Short folklore forms, such as proverbs, riddles and jokes, as well as incantation, offer a stereotyped view - in the ethnolinguistic sense - of women and their role in society. For relatively stable language forms preserve social information about roles and the views of others on the individual female, who can represent woman in general or an individual with particular qualities. These short folklore forms can also reveal the position of a particular gender in society - in this instance the female. While proverbs show a diachronic aspect of a particular gender, joking questions show contemporary social challenges connected with changes in views.
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