St. Valentine

Title: St.Valentine

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Lore,  Joke
  • Language: Kazakh
  • Country of Origin: Kazakhstan
  • Informant: Assel Uvaliyeva
  • Date Collected: 11-1-18

Informant Data:

  • Assel Uvaliyeva was born on February 25, 1995.  She is from Almaty, Kazakhstan, of Tatar and Kazakh origin. She currently works as a teachers assistant and studies at Dartmouth College as a graduate student. She speaks Russian, Kazakh, and English.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In Kazakh culture they celebrate a different Valentines day type holiday than we are familiar with in the US. In Kazakhstan they celebrate the holiday signified by two lovers Kozy Korpesh and Bayan Sala. In Kazakh culture St.Valentine is a warrior so the Kazakh people created new holiday. The meme in this collection is a dialogue between St.Valentine and Kozy Korpesh.
  • Social Context: This meme comes from the same account which posts these memes on social media for the public of Kazakhstan. Memes are visual representations of viral lore, that is understood by a large of group of people associated with the meme’s content, in this case the content is best understood by people familiar with Kazakh and Russian cultures. The joke relies on knowledge of valentinki which are tiny Valentine’s Day cards but valentinki is also diminutive meaning small and cute. The meme ultimately makes fun of Kazakh speakers mixing Kazakh words with Russian ones. Also, the joke is making fun of the long names of the Bogatyr and his wife describing them as too long to name a holiday after.  

 

Item

  • This joke is formatted as a meme from a popular Instagram page focusing on Kazakh memes. The use of the Russian suffix “ki” at the end of Kazakh words is truly the joke’s punchline. To understand the meme one needs a Russian and Kazakh cultural understanding. Ultimately, the joke is a play on Kazakh and Russian words because lots of Kazakh speakers also speak Russian.

File

Transcript

Panel 1- Bogatyr: “Listen, Valentine, why do your folk celebrate St. Valentine’s Day and not my holiday?”

Panel 2- St. Valentine: “Kozy, listen, would people ever buy valentinka?”

Panel 3- St. Valentine: “I wouldn’t even know what to name them.”

Panel 4- St. Valentine: “Kozykorpinky Kozykorpesh bayoenslelinki”

Informant’s Comments:

  • “Ki is a Russian suffix and the names of these two figures are Kazakh. The confusion between Russian and Kazakh is called shala qazaq (Kazakh). This meme plays off of the common shala qazaq confusion.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • We have never seen a meme or joke that makes fun of these particular saints or heroes before. However, the underlying joke relies on a mix up between two languages. Many jokes that we have seen following this same format involve European languages or jokes from South America differentiating between distinct dialects.

Collector’s Name: Philip Berton/ John Lass

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Russia
  • Kazakhstan
  • St. Valentine
  • Bogatyr
  • Meme

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