Dears, The term "Romi lipi" in Konkani means "Roman script" in English. A script is something used for "writing" and a dialect is something that is "spoken". One does not need a Konkani writer and English lecturer to tell us that! ;-) We have had at least one former English newspaper Editor in Goa write editorials exhorting Goans to "speak Romi Konkani". That was due to his ignorance of the subject, but a shade better than downloading and printing editorials from foreign newspapers, which has been exposed in print. The duplicity of others can also be done likewise. Some others mistakenly use such an expression as "Romi Konkani" after the architects of the Official Language Act, 1987, intentionally confused the script and dialect issue by using the script to promote the Antruzi dialect of Konkani. I am not making allegations: those involved in the Konkani debate are too aware of it for me to specify the examples. For those who are not involved in the debate, Konkani itself is a non-issue. The Goa state functions almost exclusively in English and Marathi ...and NOT in its official language, Konkani in the Devanagri script. How popular the Devanagri script is for Konkani can be guaged by the fact that very little official correspondence [other than invitations for functions] is in the Official language ...and the only newspaper in the world in that official language does not sell even a thousand copies after more than a decade of life and three high-profile Editors!! What the majority of the Konkani protagonists who fought for recognition of the language mean by the expression "Romi Konkani" is writing Konkani in the Roman script AND in the more commonly used dialects like 'Bardesi' and 'Saxtti' instead of the minority dialect [of the GSB minority in the so-called Hindu "majority community", that conveniently pulls the animist Bhandari OBCs and GAKUVED ST communities under its beach umbrella for political and social leverage]. It is the Bhandari and the GAKUVED [Gawdda-Kunbi-Velip-Dhangar] communities that make Marathi daily "Tarun Bharat" the largest circulation newspaper in any language in Goa! Marathi newspapers have a combined circulation that exceeds that of English newspapers at 1,00,000 copies plus while the Sunaparant struggles at about one thousand. The free copies of Sunaparant at the Dabolim airport have few takers ...except the "raddi" paper boys! Konkani is written in Roman script by persons of all religions and castes. Shenoi Goembab, the icon of the Devvanagri lobby,wrote his first dozen books in Roman script and NOT Devanagri. Monsignor Sebastiao Rodolfo Dalgado, another icon of the Devanagri lobby to pull in the GSB and other brahmin converts to their fold, wrote in Portuguese for the Portuguese-reading public who wanted or needed to know Konkani ['Lingua Canarese' or 'Concanim' for the Portuguese], specially for their sermons from the pulpit. Nagesh Karmali, Adv. Uday Bhembre, Pundalik Naik and others of the Devanagri lobby have also written in Roman script. I would not put Dr. ManoharRai SarDessai in the same bracket: He was above script chavinism and wrote in both the scripts simultaneously, besides writing in French, English and Portuguese. So does Dr. Pratap Naik SJ , with the additional advantage of writing Konkani in Kannada script ...... now the script of the majority of those who write in Konkani world wide. The chavinistic Devanagri lobby has only itself to blame for that. The Konkan community is not chavinistic, as can be seen of the people from Mumbai to Kochi along the coast. It is a trait that seems to have come with the GSB inmigration from the interior India. That is not 'natural' for the Konkan. Fortunately, all GSB Hindus are not chavinistic and I can count many of them as my friends and guides. Alas, that cannot be said of the entire community. Smt. Kiran Budkuley knows what she writes and intentionally plays up on an unfortunate error committed by a few inaccurate ..... ignorant or careless ... speakers or writers. There is no such thing as "Romi Konkani" or "Roman Konkani". A script is something used for "writing" and a dialect is something that is "spoken". It does not need a rocket scientist or a University faculty to tell one that! If that was at all needed, we have persons with better academic record than the writer to state that. She knows that, too. ;-) Mog asundi. Miguel
--- On Sun, 5/10/08, Goanet News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Goanet News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Goanet-News] 'Romi is a script, cannot be spoken' (Kiran Budkuley, in ToI) Date: Sunday, 5 October, 2008, 5:19 PM 'Romi is a script, cannot be spoken' What Konkani needs is a battery of well-trained, competent teachers, not an additional script, writes Kiran Budkuley Of late, a lot of dust is being kicked up for an additional script for Goa's official language Konkani. Those who demand official recognition for Konkani in Roman (Romi) script, argue as though 'Romi Konkani' were an independent dialect. These misconceived arguments are based less on linguistic or cultural facts and more on unscientific reasoning. For example, the protagonists consider — as is evident from their oft-aired arguments — that Devnagari is a 'Hindu script' and hold that there exists a 'RomiKonkani' of the Christians as distinct from 'Devnagari Konkani'. While it is true that a majority of those who write Konkani in the Romi script are Christians, several illustrious non-Christian writers, following the trend set by Shenoi Goembab, have also been using it. Similarly, while almost all Goan Hindus write in the Devnagari script, a large percent of Christians in the age group of 10-50 years, also do. It is often argued (wrongly) that Christian children find it hard to write in the Devnagari script,The writer is a Konkani critic, and teaches English at the Goa University. The views expressed are those of the writer. This weekly column allows readers to have their say on important issues. Write in to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kindly provide your contact details. http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIGO&login=default&Enter=true&Skin=TOI&GZ=T&AW=1223207327234 Get rid of Add-Ons in your email ID get [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sign up now! http://in.promos.yahoo.com/address
