Abstract: A proverb is a particular type of sentence which, being a coded and pre-constructed whole, is related to the rest of lexical units. However, as it may display certain variants, it raises the question of variation in paremiology. The concept of variant, which hinges on the proverb’s substitutability, is only relevant in synchrony, since variation is inherent to diachrony by definition. Variants will be examined in order to study synonymous proverbs.
