Within
folkloristic paremiology, proverbs have been regarded mainly as a part of the
speech of older people. However, in the new Finnish urban tradition proverbs
are not self-evidently passing from generation to generation and they are not
anymore taught at school as a part of the curriculum of the native language.
Instead, transmission takes place in written form and often within one
generation only. Anyhow, the earlier oral tradition has found a place in the
colloquial written language. In SMS messages, proverbs are used in a new
context, with traditional proverbs occurring alongside the modern ones. Old
proverbs are recognisable much more reliably than modern or future ones.
Proverbs remain a part of contemporary Finnish communication and everyday language
although the context of use has changed over the period which Finnish proverbs
have been collected (i.e. over two centuries).