--- On Thu, 9/4/08, Venantius Pinto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> This problem is
> largely prevalent in Goans who have a disdain towards their
> mother tongue,
> which is remarkably less prevalent among other Indian
> communities -- in the
> last three generations.
----------------------------
Hi Ven'u,
You make some good points. Also, I'd like to add a parallel in history. After
the Norman conquest of England, French became the language of the aristocracy
and English, that of the common man. Ultimately, portions of the French
language were absorbed into English (the most part being of the Germanic
strain).
I suspect something similar happened in Goa. Portuguese became the language of
the gentry and Konkani remained the language of the common man. As such, it
does suffer from a stigma in Goa itself, leave aside in diaspora. I am
currently writing something, on the Two Goas, which are infact culturally
polar. This has become crystallized for me after arriving in the UK. I won't
say more here :-) but I digress.
Getting back to Konkani, since the common man mostly learnt it by way of oral
tradition, it has not had the opportunity to develop into a language of
instruction, debate and discussion. For instance, I don't have a grasp of it to
the extent that you do, and I feel completely lost when you write in it. When
we need to have a discussion about say politics in our house, we'll switch over
to English. Konkani is more the language of familiarity, warmth and comfort.
Like a nice chorizo dish cooked with roughly cut potatoes and onions. Yum!
Lack of proficiency in English has become a hindrance in the 21st century and
competitiveness in the work-place warrants that we be adept in it, which is
another reason why most languages have become vunerable to Darwinian evolution.
selma
