First new modern Konkani dictionary release on Dec 20

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Dec 13, 2019:   December 20 Friday is set to be a red letter day for Konkani language users. Bishop of Mangalore Dr Peter Paul Saldanha, in the presence of  dignitaries is  to release the first ever Konkani–Konkani–English–Kannada dictionary at St Anthony Charitable Institutes Jeppu. Bishop emeritus Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, Prof D G Rao, Director, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru, and Prof Aravinda Malagatti, renowned scholar and thinker as well as the former chairman of the Karnataka Sahitya Academy, will grace the occasion said Prof Stephen Quadros, editor.

 

Addressing media at press club on Thursday, December 12, he further said, “Konkani is the official language in Goa, and one of the official languages of India. According to the 2001 census of India, there are just fewer than 2.5 million Konkani speakers in India.

History : Fr Angelo Xavier Maffei, a Jesuit priest, did the pioneering work of compiling the first English-Konkani dictionary in 1883. It was printed at the Basel Mission Printing Press, Mangaluru. Fr Maffei also came out with a Konkani-English Dictionary too. After Maffei, one of the significant works has been ‘Konkani English Shabd Sangraha,  by Mgr Sylvester Menezes. Later Anthony Saldanha prepared a Konkani dictionary. In the year 2004, Fr Valerian Fernandes prepared a unique Konkani-English vocabulary guide. Prof Steven Quadros  came out with the pioneering English Konkani Dictionary in Kannada script in 2007. More than 25,000 English words have been given their Konkani equivalents in this dictionary. In the year 2014. It was a huge work of 50,000 head entries and first of it’s kind.

“The Patha Darshini Seva Trust now has ready for publishing the first Konkani–Konkani–English–Kannada Dictionary. This work, apart from the synonyms, gives gender, tense, common form and cases of a term and other grammatical explanations needed. Homonyms and antonyms are also provided wherever applicable. In the usages, sentences mostly based on oral literature, idioms, phrases etc are given thus making this dictionary a user friendly work.

’Welcome to Konkani’ which is also going to be released during the function is a recall select vocabulary of Konkani; it is as such a first-of-its-kind. This work gives Konkani equivalents for English words. The same are arranged into 40 sections. Each entry is in Kannada script as well as Roman script Konkani. Apart from that the entry is also given in International Phonetic Alphabets enabling the non-native Konkani speaker to pronounce the Konkani words easily and thereby study this beautiful language. Prof Steven along with Dr Alwyn D’Sa compiled and edited this work.

Dr Allwyn D’Sa, writer Henry Mendonca, Roman Lobo, Rev J B Crasta of Rosario Cathedral were present. The release of this publication heralds a new era for the Konkani language.