There is some truth in Dominic PF Fernandes' statement, "Presently, several Konkani writers have begun using the letter 'y' indiscriminately without any rhyme or reason." But the examples he has proffered do not prove this point, since most of these have a grammatical basis. His statements, (a) "The letters K, W and Y are normally not used in Portuguese native words," and (b) "the letter 'y' ....... is not used in Portuguese native speaking words" are only partly true. To the best of my knowledge, the letter W has never been used in Portuguese. The letters K and Y had a limited use until 1911. Mons. Dalgado's Portuguese-Konkani Dictionary (1905) contains over a hundred words containing Y, generally as a vowel. When Portugal became a republic in 1910, the government appointed a Committee for Orthographic Reforms which presented its report in 1911. Based on this report, the letters K, W and Y were excluded from the Portuguese language. This situation lasted for 96 years (1912 – 2007), the letters having been restored since 2008. Thus those Goans who attended the Portuguese Primary schools post 1912 did not know the sound values of these letters. Since writing Konkani in Roman script was based on the sound values of Roman letters learnt by the writers in Portuguese primary schools, the post-1912 students could not make use of these letters, especially Y. But, prior to that date, the letter Y is certainly encountered in Konkani writing. For instance, the very first sentence in the first Konkani novel, Kristanv Ghorabo, written by Eduardo J. Bruno de Souza in 1905 runs thus: Kolvayeche igorjechea adrar than sumar do~ ulya~che vattek ek lan xe~ ghor asle~...... (please read ~ as a til on the preceding vowel). The tiatr, Bhattkara, written and staged by Pai Tiatrist Joao Agostinho Fernandes in 1908, though published much later, also contains the letter Y. Obviously Pai Tiatrist, having studied Portuguese prior to 1912, knew the phonetic value of Y. This means that the letter Y has been used in Konkani writing even 100 years ago; its discontinuance was owing to an accident of history, viz. the reforms in Portuguese orthographic rules. Domnic correctly reports that the writing of Konkani in Roman script began in the sixteenth century. Proof of this is available in the codices preserved at Braga Library in Portugal. Xerox copies of these (as bound volumes) are available at the Central Library, Panaji. A perusal of these shows the ingenuity of the missionaries in devising an elaborate orthography for writing Konkani-Marathi in the Roman script; the system is in no way inferior to those developed some two centuries later for writing Sanskrit. Even in these codices Y is used both as a vowel (stressed I) and as a consonant. For example: mAzE Anguichy porttAnni zaissy mAssallieca hIuassAnni yetA taissy yetAly [please read A as the letter a with a circumflex accent; E as the letter e with a circumflex accent; I as the letter i with a til over it.]. In today's system this would be: maje angichi porttann zoixi masllek hinvsann yeta toixi yetali. One gets the distinct feeling that the transliteration was done from Devanagari rather than Kannada (Halekannada) script. In the seventeenth century, as correctly mentioned by Domnic, many Konkani books were printed. The earliest that we can lay our hands on is the Doutrina Cristam (1622) by Thomas Stephens. Here too one finds Y being used both as a vowel and as a consonant. For example: Namo MArie, CrupA bharity, SuAmi Tuze tthAi~ assa, StriyA~ bhitari Tu~ sadaiui ..... [herein the A stands for normal Roman a, whereas the a is printed as italicised a]. It will be seen from both the examples that the letter u is used both as a vowel and also as a consonant, v. This is because there was no v in the Roman alphabet at that time; V was used as the capital form of u (named oo), as can also be seen on many tombstones of those days and even later. In Doutrina Cristam Jesus is written as IESV or IESVS; J was another letter which had not yet arrived on the scene. In Doutrina Cristam the lower case v is found, always at the head of a word, never in the middle; but the vowel/consonant roles of u and v are not clearly demarcated, the two being used interchangeably. We find words like sarua (sorv), uastu (vost), utarA~ (utram), vAitta (vaitt), vtama (utom'). In short, the letter Y has been there in Konkani writing right from the very beginning; it is certainly not a recent import. One may say that its rightful place has been restored, now that English education has given us the original phonetic value of the letter. It would be too simplistic to say, "Konkani in Roman Script is based on Portuguese alphabet and not the English one" as Domnic does. Had this been true, a Portuguese person would be able to correctly READ aloud (even if he does not understand a word thereof) a Konkani text; conversely a reader of Konkani in Roman script could correctly READ a Portuguese text. The fact is that the Konkani phonetic system is closer to the Portuguese than to the English one, especially as regards the sound values of the vowels. Overall, it has aspects of both Portuguese and English plus some more which are not found in either. Portuguese scores over other European languages in having a single constant sound value for most letters (i.e. except, a, e, o, c, g, s). But Portuguese sounds are too few to match the entire gamut of Konkani phonetics. Therefore some adjustments had to be made; some of these are: (a) The letters d, l, n, t have only soft sounds in Portuguese, but Konkani has hard sounds as well. This problem was solved by doubling the respective consonant for representing the hard sounds, i. e. dd, ll, nn, tt. [English has only hard sounds for d and t; none of the European languages has sounds corresponding to the Konkani ll and nn, in spite of the fact that ll and nn are used.] (b) Portuguese does not have any aspirate consonants. This deficiency was made good by adding an H to the respective consonant. (c) In Portuguese, the letter H itself is silent, but to cover another deficiency, this was given the plosive English sound. (d) Each of the six letters mentioned above were also assigned single constant sounds (irrespective of position) when used for Konkani words. This holds true not only for the current system but also for the system adopted by the missionaries. The missionaries took great pains to ensure that the Portuguese and Konkani systems do not lead to confusion even when used simultaneously. For example, they used ss between two vowels for the s sound, but never used a single s between two vowels for a z sound; similarly they used gue, gui (as in Portuguese) for ge, gi sounds but never used ge, gi for je, ji (as is done in Portuguese). Sebastian Borges On 20 Nov 2012 20:42:47 +0530 Domnic Fernandes <[email protected]> wrote: Why abrupt changes in Roman script Konkani? The 17th century saw the beginning of a large-scale book-printing in Goa, egged on massively by the need to print Christian texts for the benefit of the newly converted Christians. This time also saw a shift from the use of coercion to that of religious education for conversions. Thus, a number of books were printed in Konkani due to the initiative of, among others, Father Thomas Stephens who, in 1640, produced the first Konkani Grammar ? the Arte de Lingua Canarim. The letters K, W and Y are normally not used in Portuguese native words, except for scientific terms and abbreviations for distances (Km) or weights (Kg). In the entire ?Povitr Pustok?, I have not found the use of the letter ?y? because, as mentioned above, it is not used in Portuguese native speaking words on which Konkani in Roman script is based, and neither does it make sense because by using it we tend to destroy the Konkani language, which has a substantially long tradition. And traditions and customs are respected generally even while drafting laws and legislation. Around five years ago, I remember it was announced that if two vowels came together, the letter ?y? could be inserted in between them. But, if one knows and follows the Portuguese alphabet, there is no need to do it. Presently, several Konkani writers have begun using the letter ?y? indiscriminately without any rhyme or reason. I have come across the following words (out of many), with their new version: bebdikai ? bebdikay boddai ? bodday girestkai - girestkay Julai (month) ? Julay kortai - kortay khuxalkai ? khuxalkay mai - may osmitai ? osmitay pai - pay purai - puray sahitai - sahitay sovostkai - sovostkay Sosnnikai - sosnnikay Somudai ? somuday Vattai ? vattay In all these words, the last two letters are pronounced as (ah-ee) e.g. Aitar (ah-ee-t?h- ?h-rre); Moriadik - moryadik ? we don?t have to add a ?y? because the sound of ia is ee-ah. Here are some more examples with their new version: avoi-bapui - avoy-bapuy avoi-bapain - avoy-bapayn doia ? doya ezmanponn - yezmanponn ieo ? yeo ieta ? yeta eukar ? yeukar ievun - yevun gaionn - gayonn gheiat - gheyat kariavoll - karyavoll kednaim ? kednay paim - pay proitn ? proytn niall ? niyall In view of the above observation, I strongly suggest that we stop using the letter ?y? in Konkani because it will neither serve nor suit any useful purpose. If at all, we are bent on using the letter ?y?, then we could as well shift to the English alphabet, and consequently take into serious consideration ?but?, ?put?, ?foot?, etc. Because by merely adding ?y?, we are, by no means, standardising or improving the orthography of Konkani in the Roman script. And, what about the diacritic marks? BTW, I am for change but not for mixture of alphabets from different languages. The process of standardising Konkani began after Liberation and the language and a large mass of the text including the Holy Bible in Konkani, has come to an appreciable standard. Hence, the abrupt changes, probably suited to the Mangalorean version, can only lead to confusion unlimited. The opinion has been doing the rounds among Konkani readers, many of whom are irritated with the unnecessary changes. But they have not gathered the courage to voice their preference, apprehensive of hurting sentiments. Moreover, Konkani in Roman script is already facing several vexing hurdles, and it has to be ensured that those who have still adhered to it faithfully are not compelled to give it up altogether. The younger set of readers would then rather opt for literature in the Devanagari script or be content with English. We are already a confused lot - let us not confuse the Konkani language lovers any further. I am sending out this message now so it reaches the right people before the daily newspaper ?Amcho Avaz? begins to circulate among Goans. I am copying this message to Konkani Institutions. Moi-mogan, Domnic Fernandes xxxxxxxxxx
