Dear Prof Borges, You needn't get into combat mode with me, I'm not one who will fight with my life to prove myself right :-)
On 12 December 2010 10:39, Sebastian Borges <[email protected]> wrote: > I had asked FN to justify his charge against me by > answering the few questions I had posed. He has ignored them "Ignored them" might be a strong term. I think you have a point in what you wrote, and don't want to rake up a long and unnecessary debate over that. > Where have I said all that figures in your question? Okay, let me rephrase my comment: Let us accept that "a large number of GCs (Goan Catholics) do not read Konkani in any script". If the script and dialect used is one they are not familiar with (or one they see as being pressurised to use), there will be even fewer who will read it. Are you implying that a large number of Goan Hindus (or Goan Muslims, for that matter) read Konkani in any script? Even if people don't read a language, I believe they should have the right to decide about the dialect and script (i) which is used to teach their children this language in schools (ii) which is accepted as "official" in contemporary Goa (iii) which is used to judge their efficiency in the language when they sit bofore an interview panel for a government job? > Are we to produce schoolbooks in each and every one of > the dialects? Fair enough. But on what grounds is the choice of Antruzi acceptable as the standard form of Konkani? > "Official language" is necessarily the WRITTEN language > of administration. It concerns the general public only > while intercommunicating with the government. > These communications are necessarily IN WRITING; > i.e. they are written and read. If I do not read the "official" > language in any script, why should the script in which it > is written matter to me at all? To take the argument further, if we have an official language which hardly anyone is using to write to the government in, why have an official language at all? > The interviews are necessarily ORAL, not written; hence > script has no place here. But the reality is that some dialects are treated as more equal than others. FN
