Įkurtas 1935 m. Žurnalą leidžia Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas. Skirtas folkloro, mitologijos, kultūrinės antropologijos, etnologijos ir kitų susijusių sričių tyrimams, reikšmingiems kultūros istorijai ir šiuolaikiniams jos procesams pažinti.
The Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore / Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas
A Proverb Revival? On Current Proverb Use in the German-Speaking Part of Switzerland
<p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The paper’s main objective is to examine the current paremiological situation in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and to investigate to what extent proverbs are present in modern language use, the specific areas and contexts in which they play an essential role, and whether they are used more often in their original or modified forms. <p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">For this purpose, a corpus of examples illustrating the current use of traditional and modern proverbs, as well as their deliberate innovations, was analysed from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The examples were collected between 2019 and 2025 as part of a small field research project in the Swiss cantons of Basel City, Basel Country, Berne, and Solothurn. <p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The analysis reveals that traditional and modern proverbs, along with their deliberate innovations, remain undoubtedly an essential part of contemporary language use and continue to play a significant role in various areas of life, including advertising, culture and tradition, political and civil discourse, and the public space in general. Within the domains of language use examined, proverbs occur far more often in their modified than in their original form.
Representations of small genres in the contemporary world
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On Anti-paremias of the Covid-19 Period in Lithuanian and Latvian
<p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The article explores anti-paremias in Lithuanian and Latvian that reflect Covid-19 pandemic realities and people’s attitudes towards them. The term anti-paremia is perceived here as purposeful transformation of traditional paremias, i.e. proverbial phrases, proverbs, aphorisms, sententious utterances, phraseologisms, and quotations of literary origin. The study’s empirical material was collected from online written texts and images including official social advertising campaigns and anti-paremias created by individuals. <p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Anti-paremias here are examined based on two aspects: in accordance with types of paremia transformation (substitution of one/several words or parts of a sentence, supplementation, reduction, cross-contamination of several paremias following the classification of the Polish scientist Anna Gabryel, applied to the analysis of German anti-proverbs of the Covid-19 pandemic period); and according to semantic grouping of anti-paremias in Covid-19 pandemic narratives. Many researchers follow similar classifications, whereas this study is based specifically on Gabryel’s model. <p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The most common anti-paremia transformation method in both languages was substitution (35 % of the Lithuanian sample and 73 % of the Latvian sample). <p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Semantic group analysis revealed that human behaviour-related anti-paremias dominate in Lithuanian (47 %) whereas in Latvian vaccination-themed paremias were most frequent (57 %). This reflects the time when these anti-paremias were created. The lowest number of witty transformations were immunity-related, with only one example in Lithuanian, and none in Latvian.
The Contemporary Use of Riddles: Riddles in Fiction and Theatre (Based on the Example of Rimantas Kmita)
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">This article examines the contemporary use of riddles in creative professional works, such as fiction and theatre. The works of the popular contemporary Lithuanian writer Rimantas Kmita contain many riddles, and so as he offers an exceptional illustration of this phenomenon he was chosen as the basis for the analysis. The following three works were selected: the novel <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Remyga<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> (2020), the play of the same name (premiere 2020, dir. Oskaras Koršunovas), and the comic book <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Keliuonė. Įmink Šiaulius<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> (2023) by Kmita and the artist Povilas Vincentas Jankūnas. Translated literary works and plays by foreign authors are used in the article to provide a cultural context for the use of riddles in authorial work. These include children’s and popular literature, as well as classical dramatic works containing riddles and which have influenced the use of riddles, such as Lewis Carroll’s <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> and <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">, J. R. R. Tolkien’s <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The Hobbit, or There and Back Again<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, and Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot”. Kmita’s work is viewed as a case study, although from a narrow perspective, i.e. in considering what riddles the author uses and what they add to the work.
Riddles in East Baltic and West Slavic Folktales
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Unlike riddle compilations, which typically present fixed questions and their answers with minimal information about the riddles’ origin or narrative function, folktales offer a rich context for gaining deeper insight into how riddles emerge, operate and acquire meaning. This study explores the prevalence and characteristics of riddles within a corpus of 1914 folktales from East Baltic and West Slavic traditions, specifically from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia and Slovakia, focusing mainly on those written down in the 19<sup style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">th<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> century and at the beginning of the 20<sup style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">th<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> century. The study examines the functional, structural and procedural aspects of riddling as a narrative device, as well as the roles and genders of the participants involved. The findings are supported by a comprehensive table at the end of this study that lists all the riddling episodes identified within the given corpus of folktales. The study provides a detailed account of how riddles operate within these specific traditions and reveals that riddles are a relatively rare phenomenon in the folktales of these peoples. In addition, the study demonstrates that there are no substantial differences in folktale riddles between East Baltic and West Slavic traditions.
Interactions of small genres with other folklore forms
Proverbs, Charms and Religious Folktales: A Dialogue of Genres
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The phenomenon of some short folklore genres being included in broader folktales is quite frequent. In this paper we examine the relationship between proverbs, a particular charm, and two religious folktales from older folkloristic sources, mainly from the first half of the 20<sup style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">th<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> century, and contemporary online conversations in a Facebook group with the title <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Κρητική διάλεκτος – ντοπιολαλιά<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> (Cretan dialect – vernacular). In this group, participants ask questions about the meaning of words and phrases. In our case studies these phrases belong to broader traditional tales; in the discussion about their meaning, group members attempt to interpret them through a process of oral literary criticism. In doing so, they produce new variations of well-known traditional tales. From this examination, we aim to find how proverbs and charms function in the texts studied and how they adapt to new contexts.
Interdictions in Lithuanian Paremias: Links with Mythological Beliefs
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">The article focuses on two types of conversational genre: proverbs and beliefs. The study aims to highlight three aspects of Lithuanian paremias: the establishment of certain social norms through interdiction, the expression of a mythological mindset through imagery, and interaction with another genre of short folklore, namely, belief. The article analyses proverbs related to the mythological mindset, grouping them into eight different themes. The study also discusses aspects of the expression of interdictive proverbs. Reviewing the entire collection of Lithuanian mythological paremias with interdictions shows that some belief and proverb texts are identical or very similar in form. In such cases, attribution to the particular genre of folklore depends on the context in which these texts are used.
The Concepts of TRUTH and LIE in Lithuanian, Polish and English Proverbs: A Comparative Analysis
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">In cultural linguistics, proverbs and proverbial sayings serve as textual data, offering a diachronic view: being old, popular among various layers of society and repetitive, they reflect and shape a nation’s culture, stereotypes and axiological system, and are thus considered a great tool for the analysis of a society’s linguo-cultural worldview. This article aims to compare the conceptualisation of TRUTH and LIE in Lithuanian, English and Polish proverbs. The data consist of proverbs with the keywords <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">truth<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> and <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">lie<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">, selected from the main Lithuanian, English and Polish proverbial collections: the Card Index of Lithuanian Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases kept at the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">, <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">A Dictionary of American Proverbs<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">, and <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Nowa Księga przysłów polskich<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"> (A New Book of Polish Proverbs). The analysis was carried out by applying the qualitative methodology of the Ethnolinguistic School of Lublin by extracting semantic aspects of the concepts analysed, seen from specific interpretative perspectives, and grouping them into semantic profiles. The study reveals the semantic and axiological content of the concepts analysed in all three languages and concentrates mainly on comparison.
Small genres of folklore as reflections of worldviews
Uzbek Proverbs Containing Currencies: Diachronic Analysis
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">A diachronic analysis of proverbs provides scientifically valuable results that help us to understand not only the message of the proverb, but also the original meanings of the components, such as words for currencies, from the nation’s non-recent and recent history, including that of the Uzbek nation. Currency words are special with different functions in the structures and meanings of several Uzbek proverbs, which are often seen or heard in contemporary communication in Uzbek society. In addition, finding equivalents in English expands the scope of the Uzbek language, mentality, culture and history to a number of other countries. <p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">This paper is devoted to the investigation of Uzbek national proverbs that have the names of ancient (miri, hemir, paqir, kepak, chaqa) and much more contemporary (pul, tiyin, so‘m) currencies in their structures. More specifically, 26 Uzbek proverbs were chosen according to their currency components, and analysed in chronological order taking the approximate usage period of the currency into account. <p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Furthermore, the aims of the research are to identify currency words, especially ancient ones, that are seen in proverbial structures to learn the history and original meanings of these currency words and to determine the functions of names of currencies as culturemes, i.e. conceptual metaphors and/or kernels of proverbs. Having analysed Uzbek proverbs that include currency words diachronically, a questionnaire was sent to Uzbek teachers and students in order to study the usage frequency of Uzbek proverbs containing currency words. Consequently, the questionnaire was useful to show the essential role of various ancient and contemporary currency names in the linguistic characteristics of the Uzbek national proverbs.
Work Praises the Master: The Concept of Work in Slovenia
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Short folklore forms, like proverbs and riddles with integrated metaphors and stereotypes, capture diachronic reflections of the surroundings, including the economic situation and societal values. The economy and economic activity as a dominant part of everyday life is a very important factor in family life. In contemporary ethnology, “everyday” is used to mean the “culture of the many”, the banal, widespread phenomena of culture. More broadly, it represents both the universal and the most one of a kind, the social and the personal spheres of life. Everyday life most faithfully reflects how life and the world are understood. This article focuses on the concept of work in everyday life and its representation in Slovenian short folklore forms, specifically proverbs and riddles, which are analysed across nine thematic groups. This ethnolinguistic study uses the proverb archive at the ZRC SAZU Institute of Slovenian Ethnology.
Beyond Entertainment, What Advice and Sociocultural Values do Nzema Riddles Convey?
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Across languages and cultures, the indigenous cultural knowledge and advisory messages entrenched in proverbs, for instance, have been extensively explored. However, the important role riddles play in imparting cultural values and behavioural principles in children and adults, especially among the Nzema, is seemingly neglected. Particularly, the absence of an investigation of Nzema riddles results in the lack of understanding of an important aspect of the Nzema oral tradition, and how the riddle genre is used to teach morality. This necessitates the present study to fill a crucial gap. Drawing on the cultural-linguistics framework, this article presents a qualitative analysis of twenty Nzema folk riddles collected from oral and written sources. The findings demonstrate that, like proverbs and folktales, significant cultural values and philosophies are also ingrained in riddles. I argue that, as in other African cultures, Nzema riddles are not merely a means of entertaining people and testing one’s cogitative capacity. Rather, they are based largely on the conceptualisations of plant and animal lives, including other entities within the ecosystem to teach sociocultural values and virtues such as patience, hard work, cooperation, tolerance, transparency and fairness, good leadership, and taking precautions. Some Nzema riddles also advise people against incest and defilement.
“The windy day isn’t the day for thatching”: An Irish Proverb and its Wider Links
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">In line with Professor Kazys Grigas’s work on proverbs in Lithuania and their place in the overall European body, my article looks at one widespread proverb in Ireland: “<em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Ní hé lá na gaoithe lá na scolb<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">” (The windy day isn’t the thatching day) with a similar approach. Not only are there many examples of it in oral tradition in both Irish and English, but several variants within the island, one of which, the one quoted, mentions a regional kind of thatching. As well as variants and how their distribution ties in with the material culture, I look at parallels, such as “<em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Ní hé lá na báistighe lá an phortaigh<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">” (The rainy day isn’t the day for the bog), the bog already being a wet place. Occasionally, this short genre is attached to anecdotes about local people and other lore, which I also outline. Since thatched roofs themselves are now rare in Ireland, I will attempt to see what proverbs about procrastination have replaced this once common and widespread proverb.
Small genres in local and historical contexts
Voices of Wisdom: The Portuguese Example of José Leite de Vasconcellos
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Marking memories from decades and decades is giving voice to proverbial wisdom at a local, regional, national and international level. During this time, continued activities in the field of paremiology were defined with a desire for rapprochement between generations, based on the maturity of concepts and the creativity that this theme involves. <p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">This article aims to demonstrate how individuals dedicated to preserving cultural heritage by documenting customs, habits and cultural experiences contribute to their preservation and help reveal and comprehend the national worldview. It focuses primarily on the work of the Portuguese philologist, archaeologist and ethnographer José Leite de Vasconcellos (1858–1941). As well as his contributions to linguistics, ethnography, and paremiology his work was characterised by a profound national consciousness, as he applied the achievements of universal science to the Portuguese countryside. This opened up new perspectives for science in Portugal. <p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Just like other figures of that time, the works of Vasconcellos show that understanding, disseminating and applying the wisdom of people contributes to the construction of a fairer and more balanced society, bridging the duality between the empirical and the scientific. With commitment and guidance, traditional paremiological concepts can be disseminated and realised, based on the hope of a favourable outcome, as Kazys Grigas did.
Three Proverbial Triads: Sapiential Imperatives for a Peaceful Existence
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The number three has played a major role in cultural, folkloric, and linguistic tradition. There are numerous proverbs based on a triadic structure in various languages dating back to antiquity and continuing to this day. But there are also so-called proverbial triads consisting of but a string of three words like “<em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Veni, vidi, vici<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">”, “<em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Wein, Weib und Gesang<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">”, “<em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Liberté, égalité, fraternité<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">”, and “Blood, sweat, and tears”. Many folk triads like “Ready, willing, and able” and “Signed, sealed, and delivered” also abound. Of special interest are three American triads based on the fundamental ideas of a free and democratic society, namely “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people”, and the less well known and newer “Freedom, justice, and democracy”. The origin, history, dissemination, and meaning of these formulaic triads are discussed in considerable detail with contextualised references. They express the belief in and call for a democratic world based on peaceful, fair, and humane coexistence. Of course, these fundamental proverbial triads also show that there exists a natural inclination to state basic socio-political principles in an easy to remember triadic pattern.
Matti Kuusi’s Classification of Proverbs as a Proverbial Worldview
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Academician Matti Kuusi saw Finland as a convenient vantage point from which to make an international comparison of proverbs. His international type system of proverbs, which is online and free to use, is a comprehensive mapping of the human lifecycle, living conditions and social interaction. Kuusi’s typology can be regarded as a suggestion for a general pattern of worldviews maintained by proverb lore. The concept of proverbial worldview will be defined in this article. An analysis of Kuusi’s categorisation of proverbs comparing it with the main functions of proverb use in social interaction sheds light on the universal and national character of the proverb genre.
Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of the Study of Vernacular Proverbs
<p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">A vernacular proverb is a part of common language in everyday use. It is used or referred to if it lends some additional value to a speech situation. In folklore studies, the approach to proverbs comes from how people understand and use them. This article concentrates on proverbs used in Finnish everyday life in the 20th and 21st centuries. <p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Finding relevant research material and interpreting proverbs take centre stage in the study of everyday proverbs in common language within their contexts of use. The main questions raised in this article can be summarised as four points. The first point is to decide the definition of a proverb used in everyday practices and common language. The second point is where to find proverbs in everyday use and vernacular language. Connected to this, the third point is how to identify them in the contexts of use. The fourth point, which may be the most demanding task, is to understand how a proverb has been interpreted and to what ends it has been used in different environments and circumstances. The article presents challenges and issues as well as some methodological theoretical solutions relating to how proverbs are used in everyday life. Such challenges, it may be noted, are encountered in any study of micro-folklore focused on everyday life.
Small Genres of Folklore in Lithuanian Folkloristics: The Legacy of Kazys Grigas
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Since the early days of Lithuanian folklore studies, small genres of folklore or so-called ‘minor folklore’ (smulkioji tautosaka), united by their brevity, have been considered a distinct type of folklore alongside folksongs and folk narratives. It is only in the 21st century, however, that small genres have been categorised as a form of oral folklore (sakytinė tautosaka). Professor Kazys Grigas is one of the few Lithuanian folklorists to have undertaken the task of describing and publishing them. Over time, he also established himself as Lithuania’s leading paremiologist. He did all the essential work necessary for researching proverbs and proverbial phrases, such as collecting, systematising and publishing them. Advocating historical-geographical and aesthetic methods, Grigas established a strong tradition of comparative proverb research in Lithuanian folkloristics. <p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">This article looks at the place of small genres in the wider system of Lithuanian folklore as it has developed over time in the context of Lithuanian folklore studies. It discusses the most significant research on small genres of folklore in Lithuania, with a particular focus on Grigas’ contributions to the field and his paremiological work.
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Full bibliography of Tautosakos darbai / Folklore studies: 2021–2025 (vols. 61–70)
2015 m., minint mokslo žurnalo Tautosakos darbai aštuoniasdešimtmetį ir leidžiant jubiliejinį, 50-ąjį, tomą, sumanyta parengti leidinio bibliografiją, apimančią visus 1935–2015 m. išėjusius tomus. Kadangi aprašant atskiras bibliografines nuorodas buvo nukrypstama nuo griežtų bibliografijos pateikimo reikalavimų, įtraukta daugiau informacijos, nei įprasta, darbas pavadintas bibliografiniu duomenynu1. Po penkerių metų publikuotas tęsinys – „Tautosakos darbų bibliografinis duomenynas: 2016–2020 (t. 51–60)“2, o šiame tome skelbiama 2021–2025 m. išėjusių leidinio numerių bibliografija, paliekant pasirinktą modelį (tomų turiniai sudedami pamečiui) ir tęstinę numeraciją. Aprašant atskirus tomus laikomasi ankstesnės struktūros: straipsniai, folkloro, archyvinės medžiagos publikacijos, įvairūs informaciniai reportažai ir kt. išdėliojami pagal tam tikras tekstų žanrą ar paskirtį nurodančias antraštes; bibliografiniai publikacijų aprašai registruojami abėcėlės tvarka pagal autorių pavardes, šaltinių – pagal pavadinimą. Bibliografiškai aprašant atskiras publikacijas pateikiama visa su konkrečiu tekstu susijusi informacija: aprašo pabaigoje laužtiniuose skliaustuose, be pagrindinės informacijos apie santrauką (ta kalba, kuria ji parašyta), priedus, rodykles, iliustracijas ir kt., teikiamos nuorodos į kitus tekstus (skyrium skelbiamą susijusį autoriaus straipsnį arba parengtą šaltinį) ir pan. Bibliografinio duomenyno pabaigoje pateikiamas Tautosakos darbų 61–70 numerių parengėjų sąrašas (p. 199), pagalbinė asmenvardžių rodyklė (p. 199–201).
“Everyone Plays Their Own Pipe”: Reflections on the Study of Brass Bands in Lithuanian Culture
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Rūta Žarskienė, Pučiamųjų instrumentų ansambliai ir orkestrai tradicinėje Lietuvos kultūroje, [knygą parengė ir santrauką parašė Austė Nakienė], Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2024, 304 p., ISBN 978-609-425-391-1
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Aelita Kensminienė, Lietuvių mįslės: Funkcionavimas ir poetika, Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2024, 559 p., ISBN 978-609-425-384-3
From the Absence of Love to the Lasting Connection: Publication of Janina Degutytė’s Letters
<em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Janinos Degutytės laiškynas<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">, sudarė Giedrė Šmitienė, Vilnius: Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, 2025. – 3 knygos: kn. 1: <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Nemeilės šešėly: susirašinėjimas su motina Janina Degutiene<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">, 303 p., ISBN 978-609-425-408-6; kn. 2: <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Tveriantis ryšys: susirašinėjimas su Bronislava Jacevičiūte-Jėčiūte<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">, 384 p., ISBN 978-609-425-410-9; kn. 3: <em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Draugystė laiškais: susirašinėjimas su Lena Rapaliene<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">, 273 p., ISBN 978-609-425-409-3
A Short Story about a Great Story about Life Stories
Jurga Jonutytė, Sniego spalva per balta. Norma ir galia sakytiniuose diskursuose, Vilnius: Hubris, 2025, 342 p., ISBN 978-609-8280-86-9
The Artistic Expression of Folk Musician Jonas Širvys: An Anthropological Study
Outcasts and Rivals: Stereotypes of Single Mothers in the Media and Life Stories
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">The article examines the personal experiences of single mothers and the surrounding public opinion and media environment, which both reflects and influences the world mothers live in. Single mothers, as a vulnerable group in society, are associated with stereotypes and prejudices in the media and in comments from relatives. It is true that until now most topics related to motherhood, fatherhood, and family structure are usually studied separately in the fields of sociology, family policy, law and psychology, but the disciplines of ethnology and cultural anthropology could provide a deeper look into being a single mother and offer a more complex analysis, showing how social, psychological, legal and communication aspects are closely interconnected and experienced in individual situations. For the research, I analyzed media content and collected personal life stories of single mothers in the form of interviews about their daily experiences and how their environment affects them. Here, I analyze excerpts from nine such interviews and my own articulated experience, delving deeper into it from the perspective of semiotic and phenomenological anthropology. The aim of the analysis is to reveal how these experiences are expressed and what personal, social and cultural aspects they may reveal, thus seeking to better understand the phenomenon of being a single mother.
Reflection on Partisan War and Images of the Enemy in the Publication Prie rymančio Rūpintojėlio (1949–1953)
<p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The article analyzes the content of the periodical of the Lithuanian Freedom Fight Movement, Prie rymančio Rūpintojėlio (1949–1953). The periodical is perceived as an instrument that formed the collective identity of the partisans and represented an ideologically tinted narrative of the partisan war, designed to strengthen the determination of the fighters to resist and provide a contrast to the myths spread by the Soviet propaganda. <p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Based on the documents of the partisan leadership, it can be stated that the newspaper was regarded as exemplary for all the partisan units, conveying the leadership’s attitude to the struggle and shaping the images of the partisans and their enemies. The title of the publication [‘By the pensive Christ’] suggests the activities of the partisans being inseparable from the Christian values. Attention is also paid to determination, the importance of public support, and fearlessness, which highlight the idealized image of the fighter. <p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Although some of the leadership criticized the image of the pensive Christ as the main symbol and suggested that more emphasis be placed on images that encouraged fighting, the content of the publication remained largely consistent throughout the entire period of publication. The role of the partisans as fighters representing goodness and spiritual values was reinforced by images of the enemy: both external and internal enemies were depicted as morally wrong and not to be feared by the partisans. All this corresponded to the partisan leadership’s concept of the fight and allowed for enhancing its meaning.
The Limits of the Vernacular: Censorship of Vulgarisms in the Publishing Process of Kristijonas Donelaitis’ Works
<p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The article analyzes expurgation and euphemization of rough vernacular lexis and phraseologisms in the process of publishing Kristijonas Donelaitis’ works in the 19th–20th centuries. Most frequently, words indicating the processes of physiological excretion, and phraseologisms formed using them were cut out or changed. All cases of euphemization of K. Donelaitis’ vulgarisms are discussed in the article, explaining how they changed the style, semantics and meter of the poetic work. <p lang="en-GB" style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical approach to the sociology of language, the article examines the linguistic attitudes of the editors of K. Donelaitis’ works in the sociocultural context of the time. It is assumed that the editors’ decision to remove vulgarisms from K. Donelaitis’ works could also have been influenced by their desire to ensure the poet a central position in the canon of national literature. Although this article focuses on censorship of K. Donelaitis’ vulgarisms, it reflects the general dynamics of restrictions imposed on vernacular lexis that took place in the Lithuanian culture in the 19th–20th centuries.