It is interesting to note the viewpoint that J. de Abreu Noronha holds
regarding the use of different scripts to express our state language. I too
held this viewpoint some years back and hotly discussed the topic with
another Goan who maintained that Konkani could only be expressed or could be
best expressed in the Devanagri Script.
Having studied Hindi and as I speak Konkani sufficiently to express
myself to my fellow Goans, I conclude that the pronounciation of Konkani
words can best be expressed in the Devanagri Script. It is true that many a
Christian used the Roman Script to express himself as not many in Goa learnt
Hindi or learnt to write Konkani in the Devanagri Script. Today, this is
changing and I am proud to write that we should learn to write Konkani as we
did before the advent of the Portuguese. I agree that like Kemal Ataturk did
or as they did in Viet Nam, we would need our linguists to devise a sensible
alphabet (based on the Roman Script) to express exactly the pronounciation of
our words. The French have their accent aigue, the Germans have the umlaut (2
dots above a letter to denote a change in the accent) and the Italian have cc
and c to express different pronounciations. Z in German is pronounced as tz
and not like z in zebra. Unlike English where one writes Grosvenor and
pronounce it as Grovenor, Leicester as Lester, etc. most languages are easy
to pronounce as there is no deviation from the letters used to denote the
word.
Now, 99% of Indians would not tolerate an Indian Attaturk as there is
nothing wrong with the Devanagri script. Hindustani written in Muslim Punjab
is called Urdu and written in the Devanagri script is Hindustani and this
depends on what religion one practices. This is a skewed way of writing from
left to right as Arabs do or from left to right as we have always done in
India. I am certain that Konkani in China would be written from North to
South which would train our eyes to play ping pong and to drive badly due to
lack of peripheral vision. But one must be a realist to look at this issue.
I for one would have appreciated being born today to study Konkani
like it is in our Goan schools - to use the Devanagri script. This script has
something to link us with the Gods as Deva neans God.
Edgar Martins
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