Universals in the Tuvan proverbial fund (as compared to modern European languages); [Провербиальные универсалии в тувинском пословичном фонде (на фоне современных европейских языков)]

One of the most focal issues of paremiology as a linguistic discipline is the identification of universal characteristics of national proverb collections. This is a necessary condition for developing a general theory of the proverb as a linguistic unit. The analysis of the proverbs of the Tuvan language in terms of universal qualities of their structure and semantics will make it possible to incorporate the Tuvan proverbial fund into the number of national corpora used to identify and verify proverbial universals of the world’s languages. The research materials comprise published collections of Tuvan proverbs and sayings, as well as the most authoritative multilingual dictionaries of proverbs in 55 European languages. The author highlights the types and representation of semiotic, structural and semantic universals in the proverbial fund of the Tuvan language and compares them with proverbs of European languages. It has been discovered that all main types of proverbial universals of the world’s languages can be found there: universal proverbial units, universal structural models of proverbs, universal proverbial images and concepts. Tuvan universal proverbial units make up about three per cent of the proverbial fund. More than 65 per cent of them are ethnically and linguoculturally marked. Universal structural models are found in 11 per cent of Tuvan proverbs. More than 81 per cent of them have formal variants that are ethnically and linguoculturally determined. Universal proverbial images and concepts are represented in 27 per cent of Tuvan proverbs. More than 78 per cent of them function in an ethnically and linguoculturally marked proverbial context. © 2023 New Reaearch of Tuva. All rights reserved.