Ku soo Dhowoow
Mareegta Far-Shaxan

ha moogaan mareegta u ban baxday raadraaca taariikhda, dhaqanka iyo hidaha

Tifatirayaasha Farshaxan way ka madax banaan yihiin fikradaha gaarka ah ee ku sugan halkan

""Buug Cusub""

OO ku qoran Af-Soomaali iyo Ingiriisi

"Hubsiimo hal baa la siistaa"
G.L.Kapchits

Moscow, The Way Publishers, 2002
Paper back, 216 pp.
Price= $15
Available from G.Kapchits: E-mail: geedka@aha.ru
Website: http://Kapchits.narod.ru
waa buug cusub oo ka yimid raadraac dheer oo u sameeyey George Kapchits ,waxa uu halkan ku soo bandhigay maahmaah maalmeedka ay ummada soomaaliyeed had iyo jeer adeegsato iyagoo ku ladhaya rayi gudbintooda.
Waxaa ku qoran maahmaahaha Soomaaliyeed kuwa ugu caansan oo lagu ogaaday aqoonbaadhis uu Dr. G. Kapchits ku sameeyey ammintii u dhexaysey 1998-2001dii, beelaha Soomaaliyeed ee deggen Jarmalka iyo Denmark. Maahmaah kasta waxa ku ladhan hal-tebinteedii oo Af-ingiriisiya. Faahfaahin dheeraad ah meeshii u baahanna waa lagu daray. Hordhaca buugga waxaa lagu soo bandhigay ujeeddooyinka iyo hababkii baadhitaanka loo sameeyey, habka kala sooca maahmaahaha iyo qaadaadhig ku saabsan sawraca suugaanta Soomaaliyeed.

The list of the best known proverbs can be established by means of a special experiment, the theoretical grounds and methods of which have been elaborated by the outstanding Russian folklorist Grigory Permyakov .

The Somali paremiological experiment, sponsored by The German Research Society), was accomplished by the author in Berlin (under the auspices of the Humboldt University) in 1999 and the Free University in 2000.

The experiment had two goals:

1. To discover how many, and which, proverbs are still widely used in Somali culture;

2. To find out what the proverb knowledge of the Somalis depends upon.

1000 proverbs formed the experimental corpus, or the list of proverbs for the questionnaires which were to be distributed among some members of the Somali community in Berlin. But before this was done, it was necessary to take one more step – to eliminate from every proverb the words which were beyond the limits of its first modelling part, that is, to leave in the questionnaires only the beginnings of proverbs:

Aabbahay baa xoolo lahaan jirey…‘I have a donkey’… [is better than ‘My father used to have cattle’];

Aabaal nin gala waa la arkay… ‘those who accept a favour are many, … [but those who pay back are none]’;

Ama afeef hore lahow, … ‘either refuse (to do something) at once …[or put up with it later]’ etc.

Then ask the respondents to add the missing endings.

This method of testing, allows those proverbs to be revealed which are actively used in contemporary culture.

Thorough analysis of the data from 45 questionnaires has allowed the establishment of 249 proverbs actively known by the majority (from 51.17% to 100%) of the informants. And it is the search for these generally known paremias that was the main goal of the experiment. Some examples are given here:

K n o w n t o 100 % o f r e s p o n d e n t s

1. Aabbe, kan yar iga celiyoo kan weyn igu sii daa. Oh, father, save me from the small one, the big one I shall manage myself. Said when somebody is unable to solve a small problem, but thinks he can deal with a big one, or when somebody is trying to palm off on to someone else the solution of a problem he cannot solve himself. This goes back to a story about a boy who was often set upon by other boys of his age. One day the boy and his father encountered one of his attackers, who had a bigger fellow with him. The victim, realising that if it came to blows he would not be able to beat the boy of his own age, but that the big fellow would scarcely want to fight with him, pronounced these words, which became a proverb.

K n o w n t o 97.77 % o f r e s p o n d e n t s

2. Allow, nimaan wax ogayn ha cadaabin. Oh Allah, do not punish a man who sins through ignorance.

3. Hubsiimo hal baa la siistaa. To know something for sure, one would even part with a she-camel.

Conclusion,

Each text is cited in Somali, with English translation and where necessary an explanatory comment. An Introduction presents the aims and procedures of the experiment, the principles of the logico-semiotic classification and an analysis of the literary features of Somali proverbs. The appendices offer rich proverbial material for further folkloristic, philological and socio-linguistic research.

waxa nasiib leh qofkii buugan hanitidiise ku daree, toloow sidee lagu helayee Alla hawl yaraa guji xidhiidh

Buugaagtan si aad u dalbato la xidhiidh Dr. G. Kapchits'Email.