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

Year 2017, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 263 - 271, 30.12.2017

Fazıla Derya Agiş

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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