Konkani Language and Scripts – A Historical Linguistic Overview (Jason Pinto, SDB)

[Frederick Noronha]

ABSTRACT: The Konkani language, spoken along the western coast of India, embodies a unique linguistic and cultural heritage marked by its multiplicity of scripts and regional variations. Despite being constitutionally recognized, the language continues to face deep divisions over script usage—principally between the Devanagari, Roman and Kannada proponents. This paper offers a comprehensive historical-linguistic overview of Konkani’s evolution, tracing its origins from the Maharashtri Prākrit and its development through successive socio-political and cultural interactions. It highlights how the language’s script diversity mirrors the pluralism of its speakers, while also revealing the identity politics underlying script based movements, particularly after the Official Language Act of Goa (1987). Through a critical analysis of archival records, missionary texts and linguistic evidence, the study challenges the antiquity-based argument for a single “natural” script and emphasizes that any language can adapt multiple scripts to represent its phonemic inventory. Examining examples from Kannada inscriptions, Roman missionary orthography and modern Devanagari representations, the paper highlights the script plurality that has historically enriched Konkani rather than weakened it. Drawing from comparative models like Serbian digraphia, it proposes a digraphic or even trigraphic framework for Konkani, aligning with global linguistic inclusivity and technological adaptability. The study concludes that Konkani’s vitality depends not on enforcing script uniformity but on embracing its inherent multiplicity. Recognizing script diversity as a strength rather than a threat could transform Konkani into a model for multilingual coexistence in the globalized era.  Keywords: Konkani Language, Linguistic History, Digraphia, Devanagari Script, Roman Script, Kannada Script, Language Identity, Script Politics, Multilingualism, Globalization, Indo-Aryan Linguistics.

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_/  Frederick Noronha  फ्रेडरिक नोरोन्या  * فريدريك نورونيا‎
_/  AUDIO https://archive.org/details/@fredericknoronha
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[John de Figueiredo]

Congratulations to Fr. Jason Pinto for this comprehensive review of the history of Konkani scripts.

John M. de Figueiredo 

Sent from my iPhone

On May 23, 2026, at 3:39 AM, Frederick Noronha <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:



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