuusi International Type System of Proverbs database consists of three core elements: 1. A special library of proverb collections in the folklore archives of the Finnish Literature Society in Helsinki 2. A database of international proverb types and literature references on the Internet 3. A thematic and structural classification of international proverbs The concept of proverb type alternates between a concrete proverb title and a cluster of proverbs embodying the same idea; the type system gathers together similar proverb titles from different nations under an international—or even global—type encapsulating that common idea (Lauhakangas 2001).1 The Background and Aims of the Relational Database of Proverbs The original owner of the library of proverb collections, the compiler and author of the card-index with tens of thousands of literature references, and the architect of the international type system of proverbs was Matti Kuusi (1914-1998). Kuusi was Professor of Finnish and Comparative Folk Poetry Studies (today called folkloristics) at the University of Helsinki from 1959 to 1977. One of his areas of expertise was paremiology, the research of proverbs. This especially floating genre of folklore led him to establish contacts with scholars around the world. One of the most esteemed paremiologists ever, Professor Archer Taylor (1890-1973) from California, urged him to found the journal Proverbium and act as its first editor-in-chief. Kuusi’s pioneering and active paremiological period at the head of the journal lasted from 1965 to 1974, during which time a strong net of paremiologists developed as he invited proverb scholars to contribute to this forum. The journal continues today under the same name as a yearbook of international proverb scholarship edited by Professor Wolfgang Mieder. New contacts brought in proverb collections from every part of the world, and Kuusi was also eventually able to acquire many other significant European collections with the assistance of his personal antiquarian. Kuusi wrote (1988:107), “Many antiquarians and publishers found out the address of the Folklore Department of Helsinki University, and I rarely ignored a missing collection.” These collections were the basis of Kuusi’s systematic index of international proverb types. Starting from comparisons of Finnish proverb texts with Nordic and European equivalents, he broadened his search to all possible language areas and to comparisons between proverbs beyond those found in Finnish. Kuusi would continue with his type system of proverbs well into his retirement, with his daughter starting to transfer the proverb index of literature references into a relational database in 1990. At the same time they developed Kuusi’s classification of international proverb types. This database was made for the purpose of folkloristic and linguistic research. The aim was not and is not to collect all possible proverb texts from every possible language area into one large pool, but to study structures of proverb texts and the main themes of proverbial thinking. Searching for Global Similarities and National Specificities In order to move the Matti Kuusi database of proverbs to the Internet for international use, the authors had to study the generality of proverb types. The language and cultural areas that together form the global brand are: African (sub-Saharan), Islamic, European, Orient (old Eastern cultural area), Pacific. American cultures are not viewed as separate from European influence. If a proverb type is common to most of these language areas, it is considered a global type. The meaning and use of a specific proverb can vary according to culture. Alongside the original index of Finnish proverb titles, the titles of the international proverb types had to be translated into English if original English equivalents were not available. The result was that the number of proverb titles decreased from 8,287 Finnish entries to 1,808 English entries. Still, the classification remained the same as in the original Finnish type system, and the reduction did not cause any empty subgroups. The tempting possibility to find any proverb you are interested in cannot yet be fulfilled for those who are unable to use the Finnish part of the database; however, in the near future the shortage of international representativeness will be overcome by means...