Judeo-Spanish and Turkish Proverbs and Idioms with Djoha and Hodja Nasrettin: Questioning Wittiness via Conceptual Metaphors

Abstract

This paper analyzes Judeo-Spanish and Turkish proverbs and idioms where Hodja Nasrettin (he is known as Djoha in Judeo-Spanish) is depicted as a joyful, gullible, nasty, or an intelligent person. It suggests that some different and similar conceptualizations are employed in the proverbs and idioms of both languages in order to describe Hodja Nasrettin from an anthropological linguistic point of view. These conceptualizations of the concept of cleverness and credulity are based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory of Lakoff and Johnson (1980); however, the two researchers had never mentioned these conceptualizations in their works. These conceptualizations related to cultural and social experiences of Judeo-Spanish and Turkish speakers have been presented in this study for the first time. Besides, in Turkish Hodja is an old character, whereas in Judeo-Spanish, he is presented sometimes as an old, and sometimes as a young character. However, he gives advice to people from different age groups.

Keywords

• Cognitive Linguistics,Conceptual Metaphors,Nasrettin Hodja,effects of the Ottoman culture on Turkish Sephardim

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