Value Concepts in the Image of the Fairy-Tale Hero: The Semantic Shift of Sabr, Mardlik and Or-nomus versus Patience, Bravery and Honour in AI-Generated Retellings

Every fairy-tale hero embodies the values a culture holds most dear. Uzbek tales praise sabr, the patient endurance that, as the proverb says, has “yellow gold at its bottom”; mardlik, a courage inseparable from generosity and keeping one’s word; and or-nomus, a sense of honour and shame shared by the whole family. English tales celebrate patience, bravery and honour. At first sight the two sets look like simple translation equivalents. In fact, they are culturally specific concepts with different internal structures. As large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini increasingly retell and translate fairy tales, it is important to ask whether these value concepts survive or quietly change their meaning.