The State of Armenian Paremiology and Its Future Tasks

Abstract

The proverb is one of the most ancient and widespread forms of traditional oral literature. Along with other closely related or similar categories, the proverb belongs to the genre of the so-called Einfache Formen or Maa8Ie wKaHpm. Among others, the following categories can be distinguished, namely the aphorism, the maxim, winged words (Geflugelte Worte), as well as the peasant's saying, the slogan, the riddle and, last but not least, the proverbial saying. The majority of the forms mentioned here are similar to each other in as much as their delimitations seem to be extremely fluid and overlapping. This fact may be one of the main reasons why we still do not have a final and generally accepted definition of what a proverb is, although there is no lack of proposed definitions from antiquity up to our days. Especially, the clear distinction of the proverb in a stricter sense from the saying remains hazy in many cases. Often one and the same unit is classified for one thing as a proverb but for another as a proverbial saying. Generally speaking, most of these categories tend to be lumped together, i.e. they are treated for the most part without explicit differentiation (cf. my notes in Blasing 1994: 4-12). But not only theoretical questions impede our work on the proverb. Frequently, not even usable selections or comprehensive anthologies in either the original language or in translation are available for study. Hence, anyone interested in studying this material is forced to excerpt data form diverse sources-a toilsome and time-consuming labour. Scholars of Armenian, however, are