23 S TUDIA MYTHOLOGICA SLAVICA 2020
 99 – 118 | https://doi.org/10.3987/SMS20202306 
Image, Function, Meaning, and 
Structure: The Role of Aphorisms in 
the Kazakh Epic Poem Kyz Zhibek
Muhammadgali Abduov, Nazilya Abduova,   
Nicolae Stanciu
In this article, the function of aphorisms in folk song, which also contains lyrical and 
dramatic elements, is analysed and defined through cultural (mostly folklore) literature, 
and linguistic methods. The main purpose of this paper is to show the role of the gnomic 
words generated by folk creators in an epic poem’s plot, their main functions in the de-
velopment of conflict and the aesthetic expression of the work. Therefore, the meaning of 
symbols has been interpreted in close connection with the actions, archetypes and metaphors 
inserted in the structure of the song. Using as an example the song “Kyz Zhybek”, which 
is a prominent creation in Kazakh folklore, and reviewing research papers on the subject, 
the present article follows the contrastive analysis in researching the echoes of archetypal 
traditions in a Muslim cultural frame. Ethnos in culture remains in an attempt to recover 
the identity of a group using what seems specific in folklore, history, and linguistics and 
to track them in an original ideology articulated on national and universal bases. 
This paper may help researchers when studying folklore heritage, with understanding the 
scope of using the aphorisms and the main function actualised by them in folk literature. 
In addition, the role of aphorisms in a folk song is systematised, and their historical and 
identity significance is underlined.
KEYWORDS: Aphorisms, Kazakh folk song, archetypes in folklore and localisation of 
the motifs, expressive means, romantic characteristics
INTRODUCTION: KAZAKH FOLKLORE BETWEEN UNIVERSAL AND 
NATIONAL
Resulting from the assimilation of archetypal motifs in national folk literature developed 
under the auspices of romanticism, the Kazakh songs called zhyr have acquired great 
importance in the attempt to define the specificities of and framing the ethnicity of mo-
dern Kazakhstanis. However, the academic approaches to the subject of Kazakh folklore 
and the attempt to interpret its creations in the wide frame of universal mythology and 
following their significance to identity have remained minimal. Except for some local or 
Russian researchers, there are only a few international scientists who have developed an 

MUHAMMADGALI ABDUOV, NAZILYA ABDUOVA, NICOLAE STANCIU 100 
interest in the hermeneutical exercise of decoding symbols in the texts of Kazakh folk 
poems, and the number of publications in the English language remains quite limited 
(Aasland 2018, 1-14). 
The main creations generated by ordinary people contain traditions imbued with folk 
spirit and, due to the general characteristics of the folklore (syncretic, traditional and 
oral), they have continuously changed their variants. They have sometimes passed into 
authors’ literature as different layers of intertextuality (Bakhtin 1981, Plett 1991, Robbins 
1996, Allen 2000) and a sublime expression of originality and wisdom. In addition, the 
texts in folklore are the “reflection of social construction and ideology” (Bourdieu 2002, 
137) ensuing in creative activities performed by different folk artists who actualise the 
variants. The artists perform a discursive action in a group or in a specific situation in a 
syncretic context (dancing, fighting, singing, and uttering lyrics) while being watched by 
the members of the cultural community, which may be a group, a tribe or a nation. Some 
categories of texts, such as folk songs, imply an “active imagination” (Jung 1958, 48), 
visualisation and a guided fantasy involving a world in which heroes, marriage-eligible 
maids, parents, or relatives interrelate with their tools. They could also imply tutelary 
power words as guiding spirits for forecasting fates by seeking wisdom for the community 
through forms that provide access to other spaces. 
Seen as spiritual manifestations, all folklore creativity in different national tradition 
is “a mirror of culture” (Dundes 2007, 55), specifically a modality to framing realities 
and expressing them in words. Some complementary and multilevel perspectives were 
considered in this hermeneutical exercise: from the linguistic point of view, the analysis 
should discover archetypal motifs, patterns and structures, performance styles, and compare 
narratives existing within and across cultures (Wierzbicka 1997, 36); for the psychological 
tradition, the text comprises cognitive schemas, content analysis, and semantic networks 
generated in a cognitive frame or “scene” (Crapanzano 1981, 126, 2006, 381); for an 
ethnic, linguistic and metaphorical tradition, it is important to discover links between 
“ethnos and language” (Tolstoi 1995, 33). 
All folk creations belong to an archetypal stock of love stories common to different 
cultures as the myth of marriage as a foundation and revealing a “diffuse and multilingual 
mythology” (Bahtin 1975, 163) while being outlined not only by some simple concepts 
but also by using special eloquent samples of masterful and metaphoric language. It is 
the case of the content of deep thoughts framed by figures of speech that give a special 
flavour to Kazakh folk poems, which equally combine epic, dramatic, and lyric elements 
intertwined in archetypal stories with some specific nomadic, and pastoral touches mer-
ged in perfect harmony. More specifically, such a language has a definite impact within 
the entire plot, starting from the exposition to the rising conflict and its completion as a 
tragic love story. As an artefact of folklore, the text is “woven, thus it can stand as ready 
metaphor for any human construction and […] as the final product of folk performance” 
(Toelken 1996, 12; 20) displaying a syncretism of gesture performance and verbal singing. 
Focusing on the famous lyric-epic song, Kyz Zhybek, and aiming at identifying the 
parallels between the archetypal motifs in folklore this article points out the role of apho-
risms as gnomic language by underlining the “theoretical significance of comparative 

IMAGE, FUNCTION, MEANING, AND STRUCTURE: THE ROLE OF APHORISMS IN THE KAZAKH ... 101 
studies” (Anikeeva, 2010, 73, Khunagova 2007, 206). Therefore, the primary approach 
to the subject is, on the one hand, archetypal and cultural, mostly tracking sources of 
the motifs used in the folk song as belonging to universal mythology, and, on the other 
hand, comparative and national, while discovering and interpreting the reverberations of 
such motifs in Kazakh folklore as an original and perhaps involuntary attempt to define 
ethnic specificity. By adapting linguistic, literary, and mythological techniques to the 
folklore settings, the analysis and comparison contribute to the hermeneutical exercise 
of decoding and interpreting symbols.
BACKGROUND: FOLK EPIC – CONTENT, STRUCTURE AND SIGNIFICANCE
Kyz Zhibek is a masterpiece of Kazakh folklore, which adapted archetypal themes like 
love and marriage, heroism and the myth of foundation to a specific national and religi-
ous context, mainly based on nomadic traditions and containing broader Islamic culture 
motifs. The love story recreated the pattern of Romeo and Juliet by transposing a tale 
into an imaginative space quite similar to the Kazakh one and by embroidering images 
and words in a well-balanced dosage of traditional genres. This story is projected into 
mythical space and time resonating some pre-state nomadic organisation and tradition 
of tribes that have existed in pre-medieval times in Central Asia, as belonging to Turkic 
ethnicity
1
. Developing at a slow pace and reflecting the main parts of a typical epic conflict, 
the song begins with recreating the atmosphere in the family at the time of falling in love. 
The initial sets of the story describe in detail the appearance and the character features 
of the prototypical couple, the lad Tolegen, the son of a tribe’s chieftain, whose family 
lives in a remote eastern land of what is now Kazakhstan and his female correspondent, 
Kyz Zhibek, a maid of similar social condition, owning large fields in the steppes of the 
central part of the country. As an irrational happening, love drives the partners to fight to 
surpass all traditional requirements of belonging to noble nomadic families: the couple 
has to pass all steps of pre-nuptial rituals, such as receiving parents’ blessing, buying the 
bride, performing dances with horses, fighting the evil embodied by other suitors and ge-
nerally persuading the masters to unify their tribes in nomadic communities. The spiritual 
conflict settled among the main characters of the epos is mostly one between a query for 
unity embodied by the protagonist, the prince Tolegen, who wants to bring together the 
main tribes into a great nation after marrying beautiful Kyz Zhibek, and those individuals 
and warlike people, like his father and his opponent Bekezhan, who prefer keeping the 
ancient ways and divided tribal power. Kyz Zhibek attracted and enticed Tolegen not only 
by her beauty but also by her wealth visible in the richly adorned saddle of the camel, 
covered by furs and in the jewellery made of gold and pearl belt, beads, and earrings. 
1
 For Turkish as different from Old Turkic as ethnicity including mainly history, nomadic cultures, tribal state 
organiSation, and languages which have emerged and develop in confluent areas, in Central Asia, see Budagov 
1997; Clauson 1962, 1972; Dybo 2007; Golden 1991, 1992, 2006, 2011, 2014; Klyashtornyi 2008, Johanson 
and Csató 1999; Menges 1994; Sevrotjan 1974 onward; Vásári 2004, Zuev 2002. 

MUHAMMADGALI ABDUOV, NAZILYA ABDUOVA, NICOLAE STANCIU 102 
When a distinguished chieftainship family of a tribe decided to betroth their daughter 
to a man as a wife, they celebrated for some days, so the groom’s horsemen were ready 
to follow all the procedures and waited to take the bride home as soon as the celebration 
was over and the newlyweds had received the blessing of both families. 
Like other numerous local names, that of the debutant girl – Kyz Zhibek – expresses 
the soft, almost immaterial condition and at the same time conveying a brilliant, noble and 
mysterious situation and an unpredictable fate (literally, the name means “girl of silk”). 
In contrast, the name of the lad – Tolegen – suggests the masculine heroic potentialities 
of the protagonist. The eligible maiden has almost the same attributes common to other 
traditions: she is a nubile young girl, appealing and seducing the mortals with her beauty, 
ready for marriage and richly adorned for this purpose. As a matter of specificity, she 
is a Muslim maid willing to follow all the rules of traditional wooing and marriage and, 
besides the horse rides and sharing the gifts with her best friends, she practices Islamic 
and nomadic traditions like washing her hands and thanking Allah for a meal by moving 
the palms over the face or treating the young girls and fellows with fermented mare milk. 
Tolegen mounted his horse and departed to his homeland to ask for his father’s blessing 
to marry Kyz Zhibek, which at the social level equals accepting the unification of the 
tribes. While coming back to take her from her parents’ house, after being blessed by his 
father, the protagonist is murdered by Bekezhan, the other contender to Kyz Zhibek’s 
hand in the most unjust way: he seems to let him go to his beloved, but in fact, he sends 
an arrow to the hero, which put him down for death. This uncompleted pre-nuptial ritual, 
which resembles a myth of foundation through a possible marriage, ends, leaving the 
tribal social organisation at the previous stage. The heroine gives birth to a son and will 
be protected by Tolegen’s brother, who married her. 
Archaeology, history, and folk literature throw light on some aspects of the comparable 
life habits of ethnic communities found at the confluence of civilisations but, at the same 
time, leave numerous dark corners, which favoured the flourishing of mythology. Echoes 
of Indo-European and Turkic heroism, initiation rituals, kinship systems, nomadic and 
pastoral traditions and horse cult reverberate in this poem and prove the original aspects 
of the myth of love, foundation and pre-state formations as tribes (Kz. zhusy) ruled by 
chieftains who own vast herds, such as thousands of horses, master the groups of people 
and are proud of their specificity. As the Kazakh poet Abay Kunabayev pointed out in 
his Book of Wisdom, “the worst enemy of a Kazakh person is another Kazakh person” 
(Kunanbayev 2009, 303) and “the force of a nation consists of its unity” (id.:142).
The classical genres of literature are frequently found in the song: epic, lyric, and dra-
matic. What appertains to the epic can be identified in the conflict evolution, characters, 
space and time, actions, and sets. For setting the initial scene and providing background 
information about the space and the time, history recovers the classical pattern of tales and 
generate a “narrative with a multiplicity of representations of the past” (Bloch 1998, 101) 
via suggested ambiguity through indefinite dimensions of space and time while mentio-
ning the main characters imagined as a couple involved in a pre-marital ritual. Developed 
through the actions of some main characters who are accompanied by tribes’ members and 
representatives, the conflict evolves from a quiet atmosphere to tremendous events and a 

IMAGE, FUNCTION, MEANING, AND STRUCTURE: THE ROLE OF APHORISMS IN THE KAZAKH ... 103 
tragic end. Although the title suggests a love story with a beautiful maid as a protagonist, 
it is quite difficult to dissociate and determine what the prevalent topic of the poem is: the 
cult of ancestors as preservers of traditions, the tragic story of an unaccomplished love, or 
the heroic background in which battles among the tribes (Kz. zhuzy) amplify the conflict.
Unlike the classical myth of tragic and possibly unaccomplished love in the poem, 
a significant difference can be noted: although they belong to opposite tribes, the chara-
cters have comparable social status: she is a princess of unique beauty, intelligence, and 
dedication; he is a knight and the son of a very rich noble (Kz. bazarbay) and a hero (Kz. 
batyr “hero”)
2
. In some folk traditions, the hero’s virtues might be the synthesis of the 
great features of nomadic identity and become personages of old stories of battles coming 
down to this time and being preserved in collective memory in some main types: the 
founder, the ruler, and the eligible lad. They are paramount leaders and men of physical 
endurance and strength allied to moral qualities, such as boldness and propensity for 
plunging into dangerous adventures like archery, hunting, conquering new places, and 
settling down as well as demonstrations of wisdom. 
As a marriageable lad, both a herder and a warrior, the hero demonstrates his powers 
in the functional context created by his future wife; among some pretenders, he is the 
chosen one sought by divinity as seeking to win his bride and unify the divided tribes 
made of people dominated by envy from different parts of the country. He leads armies and 
drives big groups of horses into ritualistic round dances, travels long distances between his 
home and tribe to the furthest lands where his future wife lives. Both families have their 
own rules of castes, their tribal organisation and the traditions of the marriage become 
an attempt of accommodating opposite ideas and establishing a bigger state organisation 
ruled by a wise chief.
The woman has a functional role in the hero’s life of providing the context for him 
to demonstrate his winning qualities of seeking to conquer his bride and form a family 
and a dynasty. The main female character, Kyz Zhibek, plays the most important role in 
choosing the hero of her story: in an archery ritual executed with covered eyes, she first 
moves in a circle with two arrows, selects one and sends it to a place meant to be the 
centre of her new world. Winning a bride displays a “heroic vision on marriage common 
to ancient Turkic traditions in all its forms such as wooing, capture, negotiation” (West 
2007, 247). Kyz Zhibek is a nomadic princess riding horses across the endless steppe 
and generously sharing gifts with her female friends, who will become her bride maids 
in the marital rituals. Therefore, her future husband does not rescue her after passing 
some “spiritual quests” (Eliade 1984: 34) meant to accomplish perfection and to prove 
his heroism but followings more a traditional modality of asking for a blessing from both 
families and especially by the fathers. Although abduction is a motif found in ancient and 
medieval Armenian and Caucasian cultures (Colarusso 2002, 150) and still performed 
in present-day Kazakhstan, the pre-nuptial ritual follows the rules of asking for hand 
and soul, wooing the bride and receiving the permission from the parents of the maid. 
2
 For the ranks among Kazakh nobles, their description and role in the tribal society, see Kunanbayev 2009: 
298-299.

MUHAMMADGALI ABDUOV, NAZILYA ABDUOVA, NICOLAE STANCIU 104 
At the same time, the marriage becomes a myth of unifying some tribes into “nomadic 
confederations” (Cheng 2018, 124) and founding a new order of the world, first because 
some pretenders sought the hand of the beautiful maiden who defeats numerous suitors 
before finding her match and, second, because through marriage together with the new 
noble family, a dynasty of khans will be born. In summary, as in other traditions, the 
heroic, marital and foundation motifs are intertwined in a tapestry combining archetypal 
dimensions and specific ones like nomadic, pastoral, and Islamic. The suitors are nume-
rous, and this makes the bride so desirable that the men of distinction fight for her hand. 
The betrothal is simpler than in other traditions consisting of choosing the most be-
autiful girl from some groups who ride caravans of camels, giving/offering and taking, 
a visit of the bachelor’s friends to the maiden’s parents, who are endowed to permit the 
girl to marry the prince. Sharing the gifts imply in the poem a “contractual exchange’’ 
(Mauss 1966, 15) visible in some moments of the narrative: first, as a steppe duchess 
riding a horse as the female protagonist shares her jewellery with the other maidens in 
the tribe in a supreme gesture of generosity; second, accepting the gifts becomes the main 
step of accepting the proposal of a knight coming from remote areas and riding a white 
horse; third, the hospitality of nomadic people is revealed in sharing fermented mare’s 
milk with all female and male members of the community while presenting the future 
bride with furs, jewellery and colourful clothing. In the old Turkic ritual of “buying the 
bride’”(Mustafina 2001, 30), among some significant presents offered to the damsel 
by her future sister-in-law are a richly adorned cape whose name implies the sun (Kz. 
saukele is a compounded word from sau “sunny”, “beautiful” and kele “head” is a part 
of Kazakh female celebration and wedding attire) and is worth one hundred horses, rich 
cattle or even a khan’s yurt. Alongside this decorative piece of female attire, some motifs 
belonging to agricultural and nomadic traditions bring specific aspects to the general ritual 
of gift exchange in the process of engagement: while entering the maid’s shelter, the 
future couple is blessed by the girl’s mother who throws over the newly formed couple 
seeds as a gesture supposed to induce fertility into the new pair. Meantime, outside of 
the nomadic shelter and pre-nuptial place, the best maids offer furs of different animals 
for inducing richness in cattle of the newly formed couple and showing their nomadic 
dowry. A piece of precious fur goes around the margins of the cape being the first circle 
of decorations and distinction on the bottom of this conic shape.
A widespread motif of Turkic traditions (Dzhumagulov 1960, 72) can be noticed 
in the pre-nuptial ceremony: the couple sleeps together for one or several nights with a 
chastity golden belt and a sword placed between partners. As female and male symbols 
put together on the bed, clothes, the magic objects, are purified after being passed over 
a fire function at the same time, as signs of separation and unification. The girl’s mother 
veils them with delicate silk clothes and formulates the interdiction of having sexual 
intercourse prior to the coronation marked by the wedding ceremony. However, even 
though they have not yet received the groom’s father’s acceptance for marrying Kyz 
Zhibek, the maid shares her pearls and undoes her tresses in a gesture of accepting the 
proposal and promising to be devoted to her future husband. Both gestures of spreading 
the pearls around and unplaiting the tresses mark the ritual of separation from her family 

IMAGE, FUNCTION, MEANING, AND STRUCTURE: THE ROLE OF APHORISMS IN THE KAZAKH ... 105 
and to some extend the symbolical loss of virginity and the passage to the new condition 
of a married woman.
The universal motif of a horse together with chariot symbolism common to ancient 
traditions at birth, wedding and funeral “widely spread about 3600-3400 BC in today Ka-
zakhstan” (Anthony 2007, 203, Walker 2015, 35), resonates in different facets in Kazakh 
folklore, either as a sign of distinction, delicacy or noblesse and richness appropriate to 
the high condition of the bride princess or groom knight. It also resonates in symbolic 
dances performed by horse riders during the pre-marital rituals and as a sacrifice. Recently, 
an embracing couple buried together with a horse, jewellery and items such as cauldrons 
belonging to the Bronze Age excavated in Karaganda region (Stewart 2018) prove the 
ancient practices of chariots, chivalry and horse riding in different parts of the country. 
Wild stallions are tamed by skilled lads and dance near the wall of the nomadic fortress, 
where the princess works and prepares clothes for the future husband. Mounting the horse 
of the future husband represents another significant moment in accepting the proposal and 
an act of spousal nature, a significant stage in the rite of separation and the last step of 
leaving their own space followed by the beginning of a new life under the husband’s roof.
Interestingly, as the real wedding has not yet happened, all these images are projected 
in the groom’s imagination and exposed in melodic words as reflections of thoughts 
while moving from his house to his wife’s shelter. Finally, the horse given as a gift to 
Tolegen as a messenger of fate goes to the hero’s father asking to be blessed. It has all 
the attributes of a mythological animal with white skin, was born in a witch’s hut, bred 
with embers and has waited for his master to tame him.
As for dramatisation in both discourse and actions, not only is the dialogue relevant 
but so too are the tragic situations of the protagonists: between the initial plans and re-
ality, numerous changes occur in the structure of the plot generating a conflict between 
the forces of good and evil. Although the girl is prepared to marry the prince and has 
accepted his proposal, her actions while waiting for the chosen lover to come back from 
his parents’ house reflect other specific and nomadic motifs, such as guarding the cattle, 
raking hay for horses or even visiting the blue mosque in the middle of the steppe to ask 
for divine support.
Analysing individual works of living folk traditions, we often pay attention to the 
ideas and images, plot development, variety of genres, but also to various artistic means. 
Nevertheless, it would be appropriate to note that the poem specifically belongs to the 
universal heritage of folklore, and it is expressed by allegorical means, mainly aphorisms 
and proverbs. Just a few attempts have been made so far for integrating the Kazakh 
folklore into an extended frame of interpretation as universal myths and for following the 
role of proverbs in defining identity. However, whatever work of folklore is taken into 
consideration, the special function of this correlation of image/motifs to myth denotes a 
long process of assimilation and representation through which the life of people has been 
filtered through a sieve of national consciousness and tradition and finally established 
in the language. 
In Kazakh folklore, one of the distinct species found at the genre interference is 
the category of lyric-epic and dramatic poems called “zhyr(s)”. Their common specific 

MUHAMMADGALI ABDUOV, NAZILYA ABDUOVA, NICOLAE STANCIU 106 
feature is also manifested in thematic consonance; for example, it is not an exaggeration 
to say that all nations of the world have heroic and ethical poems built on love themes. 
“In general, the theme of love is archetypal and traditional for the folklore of all nati-
ons and all times. It is also widely and fruitfully developed in the pearls of the Kazakh 
lyric-eposes Kozy-Korpesh - Bayan Sulu and Kyz-Zhibek’ (Azibayeva, 1998, 119). It 
can be said that among the Kazakh folk songs, these two works stand out for their wide 
distribution among the people, their constant use of performers, the significance of the 
plot and the imagery of the language. In the process of the vocal performance of these 
works, attention is drawn to their motifs that are disclosed separately from other poems. 
Since these ethical creations are performed orally, their rhythm and tune are different. 
This characteristic speaks of another specific feature of the lyric-epic poems. 
The hero wins his fame in combat, and it is closely associated with deeds of battle, 
foundation, and love. As a fame seeker, he knowingly and willingly takes risks at the 
cost of his life: Tolegen is required to ask for permission to marry Kyz Zhibek and to 
ask his father to lay aside vanity and accept the unification of their tribes into a bigger 
state formation. After duelling with his competitors to recover his honour in the right 
battle, the protagonist should encounter his opponent’s father and die on the way back 
to his lover. Through his death, the hero transcends his mortality and is assimilated, 
together with fighting men to the category of founders and rulers, who are honoured by 
the community in their songs and recognised to be as wise as their ancestors, who have 
defended the same ideals of unity. Like in other traditions, the hero lays his high fame of 
glorious deeds and makes a name for himself, thus infusing the community being with 
the grandeur of sacred personages of a society of warriors. 
Wherever the origin of aphorisms can be found, they were formed on a folk basis at a 
certain time as an expression of traditional wisdom. There are also certain reasons for this. 
“Actually, aphoristic genres in their diverse varieties - sentences, maxims, reflections or 
thoughts, paradoxes were formed in the era of classicism with its normative poetics with 
strictly genre regulation and close attention to the stylistic form” (Zhirmunski, 1987, 6). 
In folk works of art, numerous images have been passed down from generation to 
generation through oral channels, and many artistic and moral values have been accu-
mulated. In the process of using these values, various cultural traditions of neighbouring 
countries were assimilated and used at a certain level. 
In starting the analysis of aphorisms used in folklore sources, it is impossible to 
circumvent the problem of the text, because the inseparable relationship between the 
words in folklore and the content of the text is obvious (Dianova 2010, 51). In science, 
in general, there are enough opinions about the historical, linguistic, meaningful and 
semantic features of aphorisms
3
. 
3
 Nalichnikova 2016, 122, Bagapov, Gasheva 2016, 60

IMAGE, FUNCTION, MEANING, AND STRUCTURE: THE ROLE OF APHORISMS IN THE KAZAKH ... 107 
DISCUSSION: IMAGE, FUNCTIONS AND MEANING CONVEYED BY 
APHORISMS
As simple time narratives of multiple representations denoting the past and the way an 
ethnic group thinks, the poems do not contain details on heroic deeds of courage and 
boldness, as in classical epos, but the essence of the work is devoted to the love of a great 
knight, Tolegen, for a beautiful girl, Kyz Zhibek, transformed by folk imagination into 
a prototypical mythical couple. Suitably so, the historicity of the characters “does not 
long resist the corrosive action of mythisation” (Eliade 1959, 42)
The beginning of the event is shaped in twists and turns with structures characteristic 
of folk traditions for legends and associated with the search for the groom (Kz. jigit) by 
the bride (Kz. kalyndyk). These “aphoristic words” (Korotkih 2016, 114) often used in 
folk poems are found in this work at the very beginning. For example, the first hero’s 
action draws the audience’s attention when Tolegen went to choose a bride without the 
permission of his parents. His mother hurries him, and she reaches her goals by an instru-
ctive combination of sounds and words. In these lines, the expression “to the righteous” 
means gifting the noble or the sinless with a horse, and the bad or the sinner with the ram, 
which are often found in our folklore traditions as symbols of a high condition or a poor 
one. Two main conflicts are suggested at the beginning of the poem: first, the protagonist 
does not obey parents’ advice and does not ask for permission to start his search for the 
bride; second, two opposite conditions are set at the beginning of the adventure: the rich 
and the poor. The main specificity of this combination lies in the fact that in antiquity, 
after the death of a person who was considered to be a righteous one during his life, he 
deserved the respect of all people. As a result, they sacrificed cattle with the wish that 
he would be their patron, supporting their wishes like a totem that protects the soul of 
the man during his afterlife. 
It is no exaggeration to note that this tradition has retained its basic specificity to this 
day and continues like the testament of the fathers, the words left by ancestors to subsequent 
generations and it is mainly based on the knowledge and education of humanity. Seen 
as a knowledge transfer, the ancestors’ words give life-competence to the followers in 
the form of concepts or thoughts associated with words (Albekov, Alpysbayeva, Auyes-
bayeva 2017, 33). The presence of gnomic words in the texture of the song improves the 
expressiveness of a work of art, and it is believed that while they are being uttered, they 
have a magic impact on a person. They actualise a function similar to that performed by 
traditional artistic means in folklore (Yuldybaeva, Mingazova, Kayumova 2017, 667). 
As allegorical expressions, the aphorisms contain, together with comparisons, metaphors, 
and symbols, some rhythmical instruments meant to bring musicality to the poem. Used 
in a single consonance sound, repetitions improve the beauty and the attractiveness of 
words as in the wish expressed by Tolegen’s mother:
“Mother has come sobbing, /The father is sitting, suffering, /Many enemies that are 
jealous / Will be ready to come back.”
(Kz. Anan keldi zarlanyp, / aken otyr sandalip, / kore almagan kop dushpan, / syrtynan 
keler qamdanyp.)

MUHAMMADGALI ABDUOV, NAZILYA ABDUOVA, NICOLAE STANCIU 108 
Contributing to the exposition of the poem, the space and indefinite time of the plot, 
together with the parents’ subtle feeling of anticipation, forecast the initial and possible 
tragic dimensions of the conflict evolution: the quiet shivering atmosphere suggests a 
storm that is coming. The verbal epithets for father and mother contrasting the motion 
and sitting, related by the same mournful anticipation are correlated to the unknown and 
imprecise number of virtual enemies guilty of a sin: jealousy. The combination of “Kore 
Almagan Kop Dushpannan” (many enemies that are jealous) appear on the basis of deeply 
meaningful words in the proverb “Dushpany kore almaidy, agaynyn bolip bere almaidy” 
(The enemies are envious; the relatives cannot share his bitterness). The meaning of this 
expression may be that if one suddenly becomes the owner of some kind of good, then 
the enemies, of course, will look with envy, and if one’s encounter any difficulties, then 
one’s family will not be willing to help. As in other folk traditions, the verbalisation of 
concepts originates in the life experience. 
The events of the epic are exposed in a strict form similar to one of the “beads in a 
thread”. Even metaphorical expressions are arranged in a specific order and repeated as 
the events’ representation in a logical succession of actions in the plot. As an expression 
of archaic society, the creation of a cosmologic model implies at least three elements: the 
emergence of a hero acting as a creator of a new world; the occurrence of the opposite 
forces that explain the conflict evolution and the act of foundation based on a spiritual 
search and sacrifice (Eliade 1959, viii). When some details of the mythical events (Osmu-
shina, Ingle, 2016, 417) are introduced, they are also not included in the replay process. 
This feature of the epic works was underlined by a Russian scientist: “The laws of the 
epos do not allow two heroes to act simultaneously in different places” (Propp 1975, 93) 
and the use of repetitions of individual words occurs at the end of the verse lines. As a 
result of this, even the ancient patriarchal environment, people who have seen a lot in 
their day utter their words in a certain rhythm in the form of sayings, and this becomes 
a traditional phenomenon. 
For example, Tolegen’s mother, in a conversation with her son, points out the beauty 
of a prototypical hero whose features are very natural, suggesting the main dimensions 
of a nomadic leader, who must be beautiful, brave, and rich. In Kazakh traditions, these 
are pre-conditions of becoming a ruler, namely being a bay or a batyr “boyar, governor”:
“The beauty of your land will be in a tale about willow, /The beauty of the river will 
be in the precipice, /The beauty of a horseman will be in cattle richness. /If you have rich 
cattle of deer/Then you will become a khan.” 
(Olkenin korkі tal bolar, / ozennіn korkі zhar bolar, / zhіgіttіn korkі mal bolar, / malyn 
bolsa, karagym, / karah basyn khan bolar.)
The landscape is made of some significant motifs that reverberate with the universal 
symbolism of willow as a bridge between this world and the afterlife (Mencej 1996, 31-
35, Colarruso and Sabiev 2016, 72-73) and suggest the highest rank of Kazakh nomadic 
knights. Retaining similar meanings in different traditional cultures, the willow symbolises 
“the power of life and rapid growth, vitality and regeneration” (Tolstoi 1995, 333). In the 
Kazakh epic, it occurs in a story about the beauty of a land destined to be conquered and 
mastered by the young knight. The hero meant to become a knight, and a khan should 

IMAGE, FUNCTION, MEANING, AND STRUCTURE: THE ROLE OF APHORISMS IN THE KAZAKH ... 109 
pass all the quests of initiation. In this nomadic world of cattle breeders, the horseman’s 
profile develops as a master of the field and a future leader of people. 
The image is articulated by suggestive motifs of naturalness which denote the rich 
symbolism of primordial elements (air, earth, water) and project the shape of the knight 
into the cosmic landscape having the tree as a protective centre of his world. The folk 
collective imagination created in minimal details a cosmological model projected in the 
mirror of the water and, in an indirect story comprising the bank of the river, the richness 
of the hero and the shiver of the willow. At the discursive and lyrical levels, the word for 
the future implying a condition, bolar, is repeated at the end of the first three lines and 
at the end of the strophe itself, augmenting the idea of crucial events expected to happen 
and improving the suggestion of inner rhythmical movement. This phonetical, semantic, 
syntactic, and prosodic pattern of underlining the rhetoric of the poem was recovered 
in later individual poems denoting the “value of folklore for the classical literature of 
Kazakh authors” (Aktulum 2017, 34). 
The method of plot development, namely the way of organising events, noted in 
the content of the epic works, in the traditions of the Kazakh folk poems is associated 
with the philosophy of Dzungars or Kalmyks tribes whose members wanted to convey 
through the history of love a myth of heroism and foundation (Artykbayev 1997, 87). 
The meaning of this method can be said to convey to the listeners, to their consciou-
sness, the idea that the events described in the stories are taken from life as it seems 
obvious in the epic Kyz Zhybek. One of the matchmakers is Kalmyk khan Koren. At first 
glance, it may seem that this is a particularly worthy plot. However, we can note that 
the creator of this epic does not deviate from the main tradition. As a Russian scholar 
elegantly put it, “the emergence of the epos as in the form of public consciousness is 
associated with the specificity of the historical situation and the internal laws of the 
development of society” (Volkova, 1984: 8). The quests the hero should pass for ob-
taining the maid’s hand are meant to prove his heroism and to reveal his intelligence, 
all features of a knight who is preparing to become a husband and a ruler. Therefore, 
the pretender at the princess’ hand is more resourceful, attractive, and smarter than his 
opponent, Koren, although they are almost in the same position of chiefs of the tribes. 
The hero should fight the monster, in this case, the competitor in the bride search, and 
instruct the brother, who may become his successor at the throne and have to acquire 
the right skills of heroism and wisdom. The roles in the court hierarchy are metapho-
rically exposed by the khan’s assistant, Karshyga, who is the elder friend and the best 
man of the main hero:
“You are my young bush on the river bank, /My winged horse, which has escaped 
forward. /The white horde of horses was where you went, /You have lived an interesting 
life so far. /Why are you sad?”
(Kolge bitken quragym,/ suyrylyp ozan pyragym, / aq orda boldy kyrgyenіn, / qyzyq 
dauren surgenіn, / nege qapa bolasyn?)
Tolegen’s portrait, as presented by his close friend, reveals the status of a chosen 
knight, who is appreciated by his fellows and deserves the love of the most wanted prin-
cess in the land. Built in a gradation, the image of the prince is attractive and natural: 

MUHAMMADGALI ABDUOV, NAZILYA ABDUOVA, NICOLAE STANCIU 110 
the hero is compared with young shoots of reed thickets growing in beautiful places and 
a winged horse, which overtakes hundreds of other horses. These comparisons have 
been known since ancient times and are related to the type of acting image. At its core, 
a winged horse is a special type of steed often found in legends and myths that came to 
Kazakh folklore either from the east or the west. In the Islamic faith, the winged horse 
refers to the type of steeds living in paradise. Its peculiarity, unlike other horses, is that, 
compared with other horses, he is strong, slim, speaks like a man and has wings for flying. 
It is an individual in the form of a horse. At its core, this is understandable to an attentive 
person. The artistry of national epic works and the language features of their use were 
influenced by famous heroic epics. 
The conflict is developed in simple lines with minimal actions and sets projected in 
imaginative possible stories and suggestive characters ready to experience a spiritual 
journey and to accomplish the triple condition of a founder, a husband, and a ruler. In 
Kazakh poetry, the eligible maidens have almost the same attributes as in Indo-European 
traditions expressed in the sun glow goddess features: they are nubile young women, who 
appeal and seduce mortals, are ready for marriage, and adorn themselves excessively. 
Strong maids live the indoor life dispensing wisdom and choosing their partners as a 
modality to build a family and a dynasty and to escape from the place they are seclu-
ded. The colours of their garments and hair are also significant as their attire is made of 
silk, their hair is golden, and their jewellery demonstrates their status: a necklace with 
diamonds and a silver crown. Mounting the horse of the future husband represents the 
acceptance of the proposal in the gradual process of leaving her place to follow the man 
with whom she will start a new life. 
In the epic Kyz Zhibek, there are significant places where aphorisms are used regu-
larly, often in a grouped form supporting images, giving the correct discursive expression 
and assuring the inner musicality of the poem. Such cases suggest the long-term use 
of these metaphors and symbols believed to be also associated with a person’s mood. 
More specifically, they are used almost automatically when a person is very happy or, in 
contrast, very upset. For example, at the moment when Bekezhan comes to Kyz Zhebek 
and informs her about Tolegen’s death, Kyz Zhebek’s complex answer can be said to be 
completely built in the style of aphoristic words:
“Damned Bekezhan! /Don’t show up to me /Finished your job. /How could you de-
cide /To raise hand on /A such person? /May God give you back /What you did to me, 
/Damned rogue! /God damn you /Who spawned me. /Let your wife and children cry. /
When will you feel bad /Let no one come to you.”
(Ata nalet, Bekezhan! / Korsetpe magan tusіndі, / bіtіrіpsіn іsіndі, / qaytyp kozіn qudi 
eken, / sol sekіldі musіndі, / aldyna қudai keltіrsіn, / magan an qylgan іsіndі. / Atana 
lagynet, qaraqshy! / Qudayim senі qargasyn, / tәnirі menі zharatsa, / qatyn, balan zar-
lasyn, / basyna qyin іs tusse, / qasyna eshkіm barmasyn.)
In the last six lines of this passage, built in the form of curses, the construction of 
the song performed in the second instance of a failed marriage is based on the model of 
aphorisms found in consonance with each other. It should also be noted that themes such 
as the problem of revenge are often found in epic works. More precisely, a blood feud 

IMAGE, FUNCTION, MEANING, AND STRUCTURE: THE ROLE OF APHORISMS IN THE KAZAKH ... 111 
is more often used in the heroic epic, and it is found in other forms quite related to the 
symbolism of brothers and expressed by the fight for revenge among certain heroes. In 
the epic Kyz Zhybek, the heroine’s six brothers take revenge for Tolegen’s death. They 
will kill Bekezhan, restoring through blood and sword her favourite suitor’s honour. The 
frequency of this motif widely used in the epics is stated in the works of researchers of 
Kazakh folklore (Dyadyun 2017, 59) where the wedding has become a tragic saga of 
courtesy and redemption, with the bride in the central role. 
The aphorisms and metaphorical words occur not only in the plot but also in the ima-
gination of heroes who conspicuously address their ideal bride in dreams or discourse. 
As a master of the house, the bride is imagined as stepping out into her courtyard to draw 
water from the lake, where she at once recognises her groom riding a horse and discovers 
the good features of people whom he will rule. 
As a myth of foundation, the ideal marriage has become a good modality of acquiring 
wisdom for founding a kingdom. The wisdom of the future ruler is shown in his compre-
hensive vision of people and the world while returning from acquiring the bride. Signi-
ficantly, in this discourse about the qualities of a land master, the protagonist indirectly 
prepares his brother as a successor while forecasting a tragic future and initiating him 
for the new condition of being a possible ruler. The hero’s discourse projects the career 
of his brother and imaginatively transfers his responsibilities in the case of unexpected 
and unfortunate encounters and underlines the power of the words as representations of 
the thoughts. A coherent poetical expression of water symbolism reverberates in subtle 
echoes of mirroring, reflection and a spiritual journey of the protagonist meant to become 
a ruler of the land after surpassing all the obstacles and becoming the wisest in the realm:
“Getting close to the best, /You recognise the virtues of people. /Located in a beautiful 
land. /You will recognise the merits of the lake. /So, you will know the virtues of the 
word, /Deep in thought, /It affects the soul of man.”
(Zhaqsylarmen zhanasyp, / el qadіrіn bіlgeysіn, /suly zherdі qonys qyp, / kol qadіrіn 
bіlgeysіn, /terennen kesіp tolgaytyn, /kөnіldіn kozіn qozgaytyn, / soz qadyryn bilgeisin.)
The main topic of the poem is love between two young people, but the story is pro-
jected in a wider field of heroism and traditions, which transform the aspiration to an ideal 
romance in a tragic story of death before achieving true the dream of love. A prototypical 
love story was adapted to a nomadic context, and an original expression of romance 
and heroism can be found not only in folk creation but also in other forms of art, such 
as the film version of the poem, also called Kyz Zhibek. A good sense of friendship and 
fairness is conveyed alongside Tolegen’s wishes addressed to his brother and successor 
Sansyzbay. Amplifying the feeling of uncertainty, the second part of the elder brother’s 
advice for his possible successor points out the importance of communication with the 
people in the realm and the amplitude of the self:
“Having put effort into any business, /You will be friends with your equal self. /Listen 
to these words of mine /My successor Sansyzbay, /Getting close to the best, /You will 
recognise the virtues of people.”
(Talap qylyp ar іske, teninmen oynap-kulgeysіn, bul sozіmdі tyndagyn, zhetkіnshegіm, 
Sansyzbay, zhaqsylarmen zhanasyp, zhurt qadіrіn bіlgeysің.)

MUHAMMADGALI ABDUOV, NAZILYA ABDUOVA, NICOLAE STANCIU 112 
The aphoristic value of each line is obvious as expressed by the combination of 
advice settled in the present simple and imperative forms and the future tense as a way 
of marking the potentialities of a leader able to discover the virtues of his community. 
Having set off to his beloved, Tolegen could not reach his main goal of taking her to his 
parents’ house because he died in the hands of Bekezhan, his opponent, for the hand of 
a beautiful girl. There is such an interesting detail in the epic: before closing his eyes 
forever, Tolegen saw six geese flying in the sky and talked to them to convey greetings 
to his native land and to his relatives. According to the idea adopted in the epic, the ge-
ese have a mandate to deliver Tolegen’s word. It seems that this episode is used on the 
basis of the concept adopted by the people, who, connecting geese with swans, consider 
them sacred, holy. In contrast, this episode correlates with surprising phenomena, more 
precisely, with features of magical use. In epic works, the use of magical phenomena is 
a common circumstance (Dzhumaeva 2018, 194).
Another situation in which the aphoristic words are used is the image that combines 
the metaphors with exaggeration by referring to the comparative method as a persuasive 
tool of oratory. Nevertheless, this method has found application at a certain level and in 
the works of Kazak national folk poets called akyns or zhyrau embodying two types of 
creators, namely keen on detail and nuanced respectively on the general description of the 
plot. Tolegen’s mother reveals an entire scene of food symbolism in relation to her perso-
nality and the role of meat, bread, butter and honey in the Kazakh culinary folk tradition:
“I said rump, but she gave under-fat (tidbit), /I said sugar, she gave honey, /Gave 
bread, smearing it with butter. /Gave a variety of food. Raised, holding on the palms, /
Forgive, if he was capricious.”
(Zhaya dese zhal bergen,/ sheker dese bal bergen,/ mayga salyp nan bergen, /ar aluan 
as bergen, /alaqandap osirgen, / yerkelik_kylsam keshіrgen.)
These are Tolegen’s thoughts about his mother. In the understanding of the Kazakhs, 
the opinion that under-fat is more expensive than the rump, honey is more expensive 
than sugar, butter is more expensive than bread turned into instructive words, and in a 
certain rhythm, excellent adhesion is transmitted in the form of an order to descendants. 
The cuisine of Kazakhs reflects a rich specificity and symbolism either by the presence 
of horse meat in their dietary or through comparative expressions on different sorts of 
meat and sweets. 
Pre-state organisation and envy among the tribes reflect a stage of evolution in the 
life of Kazakh society, and it is expressed in the hierarchy of the groups. As in Turkish 
tradition, in which the sultan has some advisers and deputies who participate in the army 
and judgement, in Kazakh tradition the khan has some hierarchically organised nobles 
called bi “respected, wise person”. When one of the prominent three biis of the Kazakhs, 
Kazybek bii, went with the ambassadors to the Dzungarian khan in his childhood, critical 
people praised Kazybek, saying that although he was a child, it was clear that he would 
become the leader. The spouse of the khan who considered Kazybek a child said to him: 
“The one whom you consider to be a hair cutter, as if turned out to be a fighting horse, 
the one whom you consider to be a crow, no matter how it turned out to be a falcon”. It 
directly corresponds to another popular expression: “There is no falcon with an intact 

IMAGE, FUNCTION, MEANING, AND STRUCTURE: THE ROLE OF APHORISMS IN THE KAZAKH ... 113 
wing; there is no horse with a whole hoof”. These aphorisms are used without change in 
the epic Kyz Zhibek, underlining the importance of hunting with falcons for the tradition of 
nobility and the specificity as a sign of identity still actualised in the identity of the nation.
“No falcon with intact wing, /No horse with a whole hoof. /An order came from 
Allah - /No reimbursement of a life lived.”
(Kanaty butіn sunkar jok, / Tuıagy butіn tulpar jok. /Alladan ukіm kelgen son, / Ote-
shek omіr sury jok.) 
As birds of freedom flying through the air, eagles have been recovered as markers of 
Kazakh ethnicity in modern times, and they are represented on the nation’s flag together 
with agricultural and mineral resources suggestions of wealth projected in a blue-sky 
background. Together with the horses as a symbol of ancestry and heroism, these birds 
make complete the image of aspirations and ethnic specificity called “Kazakhness as a 
civilisational endeavour” (Mkrtchyan 2014, 16).
This folk poem of Kazakh folklore preserves interwoven motifs and myths of ne-
ighbouring traditions like love and marriage, taming horses and making them dance, 
hunting with horses and eagles, taking the bride to the husband’s house, the journey to 
an ideal love tragically ended by the protagonist’s murder, water and willow as symbols 
of self-reflection and wisdom, all harmonised in an original story which has acquired 
some religious touches of Islamic traditions.
Almost all motifs encountered in the folk epic Kyz Zhibek belong to a “common 
inheritance” (Watkins 1995, 414) of interfering civilisations and displaying local details 
mostly generated by the assimilation of universal traditions into a nomadic and pasto-
ral society – an ethnic group that adapted them to the religious standards of Islam. As 
mythological topics, they were analysed in this paper from a comparative point of view 
combining some main perspectives: folklore, linguistics, and overall ethnic dimensions for 
tracking the similarities of such legendary material which confirm a specific symbolism. 
CONCLUSIONS
The folklore of Kazakhstanis as members of Turkic ethnicity and Muslim religion has 
transformed artistic forms of elements of ancient mythological concepts and images. The 
folklore tradition organises the world with the help of original forms and situations, while 
the everyday social reality has become a source and an instrument for making sense of 
the life phenomena revealing their genesis and role in defining ethnicity and specificity. 
Filtering archetypal traditions through the sieve of religion and assimilating myths 
in an original reverberation have been suggestive modalities of building up a national 
ideology of identity, in which the sacral geography, the ancient history, the folklore, the 
language and Islam represent the main axes. 
In folk traditions, the maid’s beauty and the hero’s virtue and wisdom might be ce-
lebrated for generations or centuries as usually such characters have lost their identity 
and become legendary and prototypical personages. The folk imagination projected a 
historical couple and its extended family into an exemplary heroic and tragic love story 

MUHAMMADGALI ABDUOV, NAZILYA ABDUOVA, NICOLAE STANCIU 114 
transforming a marital event into a new scene relevant for humanity and more specifically 
for Kazakh spirituality. Through bravery and love motifs united in an original myth of 
foundation, the lyric-epic poems offer models of heroism and morality considered to be 
definitory for Kazakh ethnicity. The beautiful maids and the horsemen attempt to surpass 
their condition and to climb to the heavens in an allegory of integration into the cosmos. 
Conquering a new land, winning a bride and attempting to settle a new order in a realm 
by unifying the tribes into a bigger pre-state formation equals an ascension into heaven 
and his image will be preserved in the collective memory.
The use of aphorisms in the epic Kyz Zhibek as well as in other folk songs in Kazakh 
folklore is quite common, and the function they perform is diverse, spanning from con-
figuring realities to giving expressivity and musicality to this genre. The aphorisms have 
a special impact on enriching the artistic characteristics of folk songs, on helping with 
the quick perception in the national identity of the events described here. The metaphors 
contained in aphoristic expression bring a specific rhythm of utterance, contributing to 
the beauty of the singing and, thus, the positive impression of the listening audience. 
Overall, the aphorisms contribute to the understanding of traditional poetical methods 
of working with allegorical words.
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IMMAGINE, FUNZIONE, SIGNIFICATO E STRUTTURA 
IL RUOLO DEGLI AFORISMI NELLA CANZONE POPOLARE KAZAKA 
“KYZ ZHIBEK”
MuhaMMadgali a bduov , Nazilya a bduova , Nicolae StaNciu In questo articolo, la funzione degli aforismi nella canzone popolare, che contiene 
anche elementi lirici e drammatici, viene analizzata e definita attraverso i metodi 
culturali, principalmente folcloristici, letterari e linguistici.
Lo scopo principale di questo articolo è evidenziare e mostrare il ruolo delle 
parole gnomiche generate dai creatori popolari nella trama immaginaria, le loro 
principali funzioni nello sviluppo del conflitto e l’espressione estetica dell’opera. 
Pertanto, il significato dei simboli è stato interpretato in stretta connessione con 
le azioni, con gli archetipi e con le metafore inserite nella struttura della canzone. 
Usando come esempio, la canzone “Kyz Zhybek”, che è una creazione di spicco 
nel folclore kazako, e rivedendo gli articoli scientifici sull’argomento, l’articolo 
segue l’analisi contrastante nella ricerca delle tracce delle tradizioni archetipiche 
in una cornice culturale musulmana.
L’ethnos nella cultura rimane nel tentativo di recuperare l’identità di un grup-
po usando ciò che sembra specifico nel folclore, nella storia e nella linguistica 
e seguendone un’ideologia originale articolata su basi nazionali ed universali.

MUHAMMADGALI ABDUOV, NAZILYA ABDUOVA, NICOLAE STANCIU 118 
Questo documento può aiutare i ricercatori, quando studiano l’eredità del folclore, 
a comprendere la portata dell’uso degli aforismi e della funzione principale da essi 
realizzata nella letteratura popolare. Inoltre, il ruolo degli aforismi in una canzone 
popolare è sistematizzato e il loro significato storico e d’identità viene rimarcato.
Muhammadgali Abduov, Ph.D., Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Philology, 
E. A. Buketov Karaganda State University, Mukanov street 1, 100028 - 
Karaganda, Kazakhstan; abduov_m@mail.ru 
Nazilya Abduova, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Deparment of Kazakh 
Language and Literature, Faculty of Philology, E. A. Buketov Karaganda 
State University, Mukanov street 1, 100028 - Karaganda, Kazakhstan; 
nazilya_abduova@mail.ru 
Nicolae Stanciu, Ph.D., Visiting Professor, E. A. Buketov Karaganda State 
University, Mukanov street 1, 100028 - Karaganda, Kazakhstan; Institute 
of Romanian Language, Bucharest; nickstanciu@gmail.com