The dictionary of sayings of the Balearic Islands

PalmThe Instagram profile @capdefavaamborelles has compiled a dictionary with more than 500 traditional sayings from the Balearic Islands, a heritage element that is gradually being lost over the years. They are an oral heritage that goes beyond folk songs and stories. Traditional sayings, passed down by word of mouth over generations, are a faithful reflection of the way of life and understanding of the world of peasants and sailors. They are short, often ingenious fragments that condense into a few words what is sometimes difficult to convey in a lengthy discourse.

Unlike written texts, sayings have traveled from the era to the kitchen, from the countryside to the village café, and have reached the present day without an instruction manual. Their strength lies in their simplicity and adaptability: they change nuance depending on who speaks them, but their accumulated wisdom remains intact.

Sayings are not just linguistic curiosities, but a kind of popular archive of values, fears, and hopes. They speak of the relationship with nature, of daily struggle, and of an ironic view of the human condition. In this sense, they are small pieces of a collective literature that doesn't appear in books, but that has left a profound mark on the collective imagination.

In an increasingly media-driven and globalized society, the challenge is to know whether these oral forms will withstand the ravages of time. More than relics of the past, sayings are invisible threads that connect generations and keep alive a language that draws on both what is written and what is improvised on the fly.

In the dictionary compiled by this Instagram profile, we find all sorts of sayings, some more familiar, like "ass and shit," and others that are almost no longer used, such as "in September, either the fountains dry up or the bridges are ripped away." However, this dictionary is a reflection of the island's popular culture and a living memory of its history.