(This is the text of the article published in the Golden Jubilee souvenir of Konkani Bhasha Mandal Bombay in 1993. The article was written by Padmasri N Purushothama Mallya, Hon. Secretary of Konkani Bhasha Prachar Sabha Only obvious typographical and spelling errors found in the published article have been corrected)

As regards standard Konkani, Dr. Jose Pereira writes, “In Goa, due to the persecution of Konkani, beginning with its legal suppression in 1684- the uniform standard disintegrated and was replaced by dialects like Saxtii, Bardhexi and Antruzi. But standard Konkani did not utterly vanish; it was carried by some Konkanies, fleeing from the persecution of the inquisition to the Kanaras; the dialect of the Saraswat Brahmins of the Kanaras is thus the modern form of Konkani nearest to the standard language.”
the total population of Konkani speakers in India is estimated to be 5 million. They are mainly in the States of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. Goa is the homeland of Konkani. The total population of Goa is 1 million. The remaining 4 million people speaking Konkani, therefore reside in States outside the State of Goa.

Konkani which is recognized as an independent literary language of India for Awards by Sahitya Akademi is now included in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution as one of the National languages of India. Konkani is mentioned as spoken and vigorous literary, cultural language by missionaries of the 16th century. The Hindu Konkanis who fled Goa to escape religious persecution were too few and too distributed and disorganized to carry on the literary tradition of Goa and were swamped by languages Marathi, Kannada and Malayalam which enjoyed a numerical superiority and better organization and patronage. In goa itself, the Home of Konkani, Konkani was swamped by Portuguese even as other native languages were swamped by English.

Konkani being an off shoot of Prakrit language we can find Prakrit vocables preserved in Konkani which have become more and more stationary. Preservation of old forms and becoming stationary has been considered as a mark of the language of highly civilized society. Mr. Max Muller says, ” The languages of highly civilized people become more and more stationary and sometimes seem almost to lose their power of organic change”. According to Acharyas, the rules of Tatsama, Tadbhava and Deshya are essential to detect Prakrit from various languages. Tatsamam Tadbhavam Deshyam Trividam Prakritam Matam (Dandin). The rules of Tatsamam, Tadbhava and Deshya are adopted by Konkani. Old Prakrit vocables have ‘oo’ and ‘o’ for their masculine nouns. It is said that in course of time, the final ;oo’ and ‘o’ of Prakrit nouns have in almost all cases been dropped in vernaculars, and the vowel ‘oo’ has been changed to short ‘a’ and ‘o’ but Konkani now spoken in Kerala and other places still preserves the ancient Prakrit rules which it has taken from Magadhi.

The nouns which end in short ‘a’ in Hindi and Marathi end in ‘oo’ in Konkani spoken in Kerala and Karnataka while those ending in long or lengthened ‘aa’ have ‘o’ for their final in Konkani as Hathu (hand) for Hath and Kanu for Kan in Marathi, Ghodo (horse) in Konkani for Ghoda in Marathi. This is Tadbhav form, i.e.., it sprang up from Sanskrit in Prakrit. Moreover, it has been said that the final ‘e’ and ‘oo’ of Sanskrit words, recently imported from Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati etc. have been dropped in accordance with the present law of accentuation. Since Konkani being an off shoot of Eastern Magadhi did not accept these rules. Konkanis pronounce the final ‘e’ and ‘oo’ of Sanskrit words in their original form, i.e.., it is ‘Reet’ manner in Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati for ‘Reeti’ in Sanskrit and Konkani and Vasth (a thing) in Marathi and Gujarati for Vasthu in Sanskrit and Konkani. This is Tatsamam form, i.e., same as in Sanskrit.
Konkani has as many accents and intonations as the number of regions where it is spoken. As for variation in the speech of Konkani, one can find that even a literally advanced language like Malayalam is even today spoken with many accents and inflexions.

A survey completed by the Kerala University Department of Linguistics some time back has helped to identify the major dialect regions in Kerala in respect of Malayalam as spoken by a single community alone- Ezhavas/Thiyyas. These dialect regions have at least 25 sub-dialects. Namboodiris, Nairs and Mappilas speak the Malayalam language, but with different accents and inflexions. In spite of these variations, Malayalam has reached standardization through producing literature in the respective dialects and eventually a common standard has been evolved by the writers themselves. Konkani, although spoken in different regions with different accents and inflexions can also reach a common standard if literature is produced by writers coming from each of the dialect regions.

No doubt, the Konkani of Maharashtra is influenced by Marathi language, of Goa by Portuguese especially Konkani spoken by Christians of Goa, of Karnataka by Kannada, and of Kerla by Malayalam. The Konkani spoken in Karwar-Kumta regions in North Kanara district of Karnataka which formerly formed part of Bombay Presidency, can be taken as a basis for standardization of the language as that region was least influenced by Kannada, Marathi, Portuguese, Malayalam or Tulu. Of course, almost all people irrespective of caste, community and religion speak Konkani there. It is the language of the people there. Hence, we should work for standardization based on the dialect of Konkani spoken in Karwar/Kumta. Although one finds hard to understand Konkani written and spoken in Goa by Konkani speakers of Kerala and other places, Konkani spoken in Karwar/Kumta can be understood by the Konkani speakers residing in Kerala, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. This is what I have experienced by my visit to Kumta and Karwar and going through the literary works they have written in the dialect of the region.

It is easy for Konkani language to reach standardization and of course, it has to reach as it is now included in the 8th schedule as one of the National Languages of India as the root words of the language are the same though they are spoken with different accent and inflexions in each region. As most of the languages of India are dependent on Sanskrit for their vocabulary, Konkani which is an off shoot of Sanskrit can also draw and is bound to draw as many words as it wants from Sanskrit to build up its vocabulary. Hindi which is now accepted as the National language of India had drawn as many wors as it can from Sanskrit in order to bring standardization and the writers of Hindi started their writings in Hindi based on Sanskrit. There is no harm in retaining Konkani drawn from regional or foreign languages as that will enrich its vocabulary. Foreign and regional words can be treated as ‘Paryayas’.

As regards script for Konkani, Devanagari is the script of Konkani as is the case with Marathi and Hindi. The script helps many a writer in Konkani to know the style, form, vocabulary used in writing the language spoken in each region namely, Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra. As Sahitya Akademi recognized Konkani with Devanagari as its script and the acceptance of Konkani writers living in all the states of India that Devanagari should be employed in writing Konkani, it will help many a writer in Konkani residing in Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra to know the Konkani writers and the style adopted in the regions to write Konkani. this will help to some extent the young writers to adopt a new style of writing Konkani which should be understood by all in order to make all know the language written in the respective States where Konkani is spoken. It is for the writers of Goa to follow standardization in Konkani in their writings to be understood by all and for that Konkani spoken in Karwar/Kumta may be adopted in their writings keeping in view that ‘Praman’ Konkani of the 16th century is not eliminated but it should be assimilated adopting as many Sanskrit words as they can adopt in their writings which will help others residing outside Goa to know the language written by them. The Konkani now written in Goa is based on Antruz dialect while in Kerala and Karnataka, it is written in Saxtii dialect. The Konkani daily ‘Sunaparant’ published from Goa and magazines, monthlies, quarterlies published from Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra play a due role to reach standardization of Konkani and it is yet to reach standardization.

Let us hope that the language Konkani will reach standardization in the days to come, and it is now on its way to reach standardization. Till standardization is reached, let the writers write their literary works in the dialect of their respective regions and that will go a long way to enrich Konkani literature.

(Editor’s comment: The above article was written 30 years ago. Have we come anywhere near standardizing Konkani? It is obvious we have not. It is therefore high time that we renew our efforts if we love our mother language and desire its enrichment cutting across the State borders)