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Hi Eugene,
Appending Prof. S M Borges' reply to your query.
Hope this explanation will suffice.
Fausto
It is gratifying to note that at least one reader of GULAB (even if he is
someone WRITING in English) is concerned about how Konkani words are written
in the Roman script. GULAB is constrained to say this because when we ran
a series of 20 articles on this topic with a view to standardize the
contributions received from our own authors, we found that hardly anyone
paid attention to our suggestions, and we continued to receive articles
written in the same old individual styles; nobody bothered to tell us
whether and where we were going wrong either, in spite of our invitation to
do so. Consequently, our work of proof correction did not diminish; the
resulting tedium leads to some "errors" remaining "uncorrected" however much
we wish to avoid this.
The present query involves (a) the use of Y, (b) the method used for
nasalization and (c) the necessity of doubling some consonants. We had
devoted a full article (no. 20) to explain our understanding of the use of
Y. This letter is found in Konkani written up to the first decade of the
twentieth century. (It is also found in Pai Tiatrist's play, "Bhattkara"
staged in 1910 but published in about 1940.) It is not found in later
Konkani works obviously because the letter was banished from the Portuguese
language in 1911; Goan children who went to Portuguese school after 1911
did learn the name of this letter as "Igrôz" but did not know the sound it
represents as they did not come across a single word containing this letter.
(Some, in fact, wrongly assumed that Y has the same sound as Z.) In recent
decades, the medium of instruction having shifted to English, our children
know that Y represents sounds: a vowel sound I (ee as in 'only'), a
diphthong sound AI (eye as in 'try'), a consonant sound YO (as in 'young',
'buyer'). Earlier, the consonant sound was represented in Konkani by IO or
EO depending on the position. Considering the number of vowel sounds in
Konkani, the Roman script vowels were really overworked, even without
handling this consonant sound. Therefore, it was thought appropriate to
utilize the hitherto idle Y for the consonant sound alone. But there was
strong opposition to this move. This included some veteran writers who have
produced meritorious literary and research works. Moreover, a majority of
GULAB readers, we felt, did not have the good fortune of going to an English
school. Hence we decided to introduce this change gradually. This is one
of the reasons why some words are spelt differently in one and the same
article or sentence.
Uniform nasalization could have been accomplished by using the 'tilde' in
every case. But two factors militate against this. (a) the additional
moves required to be made on the keyboard every time a 'tilde-bearing' vowel
is to be typed and (b) the ubiquity of nasal sounds in Konkani. Moreover,
even the languages which have been using the Roman script for centuries make
do with the nasal consonants M and N for the purpose of nasalization.
Therefore, it was decided to use the 'tilde' (as well as other accents) only
where absolutely necessary. Generally, M is used when the nasal vowel
precedes a labial consonant (i.e. B, M, P) and N in all other cases. But M
and N also function as consonants. Hence a provision had to be made in the
event of a consonant M preceding a labial consonant, or a consonant N
preceding one of the other consonants. This is accomplished by placing an
apostrophe after the M/N as the case may be. Examples: gulam'ponn
(slavery), kan'sul (temple), mon'xak (to man). When a final M follows a
vowel it always nasalizes the vowel; thus all neutral plural nouns end with
a nasal M: fulam, kellim. However, if such M is to be pronounced as a
consonant, an apostrophe must follow it: molom' (unguent), salam' (salute),
chondrim' (moon).
Now, let us take the specific cases of Gõy / Goem, Gõykar / Goemkar. When
we use the Konkani words for Goa and Goan we find a dichotomy. Some use a
monosyllabic Gõy, others a disyllabic Go-em. Similarly for Goan we use a
disyllabic Gõy-kar or a tri-syllabic Go-em-kar. The latter versions arise,
we feel, as a result of literally reading Goem and Goenkar in Roman script
(in Devanagari the words are uniformly Gõy and Gõykar.) We therefore retain
the form sent by the original author, except that we change Goemkar to
Goenkar, in order to conform to the usage explained earlier. However, for
writing Gõyant (in Goa), there is no alternative but to use the tilde. When
'-ant' is added to 'xet' (field) it becomes 'xetant' (in the field); here
the nasalization is only in '-ant' but not in 'xet'. In the case of Gõyant
the nasalization is present in both 'Goem' as well as in '-ant'. This cannot
be resolved by writing either 'Goemant' or
'Goeant'. In the first alternative, the pronunciation will be Goe-mant
which is not what is intended; in the second, no nasalization is apparent in
the earlier half. Therefore 'Gõyant' is inevitable.
Doubling of consonants:
Roman script consonants do not suffice to take care of all the consonant
sounds of the Konkani language. Therefore some artifice is required. The
one we have adopted is as follows: Aspirated sounds are taken care of by
adding an H after the respective aspirated consonant; e.g. dor (rope), dhor
(carcass). However, if an H does not aspirate the preceding consonant, it
is preceded by an apostrophe; example, hun'hunit (warm), podd'hat (envoy).
In addition, we have dental and palatal sounds for each of the consonants
D, L, N, T. These letters are used singly for the dental and doubled for
the palatal. Examples: pedo (peon), reddo (buffalo). The problem does not
end here. Each of these consonants may also need to be pronounced
consecutively without an intervening vowel. This is denoted by introducing
an apostrophe in the proper position. Examples: ud'dex (motive), xhrod'dhanjoli
(homage), khodd'ddo (bald), gudd'di (cork).
The above should suffice to decide as to how the name of our language should
be written: whether Konkani or Konknni. The form that we use is Konknni,
since we pronounce the N palatally. Perhaps Bardezkars and/or Mangloreans
pronounce it dentally, justifying the first alternative.
Floriano (goasuraj) wrote:
Me think 'Goemkar' is the truthful representative of Romi Konkani.
'Y' such as in 'Goycho' is disputable.
Eugene could be very much on the dot.
floriano
goasuraj
Fausto wrote:
Noted.
Prof. S M Borges will be the right person to answer your query.
Fausto
Eugene wrote:
However, I know the trend to used "G?y" with a tilde on "o" was started by
Vavraddeancho Ixtt and now commonly used by Gulab. If I remember correctly
Gulab used "Goem" when it first started. I don't know since when the change
began.
But Gulab is not consistent. On the cover page of its November issue, it
says, "Goem Bond Korun Konnem Kitem Zoddlem?" and also "G?y Bond"
Perhaps someone knowledgeable on the grammatical aspects, or nuances, of
the language could explain why in a same sentence why "Goenkaranchi" and
"G?ykar" are written in the way they are. If a leading Konkani in
Roman-script magazine is confused on the usage of
the word, then it is not a good sign.
I have also noticed that our native language is spelled "Konknni" ifrom the
earlier "Konkani." Probably both spellings are acceptable, but I would like
to know which one of the two is widely used.
Eugene Correia
