Please help me translate a sentence

[infraRed]

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting here. I hope it's ok to post this kind of a question here.

I was reading a text from my textbook and got stuck on a sentence. I hope someone can help me make sense of it. I understand the gist of it, but the bold part has me confused.

しかし、自然をよく観察して作られたことわざの中には、気象学的に説明のつくものがわりに多いのである。

Is that わりに as in 割に and what exactly does "tsukumono" mean? I think it should mean something along the lines of "... the percentage of proverbs that can be explained by meteorology is big."

But isn't "wari" supposed to be connected to a noun using "no" and not "ga"? Could someone explain this to me?

Thanks in advance!

[Javizy]

It looks to me like 気象学的に説明のつく is modifying もの and that わりに is being used as an adverb 'relatively', rather than in the 'in proportion to X' structure. So, it translates something like 'ones that can be explained meteorologically are relatively large in number'.

Admittedly, I've never seen 説明がつく before, but here's the reference that I used.

[Shaydwyrm]

You're right about the meaning.

つく　is 付く and modifies もの, so it's more literally "explanation attached to meteorology". The の　before it substitutes for が, which happens frequently in noun modifier phrases.

"割りに" means something like "relatively" or "proportionately", and acts as an adverb (so it connects to 多い, rather than to もの).

Edit: Oops, Javizy beat me. Well, I hope I added something

Oh, and also welcome to the board! These kinds of questions are totally fine.

[Psy]

しかし、自然をよく観察して作られたことわざの中には、気象学的に説明のつくものがわりに多いのである。

In situations like this it really pays to be able to break it up:

しかし、自然をよく観察して作られたことわざの中には
However, of the proverbs that were created by observing nature,

Now, the next part from back-to-front:

多いのである。
"are many"
わりに多いである
"are comparatively many"
ものがわりに多いである
"are comparatively many things"
説明のつくものがわりに多いである
"are comparatively many things with adequate explainations"
気象学的に説明のつくものがわりに多いである
"are comparetively many things [proverbs] with adequate meteorological explanations."

what exactly does "tsukumono" mean?

It appears Javizy is correct in this case that 説明がつく is a set expression modifying もの. Sometimes が can be replaced with の in clauses like this, placing (what to me seems like) more emphasis on the もの part.

But isn't "wari" supposed to be connected to a noun using "no" and not "ga"? Could someone explain this to me?

As Javizy & Shaydwyrm put it, this is a different 「わり」.

Hope that helped clarify. Corrections welcome.

[infraRed]

Thank you all for responding! You've all helped me a lot and I think I finally understand all the parts of this sentence. I can't thank you enough for such detailed and helpful explanations!