Bu çalışmanın amacı, Orhan Kemal'in tüm hikaye ve romanlarında kullandığı atasözlerini ortaya koymak ve tasnifini yapmaktır. 1914-1970 yılları arasında yaşamış olan yazar, 60'lı yıllarda verdiği eserlerle Türk toplumunun beğenisini toplamıştır. Türkçede her zaman tek cümle halinde bulunan atasözlerinde gereksiz kelime asla bulunmaz. Hatırda kalmayı ve kalıcılığı arttırmak amacıyla kafiye, tekrar, yararlanılmıştır. Ayrıca çoğunlukla geniş zaman ve emir kipi kullanılmış, kimi zaman da fiil kullanmaya bile gerek duyulmadan anlatılmak istenen dile getirilmiştir. Halkın içinden gelmiş ve zor bir yaşam sürmüş olan yazar, yapıtlarında anlattığı her kesimden insanın yaşamıyla beraber dilini de yansıtmıştır. Çukurova'da çalışan ırgatların ve fabrika işçilerinin sorunlarını, gurbete çalışmaya giden işçilerin ve kenar mahalle insanlarının hayatlarını anlatırken ağız özeliklerini, deyişlerini muhafaza etmiştir. Yapıtlarındaki atasözleri, zıt ifadelerle kurulmuş, kafiyeli, yakın yada aynı seslerden oluşan, tekrarlı, mukayeseli, paralel anlatımlı, , ikilemelerle, soru ifadeleriyle, sıfatlarla oluşturulmuş, devrik cümleli, eksiltili cümleli, de- fiiliyle kurulan, sayılardan oluşmuş ve geniş zaman yargılı atasözleri olmak üzere on beş kategoriye ayrılmıştır. Zaman zaman olayların seyrine ve karakterlerin yapısına göre biçimlendirilmiştir öykü ve romanlarında atasözleri. Eserlerinde 352 atasözü bulunan Orhan Kemal, halk dilinin ve Türkçenin zenginliğini ortaya koymuştur

This study aims to deal with and classify the proverbs used in leading author Orhan Kemal’s short stories and novels. The author who lived between 1914-1970 produced works in 1960s which were very popular among Turkish people. All things whether he experienced personally or lived are at the center of events or a part them in his works. In his works Orhan Kemal not only talks about the sufferings and obstacles he experienced personally but also Turkish people’s problems, sufferings and aspirations. Orhan Kemal does not use an ornated language in his works. He avoids using adjectives in his works. We hardly see western origin words used in his works. His works are full of vernacular language used in Çukurova region. The characters in his works truly represent their time and conditions. The proverbs almost always exist only as a single sentence in Turkish and they do not have any unnecessary words. In order to keep them in mind easily and be remembered without any difficulty, rhyme, repetition, metre, alliteration and inverted sentences were used. Mainly simple present tense and imperatives were used in these proverbs and sometimes even without any use of a verb the intended message is delivered to the reader. The master who was a real public figure had a difficult life. His works cover everybody’s life and their difficulties from the all walks of life. Kemal’s works depict the problems and lives of the labourers in Çukurova fields, at the factories, those who migrate abroad for work and the difficulties faced by the people living the slumps and suburbs by retaining the characteristics and beauty of the local language and sayings. The proverbs in Kemal’s works are based on contrasting expressions, rhymed, near or the same sounds, repetitive, contrastive, parallel narration, reiterative, questions tags, constructed by adjectives, inverted sentences, elliptical, de-verb formed, made up of numbers sentences and those which are told in simple present tense can be categorized into fifteen categories. The proverbs which are classified on the basis of opposition, though stated as a rule, do not have correct judgement and whether they satirize and warn the society against possible ills or dangers or they are narratives of full pessimism and hatred. The reason why the proverbs based on opposite word combinations is to give stress and emphasis. By doing so the meaning is strengthened. Those repetitions in group two can be placed one by one or separately. The proverbs were used plainly or enclosed in texts. Sometimes one was used as an enclosed and the other as plain or vice versa. The rhymed proverbs in group three, even though they do not have couplet and strings, were written as syllabic metre so it makes them rhymed in themselves. Those proverbs in group four were formed by close or the same sounds can be regarded as rhyme frame. In general, harmony was made by voiced and unvoiced or permeating consonants. The proverbs listed in group five were formed by using numbers or quality attributive adjectives. Those in group six can be regarded as a sub category were produced by numerical adjectives rather than random numbers. It seems that the numbers which are vitally siginificant in Turkish culture and those opposite numbers were specially preferred by the author. In group seven in order to make the narration significant one of the methods used by author is to have incomplete sentences. This method aims to make readers think about it much. This method affected the proverbs as well. Those proverbs in imperative style in group eight are, in generall, used by second person imperative, as in line with proverb tradition, they aim to give advice on something. The comparative proverbs in group nine were used to compare some situations. The group ten includes the reiterative proverbs. The interrogative proverbs categorized in group eleven are not in question form but they are there to strengthen the meaning and emphasis. The proverbs in group twelve were formed to indicate the parallelism between two situations. Those ones in group thirteen are de-verb ones used in dialogues with full of proverbs. The ones in group fourteen are inverted proverbs to give the exact message of the text and emphasize the strees and tone of the text. The last group includes the proverbs formed with simple present forms indicating one judgement. The proverbs used in shorts stories and novels were formed according to the nature of the character and plot. Kemal used 352 proverbs in his works