On 13 May 2011 20:35, Ivo <[email protected]> wrote: > If 95 per cent of Goans speak Konkani at home, the language of the > primary school should be in Konkani.
Fr Ivo, Where did you get this figure of "95% speak(ing) Konkani at home"? As far as I know, it is perhaps based on the hype that went into the drafting of the Statement of Objects and Reasons for the convoluted Official Language Act, 1987. But there too, it's not that clear. Leave aside the fact that this is just a rough figure that turns into urban legend over time. Besides, the Official Language Act does not say that 95% *speak Konkani at home*. It says that 95% of Goans speak Konkani. Fullstop. This is both true and a myth at the same time. Yes, Konkani is indeed a very prominent spoken language in Goa. So we can just shoot any figure and expect it to be more or less right. So, do 95% people speak Konkani at home? In the marketplace? In middle and high schools? In our law courts? In government offices? In the Public Works Department? Secondly, this figure (even without questioning its arithmetical accuracy) hides other realities of today's Goa: * Literary languages in today's Goa are overwhelmingly English and Marathi. Or in reverse order. See which newspapers circulate the most, or offer the largest number of jobs, and you would come to a ratio of roughly 45:45:10 (with the last being the Konkani figure). * The Konkani most used in Goa today is in the Romi script, and probably of the Bardezi-Sashti dialects. This is borne out by magazines being published, the language-imposition in the Church, tiatrs and VCDs being produced (no script involved here, but definitely dialects... check out JoeGoaUk's figures). But this script and dialect is de-legitimised by the Official Language Act. * We talk about Goa having 35-40% in-migrants (another figure of dubious parentage), and at the same time claim that 95% Goans speak Konkani. How? * How many among expat Goans would find their knowledge of Konkani sufficiently acceptable among those who sit in judgement over what passes and what doesn't in today's Goa? While most are led into believing that their case is "exceptional", among the diaspora Goan community this is the rule. In fact, other diasporic Indian communities face the similar situationn, though maybe a little less acute. But once their own migration experience equals that of Goans, going down three or four or more generations, we will see similar situations there. (A friend of mine had a Malayalam primer in his hotel room. He told me that it was his own text, not his kid's! While he knew spoken Malayalam, he was quite illiterate in the language... and hoped to return from Mumbai to retire in Kerala a few years after we had the discussion.) So I think we should be careful about the figures we accept and the assumptions we make! FN PS: In any case, if Konkani is an Indo-Aryan language, what was the language of Goa before the "Aryans" came in? Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490
