Old sayings are an important part of oral literature full of advice and recommendations. These phrases are made of a few words each but they are very meaningful and are about life and social behavior for a long time.
Old sayings do not belong to an individual, but rather they come from a nation. Since the narrator of these words and phrases is unknown, they have been preserved by all the people and have been transferred to the new generation orally.
These phrases are such a treasure that they could have a deep influence. These phrases are applied to both social issues and related topics.
For instance: "our family enemies would not turn into the youths' friends" or
These proverbs do not belong to only one nation but they are popular among all the nations of the world and every nation uses them in their own way.
These phrases are the truth of a nation's social life. They were formed and said due to social experiences. That is why these proverbs are among the valuable linguistic components of a nation.
The logical viewpoint of a nation towards the world and the daily issues have been collected in these old sayings. Since there is an experience in each of these phrases, one can conclude that there must be a story behind each one of them. It is known that the Kurds are among the richest nations based on these proverbs thus they respect them highly.
When one is involved in reading these old sayings, they face hundreds of personal experiences and learn from them. Studying these phrases from a scientific point of view can result in extracting many useful recommendations and advice that are in fact very beneficial for young and children.
These proverbs have helped enhance young people's awareness greatly. The advice within these proverbs can help those who pay attention to them. Among Kurds, the illiterates use these proverbs more which shows the base and origin of the Kurdish language.
Some examples of these proverbs:
"Tired hand is on a full stomach"
"A man's beard can grow as long as the palm of a hand but an enemy never turns into a friend."
These old sayings have become a source of written literature, and many writers, storytellers, and poets have used them in their works. These proverbs can become a permanent part of the literary texts. They are composed of original Kurdish lexicons and they are very useful for Kurdish culture.
These old sayings have been transferred orally and during this transfer, they have changed more or less. Some people say or write these phrases in the wrong way. In fact, old sayings are the only words that are used the same way everywhere. Sometimes in a phrase, a word might be changed but the meaning stays the same. Changing the meaning of these phrases is damaging Kurdish culture.
Although there are some books that have collected these phrases, there are many old people living in villages who know a lot of such proverbs that have not been collected or documented yet. These people keep the proverbs in their hearts and it is the Kurdish writers and researchers' responsibility to stop this part of the Kurdish culture from extinction.
