It may be said that common sense is most uncommon. It is mostly uncommon when it comes to emotive issues concerning identity. When it comes to language and communication, we think meaning flows in a linear manner from the speaker to the listener. We think, we use words to stand for the thoughts that we have in our mind. But we may ask: Is that really so? Do we have access to the world outside language? Can we think our thoughts without them being dressed in words? Of course, these words do not have to be written. Indeed, we live and have our being in the house of language. The father of Linguistics, Ferdinand Saussure teaches that there is no extra linguistic access to the world. Our world becomes meaningful through the experience of language. This is especially so with our mother tongue.
We, as Goans, find ourselves immersed in Konkani from the moment we are born. It may be true that we are into the Konkani sounds in the womb of our mother. We have learnt to speak Konkani without being taught. Our speaking is primary and its alphabetisation is secondary. Saussure says that language is a system of signs. Each sign is made of two aspects. He says that a sign is made of a signifier and a signified. The signifier is that which we can hear (phonetic aspect) or see and read (scriptic aspect) and the signified is the meaning that we communicate using speech or writing. Thus, for instance, ‘sunno or kutro’ as a sign is made of two aspects. The first being the sound or visible alphabets that spell ‘sunno or kutro’ and the other is the meaning that we get when we hear or read the sign ‘sunno or kutro’.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
The sound aspect keeps us at the oral and speaking level of the language and the alphabetised ‘sunno or kutro’ takes us to the reading level. Both these levels remain at the level of the signifier and point to the signified or the meaning level of our language. Our mother tongue is uniquely blessed. Although at the level of speaking, we have a largely singular mode with several different ways of speaking, at the level of reading, we have at least five distinct modes of writing Konkani. They are Romi, Nagri, Kannada, Arabic and Malayalam. This is indeed the richness of our mother tongue. All these five stand for the diversity of speaking and writing of Konkani that intimately touches the lives of their speakers as well as writers. This indicates that those who write Konkani Romi, Nagri, Kannada, Arabic and Malayalam have a relation of joy de vivre with that alphabet (tea akxorakhode sotosacho sombond assa). It is the love of Konkani that develops this intimate closeness with that alphabet to the point when that alphabet is delegitimized and rendered as unKonkani, it deeply hurts as well as humiliates the speaker/writer.
All ways of writing Konkani are human conventions. Saussure, therefore, teaches that the relation between the signifier (ways of speaking and ways of writing) and the signified (meaning) is arbitrary. This means no language has a natural mode of writing. All modes of writing are invented by humans. Unfortunately, in Goa, there is a privilege of Nagri mode of writing Konkani as it is only recognized as legitimate and thought to be the natural way of writing Konkani. This position relegated other ways of writing Konkani as unsuitable. Now Kannada, Arabic and Malayalam modes of writing Konkani are territorially distant to Goa. The issue boils down to the derecognition of Romi Script which itself becomes a way of dekonkanizing and humiliating a significant number of people who are intimately linked with that way of speaking and writing Konkani.
This politics of humiliation seems to have its roots in the virus of casteism and Hindutva politics. It castrates Konkani that is spoken and written differently and nagrizes Konkani and considers it as the only authentic way of writing Konkani. This means it suggests that only nagrized Konkani is productive and is fertile and, therefore, will reproduce Konkani in the future. Is that really true? Romi-karan of Konkani has saved Konkani for centuries under colonial rule. Hence, it has proved itself to be productive and fertile. Hence, in an age when we can digitally transcribe languages from one script to another, we, Goans, have the challenge to embrace the plural fertility of our mother Konkani. By dekonkanizing Konkani by Nagrizing it, we are effectively cutting its body and limbs. Often standardization of Konkani is given as a main reason for its dekonkanization and imperialisation of the Nagri Konkani. Those who follow this line of thinking unfortunately, seem to refuse to learn from history.
Classical languages like Latin, Greek, Sanskrit seem to have died on the altar of standardisation. Tamil appears to be the only surviving classical language.
We, being a small community of speakers and writers of Konkani seem to be all set to kill our mother tongue when we try to push it to a singularisation through its Nagri-karan. Pluralisation of Konkani is a way ahead. The book is already dead. Less people are reading today. Future seems to have become digital. When all writing has taken a back seat with the audio-video productions on the internet, it appears that Nagrization of Konkani will certainly kill written Konkani in Goa and only spoken Konkani that takes the form of audio-video alphabets on the internet will survive. Audio-video seems to have taken us beyond our localised scripts. The internet has truly brought together all modes of speaking and writing Konkani. It will continue to melt the modes of writing and speaking Konkani on its platforms. This is why, we Goans have an imperative of our mother tongue to embrace and bridge all modes of speaking and writing Konkani and in Goa. We have the challenge to work to get Romi Konkani officially recognised by the Government. For the sake of written Konkani, we have to embrace both Nagri and Romi modes of writing Konkani without reducing one to the other. Left to themselves both written forms of Konkani will dissolve into the audio-video alphabetisation of Konkani on the internet. Hence, the challenge is letting both Romi and Nagri flower for the sake of Konkani.
(Fr Victor Ferrao is an independent researcher attached to St Francis Xavier Church, Borim, Ponda)
