Tumkam borem zaum, Miguel-bab.
I am, indeed, one of those who are very conscious of the ground realities in
Goa.
Unless we shed our christo-centric based paranoia about the Devanagri-script
medium for our beloved mother tongue, we can say good-bye to any hopes of a
standardised/harmonized Konkani in the long run, let alone any hopes of an
enriched Konkani literature.
Without a standardised medium for Konkani and its elevation to levels of medium
of education and intellectual discourse - I dare say, to my despair - its
extinction in the not too distant future could not be discounted, what with
IT-borne incursions of the English medium.
Have you ever tried to get an exclusively
English-phonetic-Romi-alphabet-trained Goan to read out any of the myriad of
texts written in the Romi lipi? Given that underlying these texts are
Portuguese phonetics, have you noticed the incongruity of the resulting
pronunciation?
And, can you imagine writing Konkani in Romi alphabet with English phonetics?
I do appreciate that for some of our Goan brothers and sisters of the older
generation, mastering Konkani's natural script, which is Devnagri, is more
easily said than done.
Fortunately, though, the relatively younger generation is largely familiar with
Devnagri (through primary education etc.). This factor alone holds out an
ardent hope in my heart that we are relatively only a short step away from a
standard lipi for that precious element, Konkani, that is so fundamental a part
of our identity and culture.
Oi, mog assun-di (or is it voi, mog as'di?)
Álvaro (alias Alvito)
> Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 11:34:27 +0530> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL
> PROTECTED]> Subject: > > Dear Alvaro,> > Alas not quite factually correct
> ...and not convincing to those who know the ground realities in Goa.> > Mog
> asundi.> > Miguel> > Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2008 21:23:19 -0400> From: "Alvaro
> Peres da Costa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> Subject: Re: [Goanet] 'Romi is a script,
> cannot be spoken' (Kiran> Budkuley, in ToI)> To: "Goanet" <[EMAIL
> PROTECTED]>> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> > Hear, hear, Ms Budkuley!> >
> Superbly, convincingly and succintly presented!> > Alvito Peres da Costa>
> Sydney, Australia> > > > > Get your own website and domain for just
> Rs.1,999/year.* Go to http://in.business.yahoo.com
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