Live Data in Romanian and English 227 Romanian proverbs 335 English proverbs

Proverb mashup

The first half of one real proverb glued to the second half of another. Every half is genuine folk wisdom, word for word from a public source. The whole is wisdom, reassembled. Same seed, same mashup, so every one has a link.

Try it Endpoints

100% real halves!

What is bred in the bone cannot command.

Glued from English · seed rx4quqzc

What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh. source
Who has not served cannot command. source

Another one! In Romanian

The one rule

Every half is real

Each proverb here is a real, traditional one, worded exactly as a public source has it, with a link to the page that has those words. Nothing is invented, tidied up or "improved". If we could not source it, it is not here.

Each one was cut by hand at its natural joint ("Cine sapă groapa altuia, | cade singur în ea", "A rolling stone | gathers no moss") and tagged with the kind of joint it is. Halves are only glued to halves of the same kind, so a "who" opening gets a verb, an "if" gets a main clause and a "better" gets its "than". The result reads as a sentence, and often as advice nobody should take.

A mashup is never an existing proverb and never two halves of the same one. The mashup is made up; the halves are not. Spotted a proverb that is wrong, not traditional, or cut in the wrong place? Write to hello@tasta.space.

Base URL: https://api.tasta.space/v1/proverbs

Endpoints

Method	Path	What you get
GET	`/v1/proverbs/mashup`	A mashup, its two halves, the two real proverbs it came from, a `seed` and a `permalink`. Takes `lang`, `seed`, `format=text`.
GET	`/v1/proverbs/today`	The mashup of the day, the same for everyone until midnight in Bucharest. Its seed is the date. Takes `lang`, `format=text`.
GET	`/v1/proverbs/mashup/card`	A 1200x630 share card of a mashup, PNG or SVG. Takes `seed`, `lang`, `format`. Cached for a day when it has a seed.
GET	`/v1/proverbs/random`	One real proverb, untouched. Takes `lang`, `format=text`.
GET	`/v1/proverbs/{lang}/{id}`	One real proverb by language and id, with its halves, its join kind and its source. Takes `format=text`.
GET	`/v1/proverbs`	Every real proverb, a page at a time, with the join kinds and their counts. Takes `lang`, `join`, `page`, `per_page`.

Parameters

Name	Example	Does
`lang`	`ro`	`ro` or `en`. Left out, a mashup's seed picks one, `random` picks one, and the list has both.
`seed`	`k3f9`	1 to 64 letters, digits, `-` or `_`. The same seed gives the same mashup, on every call and every server. Left out, you get a new one, echoed back.
`format`	`text`	One plain line instead of JSON, on `mashup`, `today`, `random` and `{lang}/{id}`. On the card: `png` (default) or `svg`.
`join`	`cine`	List only: one join kind (see below).
`page`, `per_page`	`2`, `20`	List only. `per_page` is 1 to 100, default 50.

Calls

$ curl https://api.tasta.space/v1/proverbs/mashup

$ curl "https://api.tasta.space/v1/proverbs/mashup?lang=ro&format=text"

$ curl "https://api.tasta.space/v1/proverbs/today?lang=en"

$ curl -o card.png "https://api.tasta.space/v1/proverbs/mashup/card?seed=k3f9"

A mashup looks like this

{
  "data": {
    "lang": "en",
    "mashup": "What is bred in the bone cannot command.",
    "halves": [
      "What is bred in the bone",
      "cannot command."
    ],
    "join": "who",
    "from": [
      {
        "id": 142,
        "text": "What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh.",
        "half": "first",
        "url": "https://api.tasta.space/v1/proverbs/en/142",
        "source": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/English_proverbs_(alphabetically_by_proverb)#Proverbs_and_Popular_Phrases"
      },
      {
        "id": 139,
        "text": "Who has not served cannot command.",
        "half": "second",
        "url": "https://api.tasta.space/v1/proverbs/en/139",
        "source": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/English_proverbs#Command"
      }
    ],
    "seed": "rx4quqzc",
    "permalink": "https://api.tasta.space/v1/proverbs/mashup?lang=en&seed=rx4quqzc",
    "card": "https://api.tasta.space/v1/proverbs/mashup/card?lang=en&seed=rx4quqzc&format=png"
  }
}

halves joined by one space are the mashup: the first ends with the joint's punctuation, the second with the sentence's. from names the two real proverbs, which half each gave, and where their wording comes from.

Join kinds

Every proverb has a join. Halves only meet halves of the same kind. A real example of each, cut where we cut it:

Romanian	Shape	Example	Count
`cine`	"Cine..." or "Cel ce..." clause, then what becomes of them	Cine aleargă după doi iepuri \| nu prinde niciunul.	23
`ce`	"Ce..." clause, then the rest of the sentence	Ce ție nu-ți place \| altuia nu-i face.	13
`noun`	a singular subject, then its verb	Așchia \| nu sare departe de trunchi.	81
`plural`	a plural subject, then its verb	Ochii care nu se văd \| se uită.	9
`cond`	"Când...", "Dacă..." or "Unde..." clause, then the main clause	Când pisica nu-i acasă \| joacă șoarecii pe masă.	19
`imp`	an order, then how, where or why	Bate fierul \| cât e cald.	25
`pair`	two clauses side by side	Apa trece \| pietrele rămân.	21
`verbless`	two halves and no verb	La plăcinte înainte \| la război înapoi.	8
`decat`	"Decât X," then "mai bine Y"	Decât codaș la oraș \| mai bine în satul tău fruntaș.	6
`front`	a when, where or how up front, then the clause	Cu răbdarea \| treci și marea.	22

English	Shape	Example	Count
`subject`	a singular subject, then its verb	A rolling stone \| gathers no moss.	118
`plural`	a plural subject, then its verb	Too many cooks \| spoil the broth.	37
`who`	"He who...", "Who..." or "What..." clause, then its verb	He who laughs last \| laughs best.	24
`condition`	"If...", "When...", "Where..." or "While..." clause, then the main clause	If the shoe fits \| wear it.	27
`adverbial`	a whole order or statement, then how, when or where	Make hay \| while the sun shines.	25
`than`	a comparison, then its "than..."	Better late \| than never.	22
`there`	"There is..." up to the noun, then the rest	There's no smoke \| without fire.	23
`pair`	two clauses side by side	The spirit is willing \| but the flesh is weak.	13
`verbless`	two halves and no verb	Out of sight \| out of mind.	20
`imperative`	an order, then another order or what follows	Feed a cold \| starve a fever.	18
`the_more`	"The more...," then "the more..."	The bigger they are \| the harder they fall.	3
`as_so`	"As...," then "so..."	As you sow \| so shall you reap.	5

Errors of its own

On top of the hub's errors.

Status	Code	When
404	`not_found`	No proverb with that id in that language
422	`invalid_parameter`	A language we do not have, a seed with spaces in it, a join kind that does not exist, a page that is not a number, and so on

For sharing

The card

Every mashup has a 1200x630 card at its card URL, the right size for a link preview. This is the one above:

What is bred in the bone cannot command.

Live, counts against your limit

Try it

Endpoint

Language

Seed

Join kind

Page

Per page

Format

https://api.tasta.space/v1/proverbs/mashup

Press send. The response shows up here, headers included.

Credits

Sources and licences

Every proverb carries the URL of the page its wording comes from, in source. The pages:

Source	Proverbs	Licence
Wikiquote (ro), Proverbe românești	187 Romanian	CC BY-SA 4.0
Wiktionary (en), one entry per proverb	40 Romanian, 279 English	CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikiquote (en), English proverbs	56 English	CC BY-SA 4.0

Our selection, the cuts and the join kinds are shared under the same licence, CC BY-SA 4.0: use them, credit the sources, share alike. The mashups are generated and belong to nobody.

The classic Romanian collection is Iuliu Zanne's ten-volume Proverbele românilor (1895 to 1912, public domain, scans on archive.org). Its scans keep the old spelling, so the wording here follows the modern lists above, with proper ș and ț.