Sep 16 2008
Proverbs Galore! “As They Say in Zanzibar” by David Crystal
As They Say in Zanzibar -- by David Crystal
Even after a mere weekend away from the store, I nearly always return to find several new and exciting titles awaiting my perusal. Today, I was immediately drawn to David Crystal’s newly released collection of proverbs titled As They Say in Zanzibar: Proverbial Wisdom from Around the World. This six-hundred plus page compilation is subdivided into 468 “thematic classifications,” ranging from expected categories such as family, health, and happiness to more atypical groupings such as semi-liquids, semi-solids, animal noises, and inland water. Crystal also conveniently indexes all proverbs by theme, to Roget Thesaurus’ semantic categories, to lexeme or key word, and even to country of origin.
There are some particularly relevant to the savvy traveler, such as “those who wait long at the ferry will get across sometime” (Scotland) and “money is a good passport” (France). Some that left us scratching our heads: “One should not board a ship without an onion” (The Netherlands) and “A dog may look at a bishop” (France). Others seem comically obvious, like “No melon-seller cries: bitter melons!” (China) and still others are comically bizarre, “The quiet duck puts his foot on the unobservant worm” (China).
Last but not least, we have our own saying at the bookstore: “One can never have too many maps.”
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If you love words, here are some other fun linguistic-themed books to check out:
By Hook or By Crook: A Journey In Search of English also by David Crystal
The Meaning of Tingo: And Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World by Adam Jacot de Boinod
One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered and Lost by Peter K. Austin
In Other Words: A Language Lover’s Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World by Christopher J. Moore
Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin by Nicholas Ostler (new in paperback)
The French Alphabet Book of 1814 by Charles Plante
Chinglish and Signspotting II just for laughs
Read more: Book Reviews, Learning a Language, News, World Culture, World Languages & SayingsJess is a GCB alum and now contributes to the travel blog as often as she can. Jess attended Middlebury College so she loves the Green Mountain State. She also studied abroad in Paris for a semester and has traveled through much of western Europe and the UK. Her most recent travels include trips to Portland, OR, Los Angeles, CA and Spain (Madrid and Andalusia). She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
