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If you grab a book of proverbs, you might get the impression that these sayings are set in stone. However, you are witnessing the second life of these proverbs. This is a different world from the hustle and bustle of the daily in-person and online use of proverbs—and their counterparts, anti-proverbs.
Proverbs are rather fixed traditional sayings such as “Haste makes waste.” In contrast, anti-proverbs, which are variations on proverbs, are characterized by fluidity of structure and theme. An anti-proverb is a traditional saying with a twist. The change can be as subtle as swapping out a word or as drastic as complete change of the meaning of the original proverb. Anti-proverbs can be found in various forms of discourse, from “dad jokes” to advertising and political speeches. For example “taste makes waist” is based on “haste makes waste.”
To better understand the dynamics of anti-proverbs, let’s turn to the Kazakh tradition of emphasizing proverbs. In contrast to the apparent fixity of proverbs, anti-proverbs are characterized by fluidity. First, I will present an example of a Kazakh proverb and its anti-proverb. Then, I will discuss the fluidity of anti-proverbs within the broader Kazakh cultural context.
For Kazakhs, proverbs are a time-tested, traditional resource for defining problems, making moral judgments, and suggesting remedies. During the Soviet and Post-Soviet eras in Kazakhstan, books and booklets of traditional Kazakh proverbs abounded. These seemingly fixed forms of proverbs offered a sense of cultural stability amid cultural change. Russian culture, which strongly influences Kazakh society, has an abundance of anti-proverbs. However, there was sparse evidence of anti-proverbs in Kazakh even into the twenty-first century. The first collection of anti-proverbs in Kazakh was put together by my colleague Gulnara Omarbekova.
Omarbekova’s collection provides an example of a traditional Kazakh proverb and an anti-proverb based on it:
Ат айналып қазығын табар, Ер айналып елін табар.
(At aynalıp qazığın tabar, Er aynalıp elin tabar)
[The horse will return to its leash; man will return to his country.]
Админ айналып сайтын табар.
(Admïn aynalıp saytın tabar.)
[The admin will find the website.]
In the case of the traditional proverb, the ability of the horse, a key figure in Kazakh nomadic tradition, to find its way home is compared to an individual’s connection to their homeland. However, the anti-proverb drops this nature parallel. Instead, the focus shift to the website administrator’s connection to their website rather than to a man and his homeland. Many anti-proverbs will simplify the traditional saying by keeping only one part. We also see an update to the context. Traditional proverbs often use imagery from Kazakh nomadic tradition. In contrast, many anti-proverbs incorporate objects from the office or online experience.
The options for adapting the traditional sentence structure and themes seem limitless. Thus, anti-proverbs can be considered more fluid. Anyone writing for a website, advertisement, or giving a talk can introduce an anti-proverb. Only time will tell which of the crafted anti-proverbs will take root and have ongoing significance in Kazakh culture. Thus, the process of generating anti-proverbs can be described as fluid. This a continuum going from the printed proverb collection of time-tested sayings to the cutting edge of emergent anti-proverbs.
So how do anti-proverbs spread and gain influence? We can look to the spread of memes as a parallel. As memes are introduced, some are shared extensively, going viral. With increased distribution comes what is called vernacular authority. This stands in contrast to traditional authority. When a Kazakh uses a traditional Kazakh proverb to convince someone, the proverb’s wisdom lends them authority. Over time, even anti-proverbs can become time-tested and have tradition authority.
Here, we can draw a comparison to what are called fluid-emergent processes. From tidal waves to the migration of wild horses, these processes are dynamic and affected by the interaction of a wide variety of factors and actors. We cannot look at what is happening with a few water molecules or with a couple of wild horses and determine the pattern of movement or the result.
How can we explain the increase in anti-proverb occurrences in Kazakh? Nigerian scholars point to postmodernism. They consider the agency of youth and their desire to use language in a way that is more accessible in their sayings. In this context, it has led to sayings that are more relevant to the current situation. Parallels can be drawn to what we are seeing with Kazakh anti-proverbs.
What is surprising is that anti-proverbs are a recent occurrence for Kazakhs. Russian, on the other hand, has a long history of parody and anti-proverbs. Kazakhs have had centuries of interaction with Russians which has significantly shaped Kazakh culture.
During the Soviet era, Kazakh authors, such as Ilyas Yesenberlin, found that writing historical fiction provided greater freedom and less disruption from censorship. Works relying on historical content were seen as of lesser risk to the future-oriented aspiration of the Soviet government. I would assert that this discursive context also affected the use of proverbs. The use and research of Kazakh proverbs during and after the Soviet era stressed their fixed nature. My colleague and I interviewed university students shortly before the pandemic. University students studying Kazakh emphasized the importance of using only traditional Kazakh proverbs. I would argue that this perspective was shaped by the response of Kazakh intellectuals to the earlier Soviet context.
The current increased occurrence of anti-proverbs in Kazakh reflects societal changes in which social media is a key resource and office life provides more points of reference than Kazakh’s traditional nomadic lifestyle. Examining individual anti-proverbs that have emerged allows us to see the cutting edge of new metaphors and perspectives.
Does this increase in fluidity mean that Kazakh society is experiencing rapid transformation? I do not equate fluidity with clear societal improvement. With increased fluidity new perspectives are gained and Kazakhs have a new set of metaphors as linguistic resources. At the same time, as we gain some things we lose others. As computer competence increases, we drop penmanship classes, causing us to lose the cognitive benefits of the writing process and the connection to historical handwritten documents.
For Kazakhs the more fluid situation in terms of anti-proverbs opens new vistas and provides resources for dealing with everyday life. However, the shift away from the nomadic ideal is profound. Traditional Kazakh proverbs often reinforce the connection of people to nature. We saw this in the traditional proverb above that compares the individual to a horse. The nomadic ideal also provides life resources such as the stages of individual development that was based on training youth to care for animals, staring with lambs, then sheep, and finally horses.
When we look at individual, emergent anti-proverbs we are at the edge of the continuum opposite to the fixed proverb set described at the outset. Over time, most of these new sayings will disappear. Some will be found to be useful and will be tested over time and will eventually become established. In this process, we would see things shifting back towards fixity. Decades from now, these time-tested anti-proverbs will be enshrined in some electronic tome. When someone comes across this collection, it will appear to be set in stone.
The collections of traditional proverbs underappreciate the changes brought about by emergent anti-proverbs. In Kazakhstan, this is especially pronounced, since the value of traditional proverbs was emphasized during the Soviet rule. Contemporary research is beginning to explore the significance of emergent sayings and the language fluidity that they generate.
Olga Povoroznyuk is the section contributing editor for Soyuz.