CONTRIBUTION
OF MISSIONARIES TO KONKNNI LINGUISTICS
Pratapananda
Naik, S.J.
1. Introduction:
The
Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary defines the term missionary as “a
Christian who has been sent to a foreign country to teach people about
Christianity”. In this paper, I have used the term ‘missionary’ in a broad
sense and it refers to foreigners who contributed to Konknni language. This paper presents a bird’s eye view of the
contribution of the missionaries, namely, Jesuits, Franciscans, Carmelites and
lay persons who contributed to Konknni linguistics during the period from 16th
to 19th centuries. To
restrict the scope of this paper I have deliberately excluded their valuable and
important contribution to Konknni literature and translation work.
1.1 Historical
background of Konknni:
Konknni
or Konkani is a modern Indo-Aryan language and it is mainly spoken along the
western coast of India. Up to 1510 the Konknni language was used
mainly as a spoken language in Goa and along the other parts of western coast
of India. So far we have no historical evidence to
assert that Konknni was used prior to 1510 for written tradition. After the arrival of the Portuguese in Goa in 1510, the European Christian missionaries began to
learn and study Konknni to spread their religion. At that time Konknni language had no definite
name. The missionaries called it by different names like, Lingua Concana
(Konkan Language); Lingua Bramana (Brahmin Language); Lingua Canarim/ Canarina/
Canari (Canarim Language); Lingua Bramana vulgar (Common Brahmin language);
Lingua Bramana Canarim (Canarim Brahmin Language); Lingua vulgar da terra (Common language of the
land); Lingua de Goa (Language of Goa), Lingua da terra (Language of the land)
and rarely Lingua Concanim (Konknni Language). To help other missionaries to learn the local
language some of the competent missionaries wrote Konknni grammars with
explanations in Portuguese. They
compiled a number of Portuguese - Konknni and Konknni – Portuguese
vocabularies. They took the initiative
to translate Latin and Portuguese religious books into Konknni. The first printing press of India was brought to Goa
on 6 September 1556 by the Jesuit missionaries. In the sixteenth century the technology of
printing was not developed as far as the Indian alphabets were concerned. Therefore, the missionaries used an adapted
Roman alphabet to write and print Konknni and Marathi books.
At
present Konknni is written and printed in four sets of alphabets, namely Roman,
Devanagari, Kannada and Perso-Arabic. According
to the data of 2001 Census of India, Konknni is the mother tongue of 2,489,015
people. Konknni is one the official
languages of India.
1.2 Jesuit Contribution:
St.
Francis Xavier was the first Jesuit to arrive in Goa
on 7 April 1542. Jesuits lived and
worked in Ilhas and Salcete regions
of Goa.
St. Paul College
was the first Jesuit institution in Goa. Therefore, the Jesuits in Goa
were known as Paulists. The Jesuits paid
much attention to the study of the local languages Konknni and Marathi. They were pioneers and extensively
contributed to many fields in Goa, especially
for Konknni language. In keeping with
the spirit of the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus they learnt and
mastered the spoken language Konknni and Goa’s
religious and cultural language Marathi.
When the Konknni language course was introduced in St. Paul College,
the need was felt to compile a grammar and dictionary. The main Jesuit contributors to Konknni
linguistics are Thomas Stephens, Diogo Ribeiro, Miguel de Almeida, Antonio de
Saldanha and others.
2. Anonymous Jesuits:
A
Konknni Grammar was written by a brother from St. Paul
College, Goa
around 1560. This fact we know from a letter of Lourenço Peres, S.J. written at
Goa on 17 December 1563 (Pereira, J.
1968:627). Konknni vocabularies were compiled around 1560 to teach Konknni to
missionaries.
In
the National library of Lisbon Codex No. 3044 is Vocabulario da lingoa Canari (Vocabulary of Canari Language). It is a Portuguese – Konknni vocabulary. It
has 280 pages of size 19x12.5cm and contains approximately 6,700 entries. The compiler’s name is unknown. By comparing the orthography of this
manuscript with the orthography of Jesuit Priest Diogo Ribeiro’s vocabularies
one can assert that this is a Jesuit work.
Among the available Konknni vocabularies this could be considered as the
first one (Naik 1987:17).
Vocabulario da lingoa Canarim
(Vocabulary of Canarim Language) is another Jesuit work. It is found in the National Library of Lisbon
with Codex No. 3195. It is a Portuguese
– Konknni vocabulary. It has 224 pages
of size 35x24cm and contains approximately 6,000 entries. This vocabulary is the revised edition of
Codex No. 3044 (Naik 1987:18). This too is a Jesuit work.
In
the Government Archives at Panaji, Goa, a
Portuguese – Konknni vocabulary is found.
It has 170 pages and approximately 7,500 entries. Its initial pages covering the alphabets A,
B, C, D and part of E are missing. Its
size is 35x23.5cm. Through the comparison
of orthography it could be affirmed as a Jesuit work (Naik 1987:18).
Vocabulario Canarim Com Alfabeto
Portuguez
manuscript is found in the Jesuit Archives, Rome.
This is a Portuguese – Konknni Vocabulary. It has 208 pages of size 30x20cm. It contains approximately 12,500
entries. It is a Jesuit work as shown by
comparison with the other Jesuit vocabularies.
This vocabulary has 1,000 entries more than Ribeiro’s Portuguese –
Konknni vocabulary. Further, the compiler
of this vocabulary has given additional meanings to the Portuguese
vocables. It also contains phrases,
idioms and proverbs as in Ribeiro, and a few more. The compiler has improved the orthography of
Portuguese vocables. Most likely this
vocabulary was compiled by one of the Jesuit successors of Diogo Ribeiro. The historians speak of Fr. Miguel de Almeida
(1604-1683) had compiled a Konknni vocabulary (Priolkar
1958:222; Pereira, A. 1982:95).
Hence, Vocabulario Canarim Com
Alfabeto Portuguez could be attributed to Miguel
de Almeida, S.J..
Vocabulario Canarin Vertido en
Portuguesa
(Konknni vocabulary rendered into the Portuguese) is found in the Library of
School of Oriental and African Studies, London
(Hosten 1923:146 and Ross 1921-1923:537).
It is a Konknni – Portuguese vocabulary. Its author is unknown. I have not seen this vocabulary.
Lexicon
Bracarense is a Konknni vocabulary found in the manuscript form in the Public
Library, Braga, Portugal (Pereira, J.
1992:29). I have not seen this vocabulary.
Arte do Canarim (Grammar
of Canarim language) probably it must have been composed by the Jesuits and
recorded by the cleric Antonio da Silva from Margao, South
Goa. It is a manuscript
found in British Museum with No.10359. It follows the descriptive model, taking
declensions first and discussing phonetics at the end, with little to say on
syntax (Gomes 1999:96).
2.1
Henrique Henriques, S.J. (1520-1600):
Henrique
worked in South India. He had done pioneering work in Tamil grammar. He wrote a Konknni grammar with the help of
two Konknni natives of South India. His grammar was ready in 1567 (Pereira, J.
1973:22) and it was printed in 1568 (Gomes 1999:91).
2.2 Thomas Stephens, S.J. (1549-1619):
Thomas
Stephens was the first English Jesuit to arrive in Goa. He studied Konknni, Marathi and Sanskrit. He wrote Arte
de Lingoa Canarim (Grammar of Canarim Language). After his death, his successors Diogo Ribeiro
and four other Jesuits revised it. It
was printed in 1640. It is the first
printed grammar of Konknni and also has the honour of being the first printed
grammar among the Indian languages. It
is written in Portuguese and it follows the pattern found in Latin grammars. He uses the Roman alphabet to give Konknni
examples and makes use of diacritical marks to indicate Konknni speech
sounds. The phonological and
morphological information given in this grammar is quite exhaustive. It is interesting to note that Thomas
Stephens gives examples to show how Konknni differs
from Marathi (Almeida 2004:62). It was
based on the Latin and Greek grammars.
The formulation of this grammar is characterized by a rare precision and
clarity of presentation and fulfils its purpose of teaching the language to
foreign missionaries (Gomes 1999:92).
Stephens grammar has three parts.
The first part deals with alphabet, orthography, pronunciation, and some
observations on phonology. The second
part deals with morphology. The third
part is focused on syntax. His
grammar became a source book for his Jesuit and Franciscan successors to write
their improved versions of Konknni grammars and to study Konknni.
2.3 Diogo Ribeiro, S.J. (1560-1633):
Diogo
Ribeiro was born at Lisbon. He mastered Indian languages Konknni,
Marathi, Sanskrit and Hindi. He compiled
in 1626 Vocabulario da Lingoa Canarim…
(Konknni - Portuguese Vocabulary) and Vocabulario
da Lingoa Canary Vertido do Portugues… (Portuguese - Konknni
Vocabulary). Both these are found in
manuscript forms in the Central Library, Panaji, Goa and Government archives
Panaji, Goa.
The Portuguese - Konknni vocabulary has approximately 14,500 main
entries. This vocabulary gives plenty of
information related to Goa and its culture. It scientifically gives information of
Konknni words. For examples it gives
both the direct and oblique forms of nouns; giving examples to illustrate
usage; giving idioms as separate entries; presenting the verb entries by giving
the first person singular form of the present tense. Diogo Ribeiro’s vocabularies are improved and
enlarged versions of his Jesuit predecessors’ vocabularies. The printed version of Konknni – Portuguese
Vocabulary has been done by the Japanese Scholar Prof. Toru Maruyama of Nanzan University, Japan in 2005.
In Ajuda Library, Portugal, a manuscript of Konknni –
Portuguese vocabulary is found. It is
called Vocabulario da Lingoa da terra
(Canarina) Composto pelo P. Diogo Ribeiro da Companhia de Jesus do uzo do P.
Amardo de Azevedo, treslado a sua custa. Segunda Parte (Vocabulary of the language of the land [Canarina]
language composed by Fr. Diogo Ribeiro of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Amardo de
Azevedo of the same Society got it transcribed at his own cost for his use.
Second Part). Its first part, namely,
Portuguese – Konknni is yet to be traced.
From the title itself we can affirm that this vocabulary is based on
Ribeiro’s Konknni – Portuguese vocabulary.
2.4
Antonio de Saldanha, S.J. (1598-1663):
Antonio
de Saldanha was born in Morroco, Africa and came to Goa
1615. His Prasse Pastoral (Ordinary Pastoral Method) is
in a manuscript form in the National Archives at
Lisbon. It also has an appendix Varios modos de Fallar (Various Idioms). It must be a compilation of idiomatic phrases
of Konknni compiled by Antonio de Saldanha and his Jesuits companions.
Vocabulario da Lingoa Canarina Com
Versam Portugueza (Vocabulary of the Canarina language
translated into Portuguese) was lying somewhere in London in manuscript form
and was bought and published by Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, Lisbon, in
1973. This is a Konknni – Portuguese
vocabulary. It has 408 pages of size
29x19.5cm. It has about 19,500
entries. It is an enlarged vocabulary of
Ribeiro’s Konknni – Portuguese vocabulary.
It seems to have been compiled in early second half of the 17th
century by the Jesuits.
The
Jesuits historians attribute to Antonio Saldanha, S.J. (1598-1663) a Konknni
vocabulary, when they say that Antonio Saldanha had prepared for publication a
very copious Konknni vocabulary but due to his death, it remained as unpublished
(Pereira, J. 1968:628). Taking into
consideration the historical findings, the vocabulary published by Junta, Lisbon could be
attributed to Antonio Saldanha. The
compiler of this vocabulary does not always respect the alphabetical order of
the words. Idiomatic phrases and
proverbs are recorded.
2.5
Ignazio Arcamone, S.J. (1615-1683):
Ignazio
Arcamone was born in Italy
and worked as a missionary in Goa. Besides his mother tongue Italian he knew
Latin, Portuguese, Turkish, Arabic, Konknni and Deccani Languages. He wrote a comparative linguistic work in
Latin entitled Janua Indica sive pro
Concanica et Deccanica Lingua, Manuale Indis ingressuris peropportunum Indiae
candidatis Sociis dedicat (Window on both Konknni and Deccani Language. Quite suitable Manual to those on the way to
enter the Indies, dedicated to the Indian
candidates of the Society). This work is
now available in the National Library of Lisbon. It contains four parts: A Konknni grammar
written in Latin; Latin – Konknni vocabulary; Discourse on Deccani idiom;
Konknni and Deccani alphabets. The
Konknni grammar has twelve chapters. Majority of which are devoted to Konknni’s
intricacies of the alphabet, syntax, numbers, and important grammatical
rules. He discovered that Konknni
grammar is similar to Latin grammar. He
was not aware that Konknni was an Indo-Aryan language and Indo-Aryan languages
are related to Indo-European language family.
While other missionaries gave various names to Konknni, Arcamone gave a
definite and distinct name Lingua
Concanica (Konknni language) to the language of Konkan (The west coast
region of India).
2.6
Leonardo Cinnamo, S.J. (-1676):
Leonardo
Cinnamo was an Italian and was a missionary in Goa. He has compiled in Konknni a grammar and a
vocabulary (Pereira,
A.1982:106). These works are not to be
found now anywhere.
2.7 Benedicti
Pereira, S.J.:
According
to Jose Pereira Benedicti Pereira had compiled a Konknni vocabulary called Vocabularium nostri Benedicti Pereira in
Linguam Concanicam conversum (Our Jesuit Benedicti Pereira’s vocabulary
translated into the Konknni language) (Pereira, J. 1968:629).
2.8 Karel
Prikryl, S.J. (1718-1785):
Karel
Prikryl was born in Czechoslovakia.
When Jesuits were expelled from Goa in
1759, he was imprisoned in Goa and Lisbon. In the prison he wrote in Latin a Konknni
grammar entitled Principia Linguae
Brahmanicae (Principles of Brahmin Language). The manuscript of this grammar is in National
Museum Library, Prague. This is a well organized and methodical
grammar, divided into three parts. The
first is a very brief introduction to the speech sounds of Konknni; the second
part treats the morphology exhaustively; and the third is the short section on
Konknni syntax. Apart from Latin, in
which the study is presented, the author takes the help of Portuguese to
explain Konknni constructions. Given the state of linguistics of the time, Prikryl’s
grammar can be considered a scientific work giving a very good description of
Konknni (Almeida 2004:67). He was the
last Jesuit grammarian of Konknni. In
the National Museum Library of Prague a manuscript of four pages is found along
with Principia Linguae Brahmanicae. It contains a brief Konknni vocabulary,
mostly of words used in the Principia. Most likely, this vocabulary must have been
compiled by Prikryl.
Czechoslovakia’s
leading nineteenth century linguist Joseph Dobrosky (1753-1829) was inspired by
Principia Linguae Brahmanicae, contributed
to comparative linguistics and Czech language (Pereira, A. 1982:108).
2.9 Diogo de Amaral, S.J.
(1699-c.1762):
Of
Prikryl’s colleagues, we know one other Konknni scholar, the Portuguese Diogo
de Amaral, who compiled a now lost dictionary of the language, the Prosodia della Lingua Canarina (Pereira, J.1968:630). Prosodia is another name for vocabulary or
dictionary used by sixteenth-seventeenth century writers (Pereira, A.
1982:108). Probably this is the last
Konknni vocabulary compiled by the Jesuits before they were expelled from Goa in 1759. This
work is now lost.
2.10 Theotonio Joseph, S.J
(1701-1760):
According
to Olivinho Gomes, Theotonio Joseph contributed to Konknni vocabulary (Gomes
1999:107).
2.11 Lorenzo Hervase Panduro, S.J.
(1735- ):
Lorenzo
was a Spanish Jesuit. When the Society
of Jesus was suppressed in Spain,
he was deported to Italy.
In Italy he worked in the field of
comparative linguistics. Lorenzo came to
know the knowledge of Konknni in Rome
in 1783 through Thomas Stephens Arte de
Lingoa Canarim and a manuscript of Konknni vocabulary from the sellers of
the antiques. Besides, at Rome he had a Goan
informant Fr. Joseph Pinto who was quite good at Konknni grammar. Panduro has compiled 21 volume encyclopedia Idea dell’Universo. In this work among
other things he compares Konknni words with Italian, Latin and Greek cognates
(Dinneen 1967:178-179). Through his comparative study Panduro came to
the conclusion that Konknni is similar to Latin, Greek and Italian.
2.12 Angelo Francisco Saverio Maffei,
S.J. (1844-1899):
Maffei
was born in Italy
and he came as a missionary to work in Mangalore of Karnataka State. When he came to India in 1878 he knew neither
English nor Konknni, yet within four years he had composed and published a
scholarly grammar of Konknni entitled A
Konkani Grammar in 1882 and An
English- Konkani and Konkani - English Dictionary in 1883. He revised his Konknni grammar and published
it in 1892 and called it Konknni Ranantlo Sobit Sundor Talo or A Sweet Voice
from the Konkani Desert.
In describing Konknni speech sounds he is pretty accurate in
recognizing the phonetic variations but, lacking the modern phonemic approach (Almeida
1988:146). In morphology, Maffei uses
the old paradigmatic approach in both of his grammars, modifying it to suit the
forms of Konknni. Though the syntax is
not treated on its own, certain rules for framing sentences, order of words in
a sentence, relationships between phrases, and use of idioms and other
peculiarities of Konknni are dealt satisfactorily. In studying grammatical development of
Konknni, Maffei’s work serves as a necessary reference.
As
a lexicographer, Maffei is a careful and painstaking scholar. The English – Konknni and Konknni – English
dictionaries he produced are learner’s dictionaries. In many respects they are far better than the
ones produced recently both in Goa and
Mangalore. In giving entries, he gives
the root and sufficient grammatical and other information against each entry,
which is not included in his grammar. He
is careful to observe gradation in meaning, which is very helpful to the
learners. Any serious student of Konknni
phonology, grammar or semantics cannot afford to neglect his dictionaries. Even for an historical linguist, they will be
a source of archaic words, phrases and expressions (Almeida 1988:148).
Maffei
had a great gift for languages. In
addition to the European languages he already knew, in India he
learned English, Konknni, Sanskrit, Kannada, Tulu, Malayalam and Tamil. Maffei will be remembered for his outstanding
work as a Konknni linguist. His mastery
of Konknni consists mainly in his thorough grasp of the structure of that
language. Instead of using Devanagari or
Kannada script to write Konknni, Maffei adopts Lepsius’ system of
transliteration with the Roman alphabet.
Since his grammars and dictionaries were meant to help foreigners to
learn Konknni, he had to use an alphabet familiar to them. The system of characters and diacritics
adopted by him is far more accurate than the one used at present in Goa to write Konknni (Almeida 1988:147).
3. Franciscan Contribution:
After
their arrival in Goa in 1517 the superiors of
the Franciscans realized the importance of learning the local language Konknni
for their mission. They started
‘schools’ or even ‘colleges’ in Reis Magos and Serula in Bardes and two in the
city of Goa to teach Konknni.
3.1 Amador de Santana, O.F.M.:
Amador
was a Portuguese and was the rector at Franciscan
College at Pomburpa (presently in
north Goa) and contributed his mite to
grammatical studies (Gomes 1999:93).
3.2 João de Sam Matias, O.F.M.:
João
de Sam Matias was a Portuguese and he was the rector of Reis Magos (presently
in north Goa). A Konknni grammar has been
attributed to him (Pereira, J. 1992:28).
3.3 Gaspar de Sam Miguel, O.F.M.(c.1595-1647):
Gaspar
de Sam Miguel was a Portuguese and he came to Goa
as a Franciscan novice. He studied at the city of Goa, presently known as Old Goa. He studied Konknni under his master Frei Paulo
da Trinidade at the college of Sam Boaventura at Goa.
He has written not less than fourteen works
(13 books and one poem). His important
contribution to Konknni linguistics are i) Grammática
da Lingoa Bramana que corre na Ilha de Goa e sua Comarca (Grammar of
Brahmin Language in vogue, in the island
of Goa and its
dependencies). It deals with the phonology
and morphology of Konknni. ii) Sintaxis
Copiosissima na Lingoa Bramana e Pollida (Copious Syntax in Brahmin and
Polished Language). The manuscripts of
both these works were discovered by Dr. Jose Pereira in the School of Oriental
and African Studies, at London.
He then edited and published it in 1968.
Sintaxis
is the second part of Gaspar Miguel’s Arte
da Lingoa Canarim, and it is the
fullest treatment of standard Konknni syntax so far known (Pereira, J. 1967:1). It was ready by 1635(Pereira, J. 1992:28). iii) Vocabulario
da Lingua Canari e Portugues (Vocabulary of Language Konknni and
Portuguese) and Vocabulario da Lingua
Portugues e Canari (Vocabulary of Language Portuguese and Canari). The manuscript of these vocabularies is found
in Central Library, Panaji, Goa. Since the title page says that they are
compiled by Jesuits of Rachol, every body attributed these vocabularies to
Jesuits. But later on Prof L.A.
Rodrigues, a Konknni researcher discovered that on the first page of the
Konknni-Portuguese vocabulary it is written Sam Boaventura. Sam Boaventura was a college
of Franciscans at Goa. The orthography used in these vocabularies is
different from the Konknni vocabularies of Jesuits. Hence it is appropriate to attribute
them to Franciscans and especially to Gaspar Miguel (Rodrigues 1981:72). Konknni
– Portuguese Vocabulary has 528 pages of size 28x19 cm and around 17,500
entries. This vocabulary contains a lot
of Portuguese vocables borrowed by Konknni, which are not found in Ribeiro’s
Konknni – Portuguese vocabulary. Gaspar
Miguel must have taken the help of Diogo Ribeiro’s and vocabularies compiled by
other Jesuits to compile his own vocabulary.
Gaspar de Sam Miguel is the greatest and brilliant Konknni scholar of
Franciscan order.
Gaspar’s
Grammatica da Lingoa Bramana deals
with phonology and morphology of Konknni and it is similar to that of Stephens’
Arte da Lingua Canarim except detailed analysis. Gaspar’s Sintaxis Copiosissima is the most
complete syntactical treatise of Konknni and excels the previous grammars. Its treatment of standard Konknni syntax is
considered as the best description (Gomes 1999:93-94).
3.4 Christovão de Jesus, O.F.M.:
Friar
Christovão de Jesus wrote a Konknni grammar in 1635 entitled Gramatica de Lingoa Bramana (Grammar of
Brahmin Language). It was written in
Portuguese. It dealt with the phonology,
morphology and syntax of Konknni of North Goa.
It is a traditional grammar based on synchronic model of the
Scholastics.
3.5
Manoel
Banha, O.F.M.:
Manoel
Banha was a Franciscan priest and he worked in Goa. He compiled a Vocabulario (Vocabulary) of
Konknni. It was in the manuscript form (Priolkar
1958:223; Pereira, J. 1992:29). We have
no further information about this vocabulary.
This manuscript is now lost.
3.6
Anonymous Franciscans:
Vocabulario da lingoa Canerim do Norte
Conçertado e acrecentado em 1664 (Vocabulary of Canerim
Language of the North arranged and enlarged in 1664) manuscript is found in School of Oriental
and African Studies, London. It is a Portuguese – Konknni vocabulary. It has approximately 5,500 main entries. The compiler’s name is not to be found in the
vocabulary. In seventeenth century,
Franciscans were working in North Goa. Probably, this vocabulary could have been
compiled by one of the Franciscans.
Arte Canarina na Lingua do Norte (Grammar
of Canarina language of North) was published by Joaquim H. da Cunha Rivara in Goa in 1858. This grammar deals with the borderline
dialect of Konknni – Marathi spoken in Salcete island of Bombay. Since the first pages are missing in the
manuscript the name of the author of this grammar and other related information
is lost to us. According to Cunha Rivara
this grammar was written in seventeenth century. It must have been written by one of the Jesuits
or Franciscans residing in Vasai region of Maharashtra. According to Olivinho Gomes it was written by
a Portuguese missionary, probably Francisco Vaz de Guimarães residing in
Salcete island of
North Bombay in
Seventeenth century (Gomes 1999:96).
There
have been several other compilations of Konknni vocabularies by Manoel do Lado
and Manol Baptista of the Franciscan order (Gomes 1999:107). The details of their works are not available.
4. Carmelite Contribution:
Italian
Carmelite missionaries were working in Bombay,
Karwar of Karnataka State, and Kerala after 1717.
4.1
Frei
Francisco Xavier de Santa Ana, O.C.D (1771-1844):
Frei
Francisco Xavier de Santa Ana who was also
called Rafaelle Pescetti was born in Italy. He worked in Sunkery mission of North Canara district of Karnataka as a Carmelite
missionary. He has three linguistic
works to his credit. i) A Konknni – Italian dictionary which cannot
be traced now. ii) Grammatica
ou Observações Grammaticaes sobre a lingua de Concana (Grammar of
Grammatical Observation about the Language of Konkan). Though the author’s name is missing, scholars
believe that it is the work of Francisco Xavier (Priolkar 1958:224). It was edited and published by Joaquim Heliodoro
da Cunha Rivara, General Secretary to the Governor of Goa in 1859 and given the
title Grammatica da Lingua Concani
Escripta em Portuguez por um Missionario Italiano (Grammar of Konknni
language written in Portuguese by an
Italian Missionary). It is written in
Portuguese. Francisco while describing
the speech sounds of Konknni makes use of Roman alphabet and Devanagari
alphabet. His grammar has 7 chapters on
sound systems of Konknni and 46 chapters on morphology. This grammar was written based on the Konknni
spoken by the emigrants of South Goa to North Canara
area of Karnataka. iii) Diccionario
Portuguez – Concani Composto por um Missionario Italiano (Dictionary of
Portuguese – Konknni composed by an Italian Missionary). It was printed by Joaquim H. da Cunha Rivara
in 1868. It is a Portuguese – Konknni
vocabulary in the Roman alphabet. It is
the first printed Konknni vocabulary.
It consists of 281 pages of size 20.5x14.5cm and contains approximately
8,800 main entries. Grammatical
information of the entries is not given.
5. Contribution of Laymen:
A few lay missionaries have contributed to
Konknni linguistics. The German scholar,
J.F. Fritz’s Sprachmeister (1748) and
the Danish scholar Ivar Abel’s (1720-1788) Symphona
Symphonum (1782) contain lists of
Konknni words which may have been of assistance to Jesuit Panduro for his
comparative linguistics (Pereira, J. 1992:30).
5.1
Dr.
Garcia de Orta (1530-1572):
Dr.
Garcia de Orta was a physician. He has
mentioned Konknni botanical terms in his Coloquios
dos simples e drogas ecousas medicinais da India (Pereira, J. 1992:28).
5.2
Hendrik
Adriaan Van Rheede (1636-1691):
Hendrik
Rheede was the compiler and promoter of Hortus Malabaricus, written in Latin
and published from Amsterdam
in 12 volumes during 1678-1693. He was
born in Netherlands and came
to India
as a soldier in the army of the Dutch East India Company. He was in Malabar (Present State of Kerala)
during 1667-1677 as Captain, then as Commodore and finally as Dutch Governor of
Cochin (Kochi). Hortus Malabaricus was the result of about 30
years of compiling and editing by a team of specialists working under the
guidance of Rheede. Hortus Malabaricus
gives names of trees and plants in Latin, Malayalam, Arabic and Brahmanic
(Konknni). Rheede’s team was assisted to
give Konknni equivalent by three Konknni Ayurvedic experts Ranga Bhat, Vinayaka
Pandit and Appu Bhat.
5.3
Joaquim
Heliodoro da Cunha Rivara (1800-1879):
Joaquim
Cunha was born in Portugal. He was appointed General Secretary to the
Governor of Goa in 1855. Besides his official
works he had a great interest in language, art, architecture, historical
monuments and things. He took great
interest in Konknni language and literature.
He edited and published a few books related to Konknni. i) Ensaio
Histórico da Lingua Concani, (An Historical Essay on Konknni Language) Nova
Goa, 1865.
It is a basic work on the history of Konknni literature based on
documents. Not knowing Marathi and
Konknni, Cunha Rivara made a few mistakes in calling a few Marathi books as
Konknni. However, he noticed that
Marathi and Konknni were similar in vocabulary and grammatical structure and
yet they were two different languages.
ii) Arte de Lingoa Canarim of
Thomas Stephens S. J. iii) Arte Canarina na Lingua do Norte, Goa 1858.
iv) Diccionario Portuguez - Concani composto pelo um missionario Italiano,
Nova Goa: Imprensa Nacional 1868.
6. Conclusion:
When
the missionaries arrived in Goa there were
hardly any written sources in Konknni. Therefore, they began to write down the
oral literature, which they heard from the natives in the Roman alphabet. This
material helped them to learn Konknni and compose grammars and vocabularies. The
grammars and vocabularies compiled by missionaries cannot be claimed as perfect
works in the modern linguistic approach.
These foreigners had to depend on the native speakers and the data
provided by them. Negligence and
ignorance of their informants and wrong or inaccurate information provided by
this informants added burden to missionaries’ task. They compiled Konknni grammars and
vocabularies using Roman alphabet with a few diacritical marks. In spite of all these limitations and
shortcomings, their works contain plenty of information for Konknni scholars
and anthropologists.
From
16th to 18th century missionaries used either Portuguese
or Latin to write Konknni grammars.
During this period most of the vocabularies were either Portuguese -
Konknni or Konknni - Portuguese. Most of the compilers were Christian Priests
mainly from Portugal. They compiled their works in Konknni as a
tool to teach Konknni to other European missionaries who came to Goa. The
vocabularies compiled by the missionaries provide a great deal of information
on the customs and beliefs of the people. They are valuable primary source not only to
scholars who are interested in the history of Konknni and the other Indo-Aryan
languages, but also to those who are interested in the cultural history of the
region (Miranda 1983:198). Since a few
grammars and vocabularies compiled by the missionaries are available today, the
students and scholars of Konknni could learn a lot about Konknni language,
history and culture of 16th to 18th centuries.
From
the study of these vocabularies we can affirm that up to 1625, the Portuguese
language had very little influence on the Konknni language, except five or six
vocables, exclusively of Christian religious terminology (Naik 1987:28). A good number of Konknni vocables which are
found in 16th to 18th century vocabularies are lost in
modern Konknni of Goa. Nouns in Konknni
had a vowel ending in 16th to 18th century. This feature is still preserved in a few
Konknni dialects but lost in the standard Konknni. All long and even some short vowels in middle
position found in 16th to 18th century Konknni vocables
are lost in the modern standard Konknni.
From these vocabularies and grammars we learn that during the 16th
to 18th century that Kannada language had a great influence on Konknni
vocabulary, phonology and syntax (Miranda 2002:81).
Missionaries
have been accused by a few natives who are proponents of Devanagari script for
Konknni that the missionaries corrupted the language by using the Roman
alphabet to write it and they studied and served Konknni not for the love of
Konknni but to promote Christianity. The truth is however, far from this
accusation. Although the grammars and vocabularies were originally prepared by
the missionaries for their mission of spreading Christianity, their works are a
valuable contribution to Konknni language.
Without them we would not have the necessary data to know the linguistic
features of Konknni of 16th to 18th century. Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries were
responsible to give literary tradition to Konknni. In the absence of their contribution,
probably Konknni might have continued as a spoken language (Naik 2007:63-64).
Jesuit
writers on the whole make a greater impression in the field of Konknni
linguistics because some of their important work survived either in manuscript or
printed form. Jesuit had their printing
presses in Goa city (present day Old Goa) and at the College of Rachol. Due to this, their works were printed. The Franciscans were not so lucky and hardly
any of their works were printed (Almeida 2004:74).
After
studying Sanskrit and other cognate languages in Calcutta, William Jones made his influential
discovery in 1786 about the similarities found among Sanskrit, Latin and Greek. According to his findings the Indo-European
languages had a common source and origin.
But two centuries earlier Thomas Stephens and his others Jesuit
companions Ignazio Arcamone, Karel Prikryl and Lorenzo Panduro had noticed that
Konknni and Marathi were akin to Greek and Latin languages not only in their
words but also in their syntax. Thus the
Jesuit missionaries who had worked in Goa laid
the foundation for Indo-European linguistics, historical linguistics and thus
to comparative linguistics itself.
The
Jesuit tradition of continuing the linguistic contribution to Konknni now
continues in Goa through the works of Thomas
Stephens Konknni Kendr, a postgraduate Konknni research centre run by the
Jesuits of Goa province.
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