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Proverbs: Cultures
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Proverbs are often borrowed from similar languages and cultures, and sometimes come down to the present through more than one language. Both the Bible (Book of Proverbs) and medieval Latin have played a considerable role in distributing proverbs across Western Europe and even further.
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Linguistic experts point out that "proverbiando, s'impara"—that is, by speaking and parsing out proverbs one learns about the language and about the tradition and mores of a culture. The statement, itself a take-off on the famous Italian proverb: Sbagliando s'impara (One learns from his mistakes), implies that both native speakers and new students of Italian can increase their grammar aptitude and vocabulary by studying quotes and sayings.
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The Yoruba (yo'roobah') ofNigeria (niejeer'eeuh) emphasize the value of proverbs by saying "A proverb is the horse that can carry one swiftly to the discovery of ideas". The following proverbs will give some insight into an important aspect of African culture and help to increase human understanding.
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Now, let’s look at the “courage concept” entry in this Dictionary of Turkish Proverbs. There are exactly fifteen entries, but of these only one contains the Turkish word for “courage.” One more proverb contains the Turkish word for “bravery” and one more the word for “bold.” However, when we go through these fifteen entries, we easily discover a Turkish proverb that meets our need exactly: “If a goat escapes from a wolf, he becomes a rhinoceros.” Not only does this Turkish proverb impart the idea of “courage increasing with success and challenge” to meet the needs of our forthcoming speech, Metin Yurtbaşı has ... painstakingly matched this Turkish proverb, according to its true abstract meaning, with a fair counterpart from another language and culture, in this case the English “A serpent, unless it has devoured a serpent, does not become a dragon.” It is important to note here that neither the Turkish proverb nor its English language counterpart contains the word “courage.”
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