Caucasus

The Caucasus packs more linguistic diversity into less territory than almost anywhere on earth. Armenian and Georgian each occupy their own branch — Armenian an isolate within Indo-European, Georgian the major Kartvelian language, both with their own alphabets and both with written traditions well over a millennium old. Around and between them sit Azerbaijani, the Northeast and Northwest Caucasian families, and pockets of languages spoken in a handful of valleys.

Armenian proverbs carry the weight of a long diaspora. A tradition that has survived repeated displacement tends to accumulate sayings about endurance, about the value of what cannot be confiscated, and about the difference between a house and a home. The Georgian tradition, by contrast, is famous for the elaborateness of its hospitality — the supra and its toasts constitute a formal rhetorical culture, and a fair amount of Georgian proverb material is really toast material, built to be spoken aloud in company.

Mountains do consistent work in the imagery. So do borders, guests, wine, and the obligations that come with a shared table. The proverbs of the region assume you are being watched by neighbors and judged by how you treat someone who arrives at the door.

Sourcing here requires care. Much of the best documentation is in Russian, Armenian, or Georgian rather than English, and the English-language quotation sites that circulate “Armenian proverbs” are frequently unattributed. Essays filed under this region should pin to a named collection.