Re: [GRN] Pamphlets

[John de Figueiredo]

On second thought I should correct myself about Hebrew. It was never a “dead language”. The Jews thought Hebrew to their children, no matter where they lived. Even to this date, if you approach a Rabi to convert to Judaism, the first thing you will hear from the Rabi is “you have to learn Hebrew”. They also recorded their traditions to form the Bible. This was important because the translations of the Bible were often incorrect. Even the order of the books in the Bible was changed to conform to the Christian belief that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. And it is remarkable that the Jews accomplished all this despite accusations of deicide, prejudice, and relentless genocide. My point is that there is a danger that Konkani in Goa may eventually die of suffocation and benign neglect, having the same fate as the Portuguese language in Goa. And make no mistake. If Konkani dies, whatever is left of Goa will die with Konkani.  Obviously this does not mean that we should not study other languages (in the case of the history of Goa, knowing Portuguese and Marathi is essential). All languages are precious.      John M. de Figueiredo  Sent from my iPhone On Dec 6, 2023, at 10:04 AM, V M <vmin...@gmail.com> wrote:  Dear Frederick, Thank you very much for that German resource on Swahili - it turns out the first known written literature in that language was found in Goa! Amazing fact. I will examine closely for more places to look. About the avid embrace of  English language education by Goans in Goa from the first decades of the 19th century, yes it is true it happened first in the Bardez villages where the majority of educated men went off to work in British India (and later to Persia, Aden, East Africa and Singapore as well). But by the 20th century, it was routine for all families of means to send their children to study in boarding schools across the border in Belgaum, Pune and much farther afield as well.  It has always fascinated me how disproportionately the Goans were represented from the beginning of college education "for natives" in Bombay - the first class at Grant Medical College was half Goans! Warm regards, VM On Wed, 6 Dec 2023, 02:06 fredericknoronha, <fredericknoro...@gmail.com> wrote: On Tuesday 5 December 2023 at 19:08:55 UTC+5:30 vmingoa wrote: Goans in Goa pursued English language education with much alacrity from the second half of the 19th century. Few peoples anywhere - but especially the subcontinent - have ever embraced English so enthusiastically as the Goans. There's no question of imposition but merely access to opportunity, and Portuguese lost out for very good reasons.  Would you see this as happening uniformly across Goa or in some pockets (such as parts of Bardez, and among the daispora in the then English-ruled regions)?   Elsewhere, of course, like all other Indians in their transnational dispersal, Goans have adopted and mastered a wide range of languages.I have been looking for Goan writing in Swahili. There must be some. If anyone has references, please share.  Check this an example here: https://afrika.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/i_afrika/Swahili/literatur_prae_uhuru.pdf  FN -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-research-net+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/5f809d03-ee9e-4c06-8349-ac5197d98a45n%40googlegroups.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-research-net+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CAN1wPW5FafnKEpajsOt3FB96vVXzobQWtjMG48%2BVZBRASUWozw%40mail.gmail.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-research-net+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/6ED4C70C-58C1-4A26-962D-3E8CF60E96E5%40sbcglobal.net.