FYI, there are a number of Asian languages that use Roman alpbhabets with
accents (some accents developed specially for them). One of those languages is
Vietnamese.
So what if Konkani is written in the Roman alphabet with the appropriate
accents? It does not become Portuguese - does it? And what if Portuguese words
are used as in the old days? It only makes the language richer. Check any old
Mandó, e.g. *Adeus* korcho vellu pauló... *Despedido* korchar vellar ... etc.
In Portuguese, every letter used is pronounced, eg. p-si-qui-a-tri-a as opposed
to the English pronounciation where the p is silent as in
(p)sy-chi-a-try. Note too the difference of pronouncing y (used as a vowel) in
that word, whereas in the Portuguese language, vowels are largely constant. I
don't know exactly what you mean by stating writing Konkani in Romi alphabet
with English phonetics.
As in the Devnagiri script, there are different ways to write vowels using the
Roman script - English is lazy, so there is one one way to write vowels but a
myriad ways to pronounce, and probably herein is the rub. Using accents on
vowels enrichens the vowels - a á i í e é ê o ó ô u ú.
As an aside, English phoetic spelling is the worst-ever punishment inflicted on
the current Y-generation in many parts of the English-speaking world, as many
of the new generation cannot spell properly. Usage of spell-check is useless,
as e.g. lose and loose have different meanings; and a large number of people in
the English-speaking world don't know the difference between possesives and
plurals.
Cheers,
Gabriel.
--- On Mon, 6/10/08, Alvaro Peres da Costa [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
From: Alvaro Peres da Costa [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Goanet] Konkani in Romi or Devanagri lipi?
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Received: Monday, 6 October, 2008, 8:04 PM
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)
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