Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship is an academic journal covering paremiology, the study of proverbs. Each volume includes articles on proverbs and proverbial expressions, book reviews, a bibliography of recent proverb scholarship, and a list of recently (re)published proverb collections. [1]
Volumes 1:1984 to 4:1987 were issued by the Ohio State University, in cooperation with the University of Vermont and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Volumes 5:1988 to 38:2021 were published exclusively by the University of Vermont. Volumes 1:1984 to 38:2021 of Proverbium were printed ( ISSN 0743-782X). Many of the back issues of Proverbium are freely available online at HathiTrust. All volumes are now available on Proverbium's archive on the journal's website.
Wolfgang Mieder, a distinguished professor of German and folklore at the University of Vermont, is the founding editor of Proverbium: Yearbook of International Scholarship and served as editor-in-chief until 2021.
The annual yearbook series succeeded Proverbium: Bulletin d'Information sur les Recherches Parémiologiques [2] ( ISSN 0048-5667), which was established by Matti Kuusi and published occasionally by the Finnish Literature Society between 1965 and 1975. [3] The earlier Finnish series and the succeeding annual volume format have been compared and praised by the Nigerian scholar J.O.J. Nwachukwu-Agbada. [4]
The journal is one of two ongoing proverb journals listed as a significant source for proverb studies in Proverbs: a Handbook (page 258). [5] It is also listed as one of a list of "Proverb Resources" by the Cog Web site. [6] Also, it is the only current journal listed by the University of Chicago's Defining Wisdom project in their Wisdom Literature Review. [7] It is one of only two journals cited by the International Association of Paremiology on their website. [8] Proverbium is indexed by the MLA International Bibliography, RILM Abstracts of Music International, and Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies. Julia Sevilla Muñoz, editor of the journal Paremia, has described it saying, "Proverbium est devenu premier point de recontre et d'échange scientifique pour les vrais spécialistes en parémies." [9] Two volumes of Proverbium were seen to be significant enough for a review in the journal Fabula . [10]
In addition to the journal itself, there has been a "Supplement Series" of volumes published by Proverbium. Forty-four volumes have been published in this book series as of 2020.
From volume 39:2022 Proverbium is published by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia ( ISSN 2806-7568). New volumes will be freely available online. The journal's website will give access to all parts of the journal from 1984 onward. The new chief editors are Melita Aleksa Varga (Osijek, Croatia) and Hrisztalina Hrisztova-Gotthardt (Bottmingen, Switzerland).
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)A proverb or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial expression is a type of a conventional saying similar to proverbs and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context. Collectively, they form a genre of folklore.
Wellerisms, named after sayings of Sam Weller in Charles Dickens's novel The Pickwick Papers, make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally. In this sense, Wellerisms that include proverbs are a type of anti-proverb. Typically a Wellerism consists of three parts: a proverb or saying, a speaker, and an often humorously literal explanation.
The New International Encyclopedia was an American encyclopedia first published in 1902 by Dodd, Mead & Co.. It descended from the International Cyclopaedia (1884) and was updated in 1906, 1914 and 1926.
An anti-proverb or a perverb is the transformation of a standard proverb for humorous effect. Paremiologist Wolfgang Mieder defines them as "parodied, twisted, or fractured proverbs that reveal humorous or satirical speech play with traditional proverbial wisdom". Anti-proverbs are ancient, Aristophanes having used one in his play Peace, substituting κώẟων "bell" for κύων "bitch, female dog", twisting the standard and familiar "The hasty bitch gives birth to blind" to "The hasty bellfinch gives birth to blind".
Paremiology is the collection and study of paroemias (proverbs). It is a subfield of both philology and linguistics.
Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, also known as Łužičan, Jakub Bart Kukowski, was a Sorbian poet, writer and playwright, translator of Czech, Polish, Italian and German literature. He produced his works in Upper Sorbian. He is also an inventor of modern Upper Sorbian poetic language. He has been described as "the classical writer of Sorbian literature."
Wayland Debs Hand was an American folklorist.
Matti Akseli Kuusi was a Finnish folklorist, paremiographer and paremiologist. He wrote several books and a number of articles on Finnish folklore. He was the first to have introduced the type system of proverbs similar to the Aarne–Thompson classification system of folklore, the Matti Kuusi international type system of proverbs. With encouragement from Archer Taylor he founded the journal Proverbium: Bulletin d'Information sur les Recherches Parémiologiques, published from 1965 to 1975 by the Society for Finnish Literature, which was later restarted as Proverbium: International Yearbook of Proverb Scholarship. He was a member of the noble family Granfelt, but his father had fennicized his original Swedish surname to express his political sympathies.
Joseph Graham Healey is an American academic who specializes in Small Christian Communities as a teacher, researcher, and writer. Father Healey is a communications specialist with experience in the United States and Eastern Africa.
Paremiography is the study of the collection and writing of proverbs. A recent introduction to the field has been written by Tamás Kispál. It is a sub-field of paremiology, the study of proverbs.
Galit Hasan-Rokem is the Max and Margarethe Grunwald professor of folklore at the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Author and editor of numerous works, including co-editor of the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Folklore (2012), her research interests include proverbs, folklore and culture of the Middle East, and folklore genres and narratives. She is also a published poet and translator of poetry, and a Pro-Palestinian activist. The Jerusalem Post has called her "a figure of some prominence in Jerusalem intellectual circles".
Thomas E. Breitenbach is a self-taught American artist best known for his painting Proverbidioms, a raucous and comical depiction of over 300 common proverbs and clichés. He also collaborated with Jim Morrison of The Doors, shortly before Morrison's 1971 death, on a painting intended for use on his An American Prayer album.
Proverbidioms is a 1975 oil painting by American artist T. E. Breitenbach depicting over 300 common proverbs, catchphrases, and clichés such as "You are what you eat", "a frog in the throat", and "kicked the bucket". It is painted on a 45 by 67 inch wooden panel and was completed in 1975 after two years work, when the artist was 24. The included sayings are painted quite literally and appear comical and bizarre, especially if one does not at first realize what the painting is about. For example, "You are what you eat" is represented in the painting by a carrot eating a carrot. The painting also contains hidden social commentary, and a reference to Pieter Bruegel the Elder who did a 1559 painting of Dutch proverbs. The title Proverbidioms is a simple portmanteau word combining "proverb" with "idioms".
Wolfgang Mieder is a retired professor of German and folklore who taught for 50 years at the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont, USA. He is a graduate of Olivet College (BA), the University of Michigan (MA), and Michigan State University (PhD). He has been a guest speaker at the University of Freiburg in Germany, the country where he was born.
Across Afghanistan, proverbs are a valued part of speaking, both publicly and in conversations. Afghans "use proverbs in their daily conversations far more than Westerners do, and with greater effect". The most extensive proverb collections in Afghan languages are in Pashto and Dari, the two official languages in Afghanistan.
Arvo Krikmann was an Estonian academician, folklorist, linguist, paremiologist, and humour researcher. He may be best known as a proverb scholar, “one of the leading paremiologists in the world.”
Archer Taylor was one of America's "foremost specialists in American and European folklore", with a special interest in cultural history, literature, proverbs, riddles and bibliography.
Elisabeth Piirainen,, was a German linguist and philologist. After studying linguistics in Münster, Amsterdam, and Helsinki, she received her PhD in 1970 at the University of Münster. Afterwards she worked as an editor for German Language at the University of Jyväskylä located in central Finland. In 1963 she met the Finnish scholar of German language, Ilpo Tapani Piirainen, and married him in 1967. Since 1975, she was in charge of various projects related to Low German philology. From 2006 to 2010 she was a member of the Scientific Council of the European Society of Phraseology (Europhras). She has been an active scholar in phraseology, with a broad European scope. Fifty of her publications related to proverbs are listed by Wolfgang Mieder in his two-volume bibliography on paremiology and phraseology.
Anna T. Litovkina is a Russian-born Hungarian linguist, a psychologist and a coach.
Jennifer Speake, néeDrake-Brockman is a Canadian-British freelance writer and editor of reference books.