Proverbs
Proverbs and idiomatic (ilu in Igbo) expressions are highly valued by the Igbo people and proficiency in the language means knowing how to intersperse speech with a good dose of proverbs. Chinua Achebe (in Things Fall Apart) describes proverbs as "the palm oil with which words are eaten". Proverbs are widely used in the traditional society to describe, in very few words, what could have otherwise required a thousand words. Proverbs may also become euphemistic means of making certain expressions in the Igbo society, thus the Igbo have come to typically rely on this as avenues of certain expressions.
Read more about this topic: Igbo Language
Famous quotes containing the word proverbs:
“Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough”: Sheol, the barren womb, the earth ever thirsty for water, and the fire that never says, “Enough.””
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 30:15.
“Proverbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions. That which the droning world, chained to appearances, will not allow the realist to say in his own words, it will suffer him to say in proverbs without contradiction.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A gift opens doors; it gives access to the great.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 18:16.