Variance of Russian proverbs of paremiological minimum with a component “dog” and their Czech proverbial parallels

Abstract

The article analyses the variance of modern Russian proverbs with the component dog, included in the latest paremiological minimum of the Russian language of 2022. The relevance of this research is due to the need for a comprehensive study of active proverbs of the Russian linguistic picture of the world in the context of changes occurring in the modern Russian language. The scientific novelty of this study is determined, first of all, by its material, namely, the list of proverbs that comprise the most up-to-date paremiological minimum of the Russian language. The paremiological minimum of 2022 includes seven proverbs with the component dog, among them: Here is where the dog is buried (burrowed); Dog in the manger: doesn’t eat itself and doesn’t let others eat it; A dog barks, the caravan goes (the wind carries); A dog’s death is a dog’s death and others. The article classifies the variants of proverbs with the dog component reflected by the informants and analyses the types of variation at the lexical, syntactic, stylistic, morphological and phonetic levels of the language. Most of these proverbs have proverbial parallels in Czech containing the word dog (pes in Czech): Pes, ktery štěka, nekouše (lit. ‘A dog that barks does not bite’); Tady je zakopany pes (lit. ‘A dog is buried here’). However, the parallels to Russian proverbs of the paremiological minimum Dog barks, the wind carries and A dog’s death is a dog’s death have turned out to be practically unknown to modern speakers of Czech: Pes štěka a vitr odnaši and Psu psi smrt. Another proverb Dog in the manger: doesn’t eat itself and doesn’t let others eat it has a Czech analogue without the component dog — Sedi na tom jako žaba na prameni (lit. ‘Sits on it like a frog on a spring’).

Keywords:

paremiological minimum, variance, proverbial parallels, Czech language, Russian language, proverbial picture of the world