Fr Loiola send me this response, with the request to circulate via Goanet: Dear Rico, I can’t resist responding to this. A few years ago, I was approached by my nephew, after I had preached at a wedding mass: “What you threw yaar!” he said. I said, “WHAT?” And then he translates: “Kitem uddoilem re tunvem!!” His brother shared with me what he had once overheard a girl telling her bf, obviously after some bold advances from him: “Doing-doing see where you reached!” (no translation required, I am sure). May be these gems will encourage you to encourage others to delve into further research. By the way, thanks for succeeding in bringing me to Goanet surface after a long, long hibernation! Loiola.
Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490 On 19 March 2012 20:11, Frederick Noronha <f...@goa-india.org> wrote: > This evening, I happened to be reading while the kids were playing > football in a nearby field. > > Their innovative use of language attracted my ear: > > "Arrey, you are doing cheating men!" > > "Kick, men!" > > "Behind, men!" > > There were one or two other interesting forms of usage, which I > quickly jotted down on my palm, but forgot to quickly transcribe. By > the time I was back home, it had vanished thanks to the constant > friction against my bike handlebar, I guess. > > This is not to complain about the "falling standards" of English in > Goa. On the contrary. > > I would see this as a unique form of English developing here, thanks > to the interaction with forms, sentence structure and inflections of > the Konkani language. One day, while Leroy was seated next to me in > the Kala Academy, he drew my attention to the speech of a certain > former chief minister. "Look, look! Check the way he's translating > Konkani into English." > > And Leroy was right. Every sentence almost could be imagined as a > direct reflection of its Konkani original. > > Would anyone know any studies of this form of English? Before someone > goes ahead and labels this as badly-spoken English, I think we need to > make a case for it being just a dialectical variant of English. My > friend Valentino "How to be An Instant Goan" Fernandes, half-seriously > dismisses this as "Konklish". > > But I think it deserves more seriousness and study than that. FN > > Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490 > Twitter: @fn http://twitter.com/fn > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------