Latvians’, Latgalians’ and Russians’ Paremias about Life

Abstract

The paper presents the analysis of 95 Latgalian and Russian paremias
(proverbs, sayings, comparisons, and idioms), the bulk of which are
proverbs. The entire corpus of the Russian paremias analysed
contains more than 7,000 units. All of them were recorded by JeÔena
KoroÔova in the period 1977ñ2018 from the Old Believers of Latgale
(they appeared in Latgale after the Church Schism of 1666) and in
the period 1970ñ2015 ñ from the Orthodox living in Pytalovo (that
territory was part of the first Latvian Republic from the 1920s to the
1940s). In order to compare them with Latvian proverbs, folklore
collections, phraseological dictionaries, the dictionary compiled by
Bernadeta Opinc‚ne, as well as works of the Latvian folklorist Elza
Kokare have been used. Modern Latgalian proverbs have been
collected in recent years by Oksana Kovzele.
In the research development, the techniques of comparative
paremiology have been used to determine the existence of the two
nationsí traditions in the comparative aspect.
Paremias, proverbs above all, reflect the interaction of cultures
and languages in the religious, national and regional aspects. The
interaction of cultures in the sphere of the existence of paremias is
of a two-sided nature. Borrowed proverbs testify to the fact that
culture is a unifying factor for different ethnic groups living in the
same state. The origins of popular conceptions of philosophical
understanding of life should be sought either in Christianity or in
the mythological views of ancient people.