Interesting questions.... Nobody open advocates in-my-script-only policies, afaik. But then, the push to get official recognition for Konkani in the Devanagari script ONLY (through the use of varied arguements, some valid others not) amounts to that.
[I would think that if Romi advocates want a greater acceptance for their script, they should build bridges with Devanagari and Kannada too. For instance, by doing different-script versions of their work, rendering Devanagari and Kannada into their script, etc. No script can grow by itself, like an island.] The argument in favour of "standardisation" could also be a push in the direction of domination of one-script, one-dialect. It can, and has, degenerated into a take-my-script/dialect-and-apply-it-to-all (while I agree to a few minor changes)! As far as dialects go, almost everyone -- who has some clout in some particular sphere -- believes their own dialect is superior to others! Bardesi (Catholic) Konkani is seen as superior to Shasti and the other dialects in tiatr and the Romi publications. The "padri-bhas" (probably a hybrid of Bardesi with a whole lot of Sanskritisms thrown in for good measure) has held sway in the Church. Antruzi has undeniably got an upper-hand with the push towards Devanagari as the sole script -- check out school text books, etc. Sashti is needlessly ridiculed by both Bardezi and Antruzi. The Pednekars' speech is the poor cousin, though rich and colourful in its own way. (Same for the dialect of the Kankonkars at the southern tip of Goa.) Caste-based dialects gets respect or derision, based on the power and clout of each group... regardless of the religious divide. I recall one instance Pednekars spoke in their own dialect for the entire inaugural function of an official Konkani meet. That was fun! Other dialects are even more ignored and discredited! How many of us are aware of these variants and acknowledge the same (without being in a rush to 'sandardise' without even recognising the diversity we're killing?) * Northern Konkani comprises of dialects spoken in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra who have established cultural links with Marathis . * Central Konkani : It comprises of dialects of Goa, where Konkani was highly influenced by Portuguese language and culture. * Southern Konkani constituents of all the dialects of the Canara region of Karnataka having close link with Tulu and Kannada. (This para is based on Internet-sourced info.) FN Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490 On 13 June 2011 07:41, Santosh Helekar <[email protected]> wrote: > We know that there are people who want to promote only the Devanagri > script for Konknni. We also know that there are people who want to > promote both Devanagri and Roman scripts. There are still others like > me who want Konknni to be written in all five scripts used by its > speakers, namely Devanagri, Roman, Kannada, Malayalam and Arabic. The > question I have, however, is, are there any individuals or groups in > Goa who demand that it only be written in Roman script? If so, who are > these people, and what is their rationale? > > On another front, it is well known that Konknni is spoken in many > dialects. While there are attempts made to standardize the usage, the > current trend in its growing literature is to accept all variations of > utterances. Given this fact, could someone tell me if there are people > in Goa who believe that only their own dialect is the correct one, and > the only one that needs to be recognized and promoted. If so, who are > these people, and what is their rationale?
