Official Language of - Goa
Spoken by - 2,489 million
Konkani is an Indian language spoken in the Konkan region in the west coast of India. This region comprises the Konkan division of Maharashtra, Goa, Canara, i.e. coastal Karnataka, and a few pockets in Kerala. The Konkani language is said to hail from the Indo-European family of languages and is considerably influenced by languages like Portuguese, Kannada, Tulu, Marathi and Persian. There are two significant theories pertaining the history and origin of Konkani.
As per the first theory about the Konkani language, its originators were the Saraswat Brahmins who resided alongside the banks of the Saraswati River flowing in northwest part of India. This incident is dated as late as some 5000 years ago. But due to the seismic movement of the Earth, the Saraswat Brahmins had to migrate from there and they finally settled down in the Gomantek region of the country. They brought their own dialect of Sauraseni Prakrit, which with time evolved into the modern Konkani language.
Another theory is that Konkani is a Sanskritised version of a language that is now spoken by the Kokna tribe. The Kokna tribe is also famous by the names of Kokni, Kukni and Kukna. Though, in the present times, these tribals can be found in northern part of Maharashtra and south Gujarat, it is believed that they had primarily settled in the Konkan region. It was the migrating Aryans who came to the Konkan region, picked up this language and mixed numerous Sanskrit words into it.
In current times, Konkani is a dominant language of people residing at the picturesque sea port of Goa. Originally, it was the Brahmi script that was used for writing in the language. But later, when it lost its popularity, the Devanagri script started being used instead. This script was significantly used for religious purposes, for maintaining accounts and trade ledgers as well as for other activities of daily life.
The evolution of Konkani, as both language and literature, has seen some major sharp curves. For instance, Konkani was well nurtured under the care of the Hindus rulers evolving its own dramatic form and expression. It developed its own rich folklore, proverbs, lullabies, nursery rhymes and so on. In comparison, the Muslim domination in the Konkani speaking belt had an adverse effect on the growth of the Konkani language.
Some remarkable works in Konkani literature include the Cover of Dovtrina Christam by Fr. Thomas Stephens. This is probably the first published work in Konkani. Then there's also the Konkani Mansagangotri written by Prof Olivinho Gomes, Vajralikhani by Shenoi Goembab, Konkani Bhashecho Itihas by Shenoi Goembab, etc. Another famous piece of Konkani literature is the Sollavea Xekddeantlem Konknni Mhabharot by Adi Porv, which is a collection of 18 stories from the Indian epic, Mahabharata.
Konkani is an exuberant language, belonging to Indo-Aryan language group, widely spoken on the western coast of India, namely Konkan. Various states of India namely northern and central coasts of Maharashtra, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Canara (coastal Karnataka) and also some provinces of Kerala are integrated to this whole of Konkan area and speak Konkani.
Thus quite a large number of people speak this beautiful language of Konkani. A report was brought out by 'The Census Department of India' in the year 1991, which records that the number of Konkani speakers in India is 1,760,607. This population comprises of 0.21% of the total number of people residing in Indian subcontinent. It secures the position of being fifteenth in the comprehensive list of 'Scheduled Languages'. It was recorded as per the total 'strength' of people. Very recently, the ethnological record gave an estimation of 7.6 million speakers in the whole of the world.
Konkani LanguageThe evolution of Konkani is quite significant. In the initial years of its inception, Konkani has developed as a popular language in Goa province. Although Brahmi script was used in the initial days, soon it paved the way for Devangiri script rampantly used for writing. It was used widely for spiritual purposes and also for maintenance of accounts, trading ledgers and other daily chores.
The next era of the development of Konkani is largely embellished with the contributions of various communities. Various Konkani communities molded the Konkani language suiting their own viability. Muslim communities of the Konkan region of Ratnagiri and Bhatkal shaped the Konkani languages. Factors like inter caste marriages with Arab populace, changeovers of Hindus to Muslims etc have brought about these changes in the language. Some of them who have settled down in near by territories also implanted several modifications in their language and practices also. Thus in this way, during the last five hundred years, the Konkani language spread to various state provinces like Canara, Kokan-patta and Kerala etc.
In a whole, Three emigrational phases are marked that have resulted in this expansion of Konkani The first migration has occurred during the early years of Portuguese rule and the Inquisition of 1560s. The second phase of migration was during the great war of 1571 C.E. war , with Sultan of Bijapur as its initiator. The third phase of migration took place during the wars of 1683-1740 C.E. with the Marathas. If the first phase was largely due the Hindus migrants who escape from the religious persecutions, the second and third phases were largely attributed to Christian emigrants.
These migrant communities lived in comparative loneliness, each developing its own dialect. Since these communities had to interact with others in local languages on a daily basis, Konkani dialects show strong local influences in terms of script, vocabulary and also style.
Truly, the coming of Portuguese to the Indian soils brought about the sea changes of Konkani language. Their Christian norms and practices highly got mingled up among the Konkani speakers. In the beginning of Portuguese colonization, it was these Christian missionaries of Portuguese who felt the need of propagating their religion of Christianity in a way that the local people can easily understand. This venture of translating the literary works of Christians had begun by leaps and bounds.
In 1684 C.E, for the first time the Portuguese settlers imposed a ban on the usage of local languages in all the Indian territories that they have conquered, just to keep a halt on the possibilities of propagating religious dictums in Hinduism. Further to prohibit all ties of the inhabitants to their original cultural tradition, the settlers have imposed Portuguese as an official language, thus leading to a stable decline of Konkani. It no longer received the state patronage. The use of Portuguese moulds the Konkani to a large extent. Multitudes of upper class Christians used Konkani largely to interact with the lower classes, mainly using Portuguese in societal assemblies. Meanwhile, the migrant communities outside Goa held Konkani lively, and the language got diversified shape.
The succeeding few years, the Konkani language was in a real deplorable state due to the dominance of not only Portuguese and also several other Indian languages like Marathi. Thanks to the initiative of a modern literate namely, Vaman Raghunath Varde Valaulikar, popularly known as Shenoi Goembab, Konkani language was revived. He is regarded as the pioneer of modern Konkani literature, also took initiative of this revival by composing several writings in Konkani language.
Learn Konkani
http://www.gsbkonkani.net/konkani.htm
http://www.goans.or.tz/Konkani.pdf
http://www.languageshome.com/
Wiki Link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkani_language