The Notion of the Foreign in Hungarian and Bulgarian Phraseologisms

The confrontation between the native and the foreign is a problem that focuses research efforts on a number of humanities, e.g. cultural studies, anthropology, linguistics, ethnography, etc. The following report analyses the notion of the foreign, the other, the different, reflected in the phraseological wealth of the Hungarian and Bulgarian languages. The reviewed phrasemes concentrate the shock upon collision with the different or evaluation of the experience gained in the continuous communication with the other. The foreign is usually individualized by outlining and exaggerating some of its characteristics using parallels, oppositions, and metaphors. The negative attitudes and judgments prevail over the others: the fear of the collective “I” losing its own identity creates a negative attitude towards the foreign, distorted, or wrong notion of the other and the different. Many of the idioms reflect interethnic relations from times long gone, and so they are no longer a significant part of the active vocabulary of Hungarians and Bulgarians. Their analysis, however, is of great interest as they preserve the collective memory of the Hungarian and Bulgarian cultural communities and reveal their traditional notions and knowledge.