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Friday, March 29

Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation organizes Seminar

Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation organizes Seminar


Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, January 17: The Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation of World Konkani Centre organized a seminar titled “Integration through Language” as part of Basti Vaman Shenoy’s platinum jubilee celebrations in TV Raman Pai Convention Hall, Mangalore, on Jan 17, Sunday.

 

Konkani seminar 1

 

Konkani seminar 2

 

Konkani seminar 3


The first session of the seminar, “Inter-culture Relationships—Konkani and Local Languages,” was inaugurated by Erya Lakshminarayana Alva, the eminent Kannada litterateur. He said that Mangalore is not the land of Tulu speakers alone; it comprises a number of people who speak Konkani, Beary, and Kannada.” Mangalore is a multilingual city, he said.

He said that the Beary community has made wonderful contributions to the Muslim community at the international level. The Beary language and community of Mangalore is unique because other Beary dialects found in other geographic locations are quite different.

He said that all these languages must be recognized at a national level. They should not be considered minority languages. Alva said that the importance given to Kannada by the Konkani-speaking communities has not been given by any other community.

Prof B M Ichalangod, a member of the Karnataka Beary Sahitya Academy, spoke about the relationship between the Konkani and the Beary languages. He said that at the beginning of the era, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, and Kerala were collectively known as Tulunadu. The Dravidians lived in these areas during the sixth century. Only 2 scripts were found among the 5 Dravidian languages, he said.

The Beary Community came into existence when the Arab merchants mingled with the local Dravidian population. During the eighth century BC, the Arabs considered themselves superior and regarded all others as untouchables. The Beary language, therefore, comprises 70 percent Dravidian and Tulu words, 20 percent Arabic words, 5 percent Tulu words, and five percent original Beary words.

Many people think that Beary is a dialect of Malayalam. This is not so because Beary has a different grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. One can say that Beary resembles Tulu more than it resembles Malayalam. Even the Beary script resembles the Tulu script. When Tulu was the ruling language of Mangalore, members of the Beary community added the word “Beary” to their names.

He said that the population of Konkani speaking people is 60 lakhs, which is higher than the population of Tulu speakers in the country. The Beary community comprises only 15 lakh and the Beary speakers in Mangalore are only 4 – 5 lakhs. He said that a number of Konkani speakers speak better Beary than the people of the Beary community.

The second session, “Konkanakhyan” comprised a number of papers presented by eminent personalities such as N Shivadas, the president of Goa Konkani Academy; Fr. Eric Crasta, the president of Konkani Bhasha Mandal, Karnataka; and R S Bhaskar, the eminent Konkani scholar of Ernakulam, Kerala. 
 

Dr. K Mohan Pai made the welcome speech. Kudpi Jagadish Shenoy, the president of Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation, and Dr. P Dayanad Pai, the chairman of the Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation were among the guests of honor.


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