Electronic Compilation of Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases (eLPP)

Electronic Compilation of Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases was started to be developed in the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore in 1998 after receiving the support from the State Commission of the Lithuanian Language. The design of the initial version of the eLPP (1998–2005) was supervised by Kazys Grigas (1998–2002), Lilija Kudirkienė (2002–2004), Daiva Vaitkevičienė (2005).

In those day the electronic compilation was meant to be an equivalent of the Card Index of proverbs and proverbial phrases kept in the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore. The title of types (headings) and variants comprising certain types had to be transferred into the electronic version as well as all the additional information, such as data about the presenter and the collector of folklore, place, time of making a record, comments and context of texts, had to be added. The decision was made to transfer absolutely all entries from the Card Index into the eLPP (whereas the publication “Lithuanian Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases” (LPP) contains proverbs that are tested against the criteria of authenticity and tradition of usage). From the beginning, types of proverbs with all recorded variants were added to the database, but later, having evaluated time and effort required for the task and found out that in order to prepare a hard copy of LLP the most important thing is to have a list of headings, the decision was made to design an electronic catalogue of headings of types and to postpone the addition of variants of proverbs to the database. When the electronic compilation of proverbs and proverbial phrases was started to be designed, it was calculated that the Card Index contained more than 200 000 variants of proverbs and proverbial phrases. Since then some ten thousands of entries were added to the Card Index. It was accentuated in the beginning that such a compilation may never be considered to be complete and finished as it should be constantly enriched with new data.

The eLPP list of proverb types contains more than 54 thousands of headings. Around one third of variants of proverbs and proverbial phrases collected in the Card Index that have been transferred to the database is not yet available for general user: typological description of a proverb only indicates the number of variants.

In 2018, after receiving financing from the Lithuanian Research Council according to the State programme for Lithuanian studies and dissemination 2016-2024 for the project “Lithuanian Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases: Compiling, Research and Dissemination” (2018-2021, Agreement No. S-LIP-18-43), the updating works of the database started: a new structure of the database and a content management system were designed, newly programmed search engine now contains functions of simple search, advanced search, selection lists; in order to adapt the eLPP to the international use, an English version of the website was designed. The database is being updated and designed by Dalia Zaikauskienė (project leader), Rasa Kašėtienė, Vita Džekčioriūtė, Arūnas Ciesiūnas (IT specialist), Salvina Senkuvienė (translator into English), Lilija Kudirkienė, Renata Papšytė, Irena Snukiškienė (collectors of equivalents in Latvian, Latin and Polish).

In the initial stages of designing the eLPP, the decision was made to extend the typological description of a proverb by additional data accumulated while preparing the paper version of the LPP. Therefore, on the scale of headings of types, the user can see not only the heading of the type but also the number allocated in the paper version of the LPP, translations of the heading of the type into English, German, Russian, popular equivalents of the heading of the type in other languages and sources of the equivalents, and links to other types. Due to the recently observed arising need of researchers as well as those generally interested in Lithuanian proverbs and proverbial phrases to find an explanation of a saying the category “Interpretation” in the description of a type has been introduced to be filled in. Recorded explanations of variants of a proverb are given in the category: in case of absence of explanations, the one who is filling-in the database gives a possible interpretation of a saying which might be determined by the tradition of usage or might be widely known in general. The interpretations of most popular proverb types are translated into the English language.