Overview

The publication of European Proverbs must be considered a major event in paremiographical research, and the book most certainly belongs in every research library of the world and on the shelf of any scholar interested in the comparative study of proverbs. It is a standard reference work on the very day of its appeareance, and it will serve generations of scholars and students as the work on the most common proverbs known throughout Europe. The Hungarian scholar Gyula Paczolay and his classical European Proverbs are a major milestone in the historical development of paremiography, while at the same time setting new scholarly standards for future paremiographical work. ... After years of work by Gyula Paczolay it is now possible to see at one glance that There is no smoke without fire (no. 1) is the most widely distributed proverb in Europe. For this proverb Paczolay lists texts from 54 of the 55 languages represented in this book. The only language missing is Georgian. As is the case with the other entries, Paczolay starts with a general English lemma for this proverb: (There is) no smoke without (some) fire. This is followed by variants and a short semantic explanation of the basic proverb in English. Then comes the impressive list of foreign language texts in alphabetical order of the individual languages but starting with the early Latin version. Where possible, dates of first occurrence are cited, and precise bibliographical information is included for each text. Even two Esperanto texts are cited at the end of this rich documentation. That is followed by Oriental equivalents from the Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Uigur, Chinese and Japanese languages. A summary of the various historical dates, the language not represented, and detailed bibliographical information concludes this inclusive presentation of the most common European proverb. This superb pattern of documentation is repeated for the other proverbs...

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9781546780953

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