In a world divided by language, a group of Portuguese speaking Goans have come together to preserve the dialect of Portuguese, spoken only in Goa. NT BUZZ finds out more
Janice Rodrigues|NT BUZZ
Psycholinguist Frank Smith was once quoted saying: “One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” This is quite true especially in a multilingual culture like India. The Indian Constitution itself lists around 22 languages, which can be further sub-categorised into dialects and scripts. Languages have been influenced by various factors, be it the region or the social influx of migratory population or the presence of an external ruler.
In this article the third factor plays an important role. India has had lot of rulers who had come from beyond the borders, some assimilated themselves into the existing society while others were here to rule and stayed aloof from their subjects. Goa has been a perfect example where both these types of people were seen. With the rule of 450 years, it was quite natural that the influence of the Portuguese rulers seeped down into the very fabric of the Goan culture. And language was not left out in this phenomenon.
“The Portuguese rule may have been a tyrannical one, but they have left behind so much in legacy for us in terms of language,” says Suresh Bandekar. Bandekar is part of a group people who have come together woven by a thread of commonality – their love and interest in the Portuguese language. “It is only the language,” says Bandekar who talks animatedly punching his fist onto his other palm asserting the point, “we are not supporting or got anything to do with Portugal as a country and its people.” The group consisting of around ten Portuguese language lovers had registered themselves sometime last year under the name of ‘A Grande Familia de Goa.’ The group functions like any other association complete with a president, secretary and treasurer, and meets once a month.
Bandekar says the aim of the group is to preserve a language, which was spoken in the state for such a long time that it has been ingrained into the local language. “Whatever languages are spoken in Goa should be preserved; and every person who speaks Konkani has at some point or the other used words that have been Portuguese loanwords,” says Bandekar who is the secretary of the group.
Further elucidating his point he lists words that are common to both languages: “’Bolce’ for pocket, ‘lace’ for the handkerchief, ‘Obrigad’ for thank you, these are a few examples. But I know that the poet and writer Manohar Rai Sardessai had studied the languages and he found that there were 350 words in the Konkani language which find their presence in Portuguese as well.” Bandekar, intrigued by Sardessai’s works did a little research of his own and found that the Konkani, especially that spoken by the Catholic population has around 49 loanwords that are used on a regular basis.
In a time of cable TV and corporatisation, our day-to-day languages are faced with the threat of anglicisation. “Earlier we would refer to parents as mai and pai or grandparents as avo, now everyone calls their parents mum, dad. We have now given into the habit of anglicising everything, thus losing out on the old forms of addressing people, this in turn is a barrier in preserving language,” says Bandekar.
The group is trying their best to preserve the language and extends their help to anyone who wants to learn the language. “Language is preserved by talking it, we aim to talk more in the language. We have come to the decision that whenever we meet we will speak in Portuguese. Whoever wants to learn the language, and the proper pronunciation of words are welcome to contact us,” says Bandekar. He also states that there is a difference in the way the Portuguese speak and the Goans speak the language. He further adds that reading is another way to preserve the language: “We read anything for Portuguese language. We go looking for signboards, names and places, which have Portuguese words in them and we bring it to the groups notice, we are happy that the old names of places are still retained in the state. Apart from this we attend every function that revolves around the Portuguese language.”
Bandekar points out that there are several families that still speak Portuguese at home, however, this is mainly restricted to that of the Catholic population. “Why only the Christians should have interest in the language, why can’t the Hindu population also show interest in it. It is a language, we are not promoting anything else, and we have no connection or affiliation with Portugal. Portuguese is a third language in schools, but very few Hindus will take it up,” says Bandekar, whose interest in the language began when he took up a course in his school days at the Indo Portuguese Friendship Society.
Ask him about the relevance of the language in today’s time, he gets animated again and says: “Of course, there is relevance, we need people who will know the language well. We have already lost many Portuguese writings by people from Goa, the remaining will also be lost. Plus documents such as birth certificates, property papers from before 1960 were all in Portuguese. Many people have been duped for they don’t know what those documents say. We are trying to spread the knowledge of the language so that people are capable of reading these important documents as well.”
Quite relevant to the subject at hand, the quote by Rita Mae Brown rings true, “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” Though we may not be able to chart out where we are heading in the future, but we can surely draw a picture of where we got words like ‘patrao’ and ‘obrigad’ from.