Domnic Fernandes wrote: > Unusual Proverb? Doxeo_Zonvop > On October 7, 2003, I had written on Goanet in mild Konkani language: > “Kortolo korun gelo, sopear bosteleache andd kaddlet”, which is the > same as: “Zonvtolo zonvon gelo, bankar nidhleleacho andd katorlo.”
Isn't Konkani an extremely colourful language when it comes to expressing itself in its full four-colour dimensions?
Any idea what would account for that? I mean, why didn't the language get "sanitised" as some other, more widely spoken languages seem to have got? (Not that I'm suggesting that a "sanitised" language is in any way superior; perhaps its just more sterile.)
Agreed there is an Urban Dictionary for English too; but I have yet to see so much tolerance to "colourful" usage in other tongues, as available, say, in mainstream Konkani adages. Like the ones that Domnic and Venantius have quoted.
Is this because Konkani has largely been an oral, not-so-codified language. We've had published dictionaries from the 16th or 17th century, but the tongue does seem to be more popular in the spoken (theatre, song included) rather than written sphere. Now too.
With 'codification' and prescriptive language, come the "intellectuals" who define what is acceptable, and censorship of thought.
Incidentally, Goanetter Valmiki Faleiro has a good collection of x-rated Konkani axioms, the kind of which would have been certainly deleted from the text by priests and others who compiled such work earlier on. While some might seem offensive on first reading, it's important to note that these are part of the oral tradition of Konkani, and it makes no sense -- in my view at least -- to pretend that these sayings don't exist because they offend our sense of prudery, or whatever.
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