VISITACAO MONTEIRO
‘De-scripting Konkani’, the article authored by Dr Victor Ferrao, published on this paper on Sixth day of August, 2025, evoked to my mind a series of thoughts out of which I will focus on three only, name ly, 1) Speaking Konkani (2) Konkani Scripts (3) Origins of Konkani Maim. Many of us Goans who pub licly profess that our mother tongue is Konkani, speak English on every occasion. Starting with English schools, (I am not against them), be cause even in our times, we were studying Portuguese in schools but speaking Konka ni at home and in every place, but today we speak English everywhere, even with dogs and cats we speak English and the less said about it, is better. The script controversy lasting for so many years in Goa has taken a toll on the development of Konka ni language in Goa. We are intolerant of the other view other than the Devanagari script for Konkani. Any lan guage is first spoken and then only comes the script. When Konkani was first spo ken by the first inhabitants of Goa, namely the Kunbis, Gavddas, Zolmis and Velips, there was no script for it. It was a spoken language. The development of script came centuries later due to the vi cissitudes of time. When the first European missionaries landed in Goa, they used the Roman Script for their com munications with the peo ple and to teach Catechism and education to the people. Thus, the Roman script had its beginnings in Goa. When Konkani spread to Karnataka, the speakers expressed it in Kannada script. On reaching Kerala, it was written in Ma layalam script. Besides there was also the Persian-Arabic script. All these five scripts are like five sarees draped by our Konkani Maim and it only shows the richness of our Konkani language. If my Konkani Maim can dress her self with five different sarees at different places, who am I to tell my mother that she should wear only one saree in Goa. She has two sarees in Goa, let her wear both the sarees and please all her chil dren in Goa. There cannot be any first and second saree. Let her wear whichever saree she likes, only then we can lay at rest the script controversy. The setup of origins of Konkani language Any language has as its base a particular land, region or a country where it flour ishes. Similarly the Konkani language in Goa emerged and flourished in a particu lar milieux or system called the Ganvkari village which centuries and millennia later came to be called Comuni dades by the Portuguese. The Portuguese did not form/ in vent the Ganvkari but codi fied the existing millennial customs and usages of the Goan people in the form of Foral of Afonso Mexia in year 1526. It is very interesting to observe how the Konkani language drew its roots and grew and flourished in our Goa’s landscape. Goa was a land very hostile for human habitation. Centuries and millennia ago, as mentioned in No. 2 of this article, our ancestors in order to clear the forests and myristical swamps abounding the land had to use the instruments which they invented at that time namely: the Koito (Koi ta), Kuradd, kuraddul, etc. Thus, we see the first words in Konkani in the agricultur al milieux of the time. In the river bed of Kushawati (riv er), we find the most ancient signs of the Goan civilisation in the petroglyphics carved in stone using – Pikandor, Pi kas, Khorem, Xennem, Kutti or Attodi, etc. Likewise var ious other Konkani words took shape in the same ag ricultural milieux in the course of centuries and mil lennia of the Goan existence. Agriculture is the mainstay of any people, so Ganvkari village communities had to survive on agriculture only. In the field of agriculture, they used the words xet, rov, pik, kunggo, konngi, kuddko, addo, mer, kuddoll, korem, zot, nangor, bat, koddo, kut tol, mollni, konnos, batacho gotto, batacho koddo, kum blem, kuddov, paili, muddi, sarem, kumb, ator, atri (bat assudunk), dovlo, moddki, tandull, mussol, van, bud kullo, gaddgo, xitt, xit-koddi, nis, pez, bakri, lattni, mandd, koileo, kannunk, kontri, dod gi, korgut, noddnni, kollso, kodsuli, chidi, kunndlim, tovli, kail, tovo, goddxem, vonn etc, etc – I remember my younger days with nos talgia in agriculture espe cially at kneading (moll’nek) people used to come and sell tasty chokreo’s in exchange for a measure of raw bat, which we used to eat and give the workers (manai). In this agricultural setup of our Gaunkari villages, we have so many words which are impossible to present in this small article. A main word evokes so many other inter-connected words like – somdir, sagor, doria, nod, nodi, poyom, tollem (lakes), hondde, baim. Another ex ample: Dev, devchar, rakond dar, sankoddio, ganvpurush, abxi, etc I can assert that 75% of our Konkani vocabulary emerges from agricultural Ganvkari villages and it is a sad today, that instead of protecting and developing our agricul tural system of Ganvkaris we have finished with the same after the year 1964 through the Agricultural Tenancy Act, which instead of regulating it, as said in the aim of the Act, has only succeeded in finish ing the same. I appeal to all Goans to see that this this multi millennial Ganvkari system of agriculture in Goa is revived for the survival of Goa and Goans. Today, Goa is being sold right, left and centre to the highest bidders of our land, when our land of the Ganvkari system cannot be sold, because if our land is sold the rights over the lands are extinguished. Therefore, all of us have to make a positive effort to pre serve our land for ourselves and the posterity and only then Konkani language can survive on our land where it flourished. (The author is a well –known columnist and author of the book ‘Goan Village Communities’)
