Konkani language: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 17:18, 14 January 2006

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Konkani is an Indo-Aryan language, although it includes a wealth of words derived from various Dravidian languages. It started as a vernacular of Sanskrit, with inevitable corruption of the words. It has been relatively free of influence of any other language except a little of Portuguese (in the last few centuries) and some Kannada (supposedly during the Kadamba period of 12-14th centuries). It is sometimes said to be a dialect of Marathi. But, history has established that even when the Konkani language had reached maturity, the Marathi language was not even born. There is an inscription written in Konkani dated 1187 A.D. whereas even the earliest Marathi manuscripts are of the 16th century. However, many people only recognized Konkani as an independent language since the 19th century.

The Konkani language is spoken widely in the Konkan region consisting of Goa, south coastal Maharashtra, coastal Karnataka and Kerala, each region having a unique dialect and pronunciation style. It is said that the language was spread to these areas by the Goans who fled the Portuguese inquisition of Goa during the early years of Portuguese rule. To this day the temple of the Kula Deva (Family Deity) of most Konkani people living outside Goa, can be found within Goa. Some of these temples were destroyed by the Portuguese and later rebuilt again by the Konkani people (at times in a different location within Goa). The konkani text is written both in traditional Devanagari and Roman script, which originated during the Portuguese rule. The Kannada script is used in Mangalore, and other coastal regions of Karnataka.

The Konkani language had been in danger of dying out — the progressive Westernisation of the Indian subcontinent (including the strong Portuguese influence in Goa from the 16th century) has resulted in English being widely spoken among Catholics, while local influence has led to Marathi being widely adopted by Konkani Hindus living in coastal Maharashtra. This trend was arrested in 1985 by a strong Konkani movement in Goa that had broad support from both religious groups. Konkani is now widely spoken in Goa, and is the official state language. It has since been given official language status in the Indian Constitution.

The first known book in Konkani was written in 1651 by Fr.Thomas Steven, titled Doctrina Christi (the Doctrines of Christ). It is usually said that the Portuguese destroyed all prior Konkani texts in the 16th century, but is hardly credible that a literary language would not have any other texts ouside the small area controlled by the Portuguese

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