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SOME UBYKH PROVERBS

found in Dumézil

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The following proverbs were found in Georges Dumézil's Documents anatoliens sur les langues et les traditions du Caucase I, Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1960 (volume IX of the Bibliothèque archéologique et historique de l'Institut français d'archéologie d'Istanbul, pp. 79-89); the proverbs, 98 in total, were originally recorded by Julius von Mészarós, who published them in his Die Päkhy-Sprache (Chicago: University Press, 1934).

I have painstakingly tried to reproduce every letter and diacritical mark of Dumézil's extraordinary transcription of the original Ubykh-language versions of these proverbs with the help of various online resources, e.g. the IPA HTML entities (Unicode Entity Codes for Phonetic Symbols) and IPA HTML diacritic entities (Unicode Entity Codes for Phonetic Diacritics) pages at Pennsylvania University.

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aγ°amət°' acä däγ°t°'t'ən anǰädyä äynəwq'a
'When a man who had hitherto never ventured out into the world [finally] did so, he brought back the dead body of a frog [believing it to be a great marvel].'

aməṡ°ä aγ°aläg'ə dəbyäq'än aq°'at°əbżawmət γ°aq'a
'He who saw a bear urinate thought it would never stop.'

awaċχə awq°'abäg'ə ašx°anə awǰ'q°'a
'Even if it's a dog turd that you are holding, hold it tightly.'

awa γapš'än bzə γac'äwəbä jäṡäλä ċ'än
'If the water enters the dog's anus, he knows how to swim.'

acänən fänq'ən š'ȧyən, ač''än fänq'ən məš'ȧyən
'What the sword cuts, heals; what the mouth cuts does not.'

aǰ'äγ°ṡ°än wəγaməläṡä wəλäč'äγa aλaməwt°'ə
'Do not remove your trousers until you have reached the ford.'

wəməzə γašän γawdəč'äwəbä q'aγə äyməš'əpxa äynš'awt
'If you let your child's head run free, it will do many things it should not.'

wəč''ä awdəq'aq'ən-g'əlä wəg'ə p'ċ'äq'ama
'Although you sweeten your mouth with sugar, your heart remains unclean.'

wənä γaζ°aζ°aγag'ə wänän-g'ax°a afq'ama
'Nobody ever ate as much [as you have just done], not even during your mother's wedding.'

wəšän γawt°'än wəṡ°äbaq̄an want°'ämət
'A hundred enemies will not bring you the misfortune your own head will [through bad judgement].'

wəṡäλən x'älätən wəλap'a dəwa
'Stretch out your legs according to the length of your blanket.'

bzən awζ°awt γabγ'äγa wadyä wawmdəč'äw
'Do not throw the dead body of a dog into the water you will drink.'

läq'äwnə awəyänən fäč''awnə wəyä
'He who hits you with a stone, hit him with a cheese.'

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Georges Dumézil published many books on the Ubykh language—legendary among linguists for its 80 consonants (English has 24) and general unpronounceability—and was indeed its last speaker when he died in 1986. (Ubykh's last native speaker and Dumézil's main informant, Tevfik Esenç, died in Turkey in 1992.) For a full list of Dumézil's works relating to the Caucasus, please consult this bibliography; and for recordings of Esenç speaking in Ubykh, go to this page on the "Langues et civilisations à tradition orale" website.