The form of contemporary Sesotho proverbs

Abstract

There are newly coined contemporary Sesotho proverbs and traditional proverbs that have been altered to suit modernity. These proverbs are being used in everyday language by Basotho. However, the main challenge is to establish whether they have the same form as traditional proverbs. Proverbs have a fixed structure that distinguishes them from other genres of oral literature. This implies that a proverb almost always appears in the same form and for contemporary Sesotho proverbs to be considered as proverbs, they have to adhere to this fixed structure. However, it seems like newer research is showing that proverbs are being coined from time to time and the fixed form of proverbs is no longer regarded as important as it used to be in the past. This paper aimed to establish whether contemporary Sesotho proverbs qualify as proverbs as far as structure is concerned. A comparative approach between traditional proverbs and contemporary proverbs was followed.