Dear Prof Borges, I don't want to drown this list with endless back-and-forth debate, so I'll keep it brief.
(1) This is not an issue of monosyllables or polysyllables, but about sticking to the point. This is best done in fewer words in my view. You may disagree. (2) You are misunderstanding my words, or just want to confirm your beliefs. I repeat: the Bardezi has long been aligned with Romi. Exceptions that you cite do not make the point, but are only exceptions. (3) Whatever makes you think that Padribhas and Bamonbhas are "Mangalore variants" of Konkani? Dr William R da Silva was emphatically using these terms to define spoken/written existing dialects in Goa itself. Even if academically these labels may be deemed as too politically incorrect to use, they do exist. (4) The right I seek for myself (and anyone else who asks for it)) is to use any script and dialect he/she finds convenient to use. For instance, I should be able to study Romi in school, get my efficiency in Konkani tested in any dialect, not be laughed at for using a dialect which the powers that be look down upon, and not having hundreds of years of written Konkani dismissed because it is written in the "wrong" script. (5) Hegemony of those who define what is officially-accepted Konkani, which script and dialect should be used while standardising Konkani, and so on. (6) By the "past" I mean till the 1970s, 1980s, or till yesterday! Haven't we seen tiatrs where the Sashti dialect is reserved only for the comedian? Priviledging Bardezi over Sashti (in Catholic circles) for many decades now is also hegemony, in my view. And an unfair one at that. We need to apply common and consistent standards for all. (7) The exceptions of the "couple of articles" in Sashti dialect for Rashtramath, and Pednem, Kankon, Velip dialects in Sunaparant would be only that ... exceptions! If this is so widely acceptable, why doesn't it happen on a daily basis? Romi papers which don't allow for such diversity are also guilty of a grave mistake, if not shortsightedness. What they ask from the more powerful, they need to acceed to the less powerful! Else, we'd have only another example of hegemony. (8) You are putting words in my mouth and making assumptions on my behalf. My kids would be happier and "genuinely interested" in Radio Indigo, fast-food and pizza, Inox and the books at Bookworm. Under the current state of affairs, they are compelled to learn Konkani and that too in Devanagari (which, according to me, is not a bad thing, though it does lower their grades and makes them believe that Aamchi Bhas is a borning and gobeldygooky language). This is sad. Learning should be pleasurable. (9) As for myself, I am no scholar in Konkani, orthography or otherwise. I would like to use it as a tool for communication (but in Goa today it seems to be used for every other purposes but this). Hence my orthography is far from perfect, or purely impure, if you want it another way! Secondly, I was trying to render the poem as it would sound in Devanagari script-Antruzi-influenced-dialect. In fact, I've become a bit "skilled" at this of late (though without certification or crosschecking). I regularly render Devanagari text into the Roman script, with the intonation that would be expected from a Devanagari text. This helps my eight year old get past some more hegemonical artificial barriers. Now don't ask what I see as a Devanagari accent here... otherwise we would have to start all over again! FN -- FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436 [email protected] Books from Goa,1556 http://scr.bi/Goa1556Books Audio recordings (mostly from Goa): http://bit.ly/GoaRecordings
