Proverb
Noteworthy proverb scholars (paremiologists and paremiographers)

The study of proverbs has been built by a number of notable scholars and contributors. Earlier scholars were more concerned with collecting than analyzing. Desiderius Erasmus was a Latin scholar (1466–1536), whose collection of Latin proverbs, known as Adagia, spread Latin proverbs across Europe. Juan de Mal Lara was a 16th century Spanish scholar, one of his books being 1568 Philosophia vulgar, the first part of which contains one thousand and one sayings. Hernán Núñez published a collection of Spanish proverbs (1555).

In the 19th century, a growing number of scholars published collections of proverbs, such as Samuel Adalberg who published collections of Yiddish proverbs (1888 & 1890) and Polish proverbs (1889–1894). Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the Anglican bishop in Nigeria, published a collection of Yoruba proverbs (1852). Elias Lönnrot published a collection of Finnish proverbs (1842).

From the 20th century onwards, proverb scholars were involved in not only collecting proverbs, but also analyzing and comparing proverbs. Alan Dundes was a 20th century American folklorist whose scholarly output on proverbs led Wolfgang Mieder to refer to him as a "pioneering paremiologist". Matti Kuusi was a 20th century Finnish paremiologist, the creator of the Matti Kuusi international type system of proverbs. With encouragement from Archer Taylor, he founded the journal Proverbium: Bulletin d'Information sur les Recherches Parémiologiques, published from 1965 to 1975 by the Society for Finnish Literature, which was later restarted as an annual volume, Proverbium: International Yearbook of Proverb Scholarship. Archer Taylor was a 20th century American scholar, best known for his "magisterial" book The Proverb. Dimitrios Loukatos was a 20th century Greek proverb scholar, author of such works as Aetiological Tales of Modern Greek Proverbs. Arvo Krikmann (1939–2017) was an Estonian proverb scholar, whom Wolfgang Mieder called "one of the leading paremiologists in the world" and "master folklorist and paremiologist". Elisabeth Piirainen was a German scholar with 50 proverb-related publications.

Current proverb scholars have continued the trend to be involved in analysis as well as collection of proverbs. Claude Buridant is a 20th century French scholar whose work has concentrated on Romance languages. Galit Hasan-Rokem is an Israeli scholar, associate editor of Proverbium: The yearbook of international proverb scholarship, since 1984. She has written on proverbs in Jewish traditions. Joseph G. Healey is an American Catholic missionary in Kenya who has led a movement to sponsor African proverb scholars to collect proverbs from their own language communities. This led Wolfgang Mieder to dedicate the "International Bibliography of New and Reprinted Proverb Collections" section of Proverbium 32 to Healey. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is a scholar of Jewish history and folklore, including proverbs. Wolfgang Mieder is a German-born proverb scholar who has worked his entire academic career in the US. He is the editor of Proverbium and the author of the two volume International Bibliography of Paremiology and Phraseology. He has been honored by four festschrift publications. He has also been recognized by biographical publications that focused on his scholarship. Dora Sakayan is a scholar who has written about German and Armenian studies, including Armenian Proverbs: A Paremiological Study with an Anthology of 2,500 Armenian Folk Sayings Selected and Translated into English. An extensive introduction addresses the language and structure, as well as the origin of Armenian proverbs (international, borrowed and specifically Armenian proverbs). Mineke Schipper is a Dutch scholar, best known for her book of worldwide proverbs about women, Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet – Women in Proverbs from Around the World. Edward Zellem is an American proverb scholar who has edited books of Afghan proverbs, developed a method of collecting proverbs via the Web.
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