-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Add your name to the CLEAN GOA INITIATIVE | | | | by visiting this link and following the instructions therein | | | | http://shire.symonds.net/pipermail/goanet/2005-October/033926.html | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: UDAY BHEMBRE'S ROAD TO HELL
Part XVIII My Stand on the issue On 15/11, Jose Colaco <[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: <<As far as I read in the TGF editorial...there are two types of folks 1. Those who want to get recognition for ROMI Konkani 2. Those who are writing these voluminous Road Maps to Nowhere in an attempt to oppose the Romi chaps. Where do you belong Prof Borges?>> Dear Mr. Colaco, I wonder whether those Romi chaps who want to get recognition for ROMI Konkani know what it is exactly that they want. Recognition for Romi could be obtained from different authorities for specific benefits in each case. One of these is the Sahitya Akademi. This recognition would pre-qualify a book written in that script for the annual Award. What do the Romi writers expect from the Sahitya Akademi? Ask the leaders i.e. Tomazinho Cardozo and Fr. Pratap Naik. They want recognition for BOTH Devanagari and Romi! Is this possible? Let us examine what the ground reality is. There are 22 languages recognized by the Akademi. For EVERY ONE OF THEM the Akademi recognizes ONLY ONE script EACH. The Akademi CANNOT and HAS NOT IMPOSED any script on these languages. Whenever there were conflicting demands for different scripts for a particular language, the Akademi has always placed the matter before the Advisory Board OF THAT LANGUAGE. My information is that this happened first in the case of Sindhi which is written and published in Perso-Arabic and Devanagari. Its Advisory Board opted for Perso-Arabic and the Akademi accepted the recommendation. The second case was that of Konkani. The same procedure was followed and Devanagari was recognized. In the case of Bodo, which has 3 scripts including Romi, its Advisory Board opted for Devanagari. For Santhali, which again has 3 scripts, they chose a new script which has been specially developed for it. Whether the decision of the Advisory Board is unanimous or with the help of a casting vote is immaterial; THE BOARD IS EXPECTED TO RECOMMEND ONLY ONE SCRIPT. Now let us assume that, in response to all the petitions, the Sahitya Akademi decides to reopen the issue of recognized script for Konkani. It will refer the matter to the Konkani Advisory Board. The latter will have to choose BETWEEN Devanagari and Romi, NOT BOTH. There will also be a THIRD OPTION i.e. Kannada, a demand which is being promoted by Fr. Pratap Naik in Karnataka. Therefore, the demand, in its present form, is IRRATIONAL. The only RATIONAL solution would be to change the demand to ONLY ROMI. But, assuming that this is done, will Tomazinho and Fr. Pratap be able to steer it through the Advisory Board? Will Fr. Pratap be able to win over the Karnataka members of the Board, considering that, for the last one year, he has been goading the Kanara Catholics to demand equal status for Kannada script? I doubt it. If I were asked to state my preference to ANY ONE of these options, I would opt for the status quo i.e. Devanagari. My second choice would be Kannada. Why? [Let me make it amply clear that I KNOW ALL THE FOUR SCRIPTS used for Konkani, and can discuss their relative advantages and drawbacks.] (1) In terms of the number of books and periodicals published and also in terms of the number of readers, Kannada script is way ahead. Recently, a show was organized by the newly started Konkani (Kannada script) weekly KUTTAM at Mira Road, Bombay. There they also launched a drive to enroll new subscribers. And, wonder of wonders, there were long queues of people wanting to be subscribers! Can we imagine this happening in Goa for a Konkani periodical in any script? Recently, on the occasion of World Konkani Day, when this demand was very hot on the internet, Daniel DSouza made an appeal to netizens for subscriptions to Romi Konkani periodicals Gulab and Goan Review. The response was not just lukewarm; it was ZERO. (2) Like Devanagari, the Kannada script is also phonetic. In fact there is a one-to-one correspondence between the characters used in the two scripts. Standardization, therefore, will be very easy. Contrast this with Romi. There are umpteen STANDARD ORTHOGRAPHIES devised to express the sounds of Indian languages. The two nineteenth century dictionaries of Fr. Maffei and of Msgr. Dalgado use two different systems of Romi transliteration. The Dalgado Konkani Akademi published Romi orthographic rules in 1988. But hardly any author follows them; each one writes the way he feels is right. The late Felicio Cardoso, while correcting the literary contributions to Gulab, would always complain that correcting the work of his students in school was much easier. Sometimes he had to rewrite the entire piece! The situation has not improved much since. The only periodicals where these rules are followed to a fair degree are V.Ixtt and Gulab. And this is because the editors take utmost care to maintain orthographic standards. Goanet readers can compare the orthographies used in Aichea dissak chintop and News from Sunaparant; these are not only different from each other but they also differ from V.Ixtt and Gulab. Please check and confirm. I do not mean that the orthographies are wrong; in fact they are not. They use different phonetic values for the letters of the Roman alphabet. Unlike Devanagari and Kannada, the Roman alphabet does not have built-in phonetic values. To confirm this fact all one has to do is to give just one sentence in Portuguese to someone who does not know that language and ask him to read it aloud. There is just one hindrance in the way of using Kannada script: its prevalence or area of influence. Even the Kanara Catholics, who are otherwise the most enthusiastic about Konkani, feel this lacuna. Children of Kanara Catholics who grow up outside Karnataka do not get an opportunity to learn that script in school. In this respect, Devanagari has an advantage. Because Hindi is a compulsory subject at school, any Konkani child anywhere in India who has studied upto the SSC level is conversant with that script; she does not have to learn it specially for Konkani. I hope I have RATIONALLY justified my stand. If there are any flaws in my reasoning, let us thrash them RATIONALLY. Please keep humour and snide remarks aside; they dont help matters. With best wishes, S. M. Borges