Multiple Scripts: A Case for Konknni by Pratapananda Naik, S.J.

 

Multiple Scripts: A Case for Konknni


Pratapananda Naik, S.J.

 



0.   Historical background of Konknni:

Konknni 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 five scripts, namely Roman, Devanagari, Kannada, Perso-Arabic, and Malayalam.  Out of these literature is produced in Roman, Devanagari, and Kannada scripts. Roman script was used to write Konknni in 16th century. Kannada script was used to write Konknni in Goa in early 17th Century and Devanagari was used at the end of 19th century.  According to the data of 2001 Census of India, Konknni is the mother tongue of 24,89,015 people.  Konknni is one the official languages of India.

Konknni Population according to Census of India

India/State

Year

1971

1981

1991

2001

India

15,22,684

15,84,063

17,60,607

24,89,015

Karnataka

5,72,828

6,40,738

7,06,397

7,68,039

Goa

5,56,223

6,00,004

6,02,626

7,69,888

Maharashtra

2,72,970

2,12,214

3,12,618

6,58,259

Kerala

73,245

1,00,934

64,008

61,376

Gujarat

-

18,134

40,820

1,90,557

Other States

47,418

30,173

74,958

40,896

 

 

 

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