Read: "A new book asks if the love for the Portuguese language in Goa is genuine or display of vanity"

[Vivek Pinto]

By: Luis Dias

Published in: Scroll

Date: April 29, 2026

Source: https://scroll.in/article/1092159/a-new-book-asks-if-the-love-for-the-portuguese-language-in-goa-is-genuine-or-display-of-vanity

Note: Please access the source to read the entire article.

"An excerpt from ‘Lusophone Goa: Tracing the Portuguese Language,’ edited by Aren Noronha."

"Portuguese once sat atop Goa’s linguistic totem pole, while Konkani was the 'língua da cozinha e dos criados' (language of the kitchen and of the servants). In a role reversal, in at least two London hospitals in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the language of the kitchen and janitorial staff was Portuguese. Brexit may have changed all that."

Excerpted with permission from ‘My ‘Encontro’ With Paw-Chew-Geese’ by Luis Dias in Lusophone Goa: Tracing the Portuguese Language, edited by Aren Noronha, Goa 1556.