While Goans have access to many languages, not enough attention is paid to this field, noted the speakers at the book launch of Glossario, a dictionary covering words between Konkani and Portuguese, compiled by the late Francisco Xavier Valeriano de Sá.
With roots in Santo Estevam, Sa, who passed away in 2023, has written 15 books on a wide range of topics like music and history.
This book was written for those who cherished both the languages, and could no longer get a dictionary connecting the two languages in the Romi script, the earlier one by Sebastiao Dalgado long being out of print.
The release event was attended by professor of English Dr. Isabel Vaz, lexicographer Damodar Ghanekar, Dr. Pratap Naik SJ, director of Fundação Oriente Paulo Gomes, and other language enthusiasts.
Speaking at the launch, Vaz observed how Portuguese added many words to the Konkani language.
“In fact, sometimes we lose track of what is Portuguese and what is Konkani,” she said, adding that while our history has given us a cultural accident, and access to a whole lot of languages, sadly, these are used as weapons. To broaden Goans scope of learning languages, Vaz suggested introducing more languages early in schools. Ghanekar pointed out to the ignorance of locals about the Language Act, Akademi or the Directorate of Official Language and insisted on the need for better grammar learning in languages.
“In the workshops I conduct on grammar, I find Konkani teachers are ignorant about the nuances of the language. Konkani grammar is the basis of all you study and teach,” he said.
Ghanekar also pointed to recent work in dictionary-making in Goa including a Konkani-Marathi dictionary which will soon be out.
“Missionaries used Roman alphabet with diacritical marks, and they were quite accurate in reproducing Konkani sounds. Due to this, linguists like me can study the linguistic features of old Konkani,” said Naik, adding that the current scripts were inadequate to write old Konkani.
Konkani, he further added, doesn’t have prepositions, so the oblique forms of words were important.
Gomes stated that Konkani and Portuguese are “two beautiful languages”, and suggested that the two languages had much to benefit from each other.
The glossary, published by Goa,1556, is dedicated to the late scholar Dr Olivinho Gomes, who lent his support to the book, but passed away before its publishing.
