Konkani alphabets


Konkani alphabets refers to the five different scripts currently used to write the Konkani language.
As of 1987, the "Goan Antruz dialect" in the Devanagari script has been declared Standard Konkani and promulgated as an official language in the Indian state of Goa. As Konkani in the Roman script is not mandated as an official script by law. However, an ordinance passed by the government of Goa allows the use of Roman script for official communication. This ordinance has been put into effect by various ministries in varying degrees. For example, the stipulate that the various forms used in the election process must be in both the Roman and Devanagari script.

Ancient

The earliest inscription in Konkani in Goykanadi script is of the Gupta period in the 2nd century CE found at Aravalem, Goa. It reads
The famous inscription at the foot of the colossal Jain monolith Gomaṭēśvara Konkani: gomṭo - pretty masc., īśvar - God at Shravanabelagola of 981 CE reads,
At the foot of the Gommateshwara at Shravanabelagola there are two inscriptions. One on the right foot and one on the left. On the right foot the inscription is written in old Kannada. On the left foot it is in Devanagari.

Present

The rules for writing Konkani in the Devanagari script are elucidated in a book released by the Goa Konkani Academy titled kōṅkaṇī śuddhalēkhanācē nēm. While the rules for writing Konkani in the Roman script are elucidated in a book titled thomas sṭīvans koṅkaṇi kēndr Romi Lipi by writer Pratap Naik, released by Konkani singer Ullās Buyā̃v at Dalgado Konkani Academy and in Romi Lipient Konknni Kors.

Vowels and syllabic consonants

Observations

  1. अ - करता kartā is written as korta or even corta
  2. ओ - दोन dōn is written as don.
  3. ऒ - पॊरनॆं pornẽ is written as pornem
  4. आ and ऍ are rendered by a and ê respectively in the Roman script.
  5. आ - हांव hā̃v is written as hanv or Anv
  6. ऍ - कॅनरा kænarā is written as Kanara or Canara.

Observations

In Konkani, the ं is traditionally defined as representing a nasal stop homorganic to a following plosive, and also vowel nasalisation. The precise phonetic value of the phoneme is dependent on the phonological environment. Word-finally, it is realized as nasalization of the preceding vowel. It results in vowel nasalization also medially between a short vowel and a non-obstruent ". It is pronounced as a homorganic nasal, with the preceding vowel becoming nasalized allophonically, in the following cases: between a long vowel and a voiced stop, between a long vowel and a voiceless stop, and also between a short vowel and an obstruent

Avagraha (ऽ)

Konkani is one of the few modern Indo-Aryan languages to apply the avagraha beyond mere sustenance of an exclamation, cry or shout in speech. It is used by verbs in continuous tense. The avagraha is not used in Standard Konkani in the continuous tense. Its use is however popular and prevalent amongst the Canara Saraswats, both Gaud and Bhanap, writing in their native Amchigele dialect, in the continuous tense with the aim of conforming to the schwa deletion rule.
SentenceKonkani in Devanagari
He was doingतॊ करतलॊऽशिलॊ
He is doingतॊ करतऽसा
He will be doingतॊ करतलॊऽसतलॊ

The avagraha is also used to mark the non-elision of word-final inherent a, which otherwise is a modern orthographic convention: बैसऽ baisa "sit" versus बैस bais.

Schwa deletion

The schwa deletion or schwa syncope phenomenon plays a crucial role in Konkani and several other Indo-Aryan languages, where schwas implicit in the written scripts of those languages are obligatorily deleted for correct pronunciation. Schwa syncope is extremely important in these languages for intelligibility and unaccented speech. It also presents a challenge to non-native speakers and speech synthesis software because the scripts, including Nagar Barap, do not provide indicators of where schwas should be dropped.
This means the schwa implicit in each consonant of the script is "obligatorily deleted" at the end of words and in certain other contexts, unlike in Sanskrit. This phenomenon has been termed the "schwa syncope rule" or the "schwa deletion rule" of Konkani. In other words, when a vowel-preceded consonant is followed by a vowel-succeeded consonant, the schwa inherent in the first consonant is deleted. However, this formalization is inexact and incomplete, and can yield errors. Schwa deletion is computationally important because it is essential to building text-to-speech software for Konkani. Without the appropriate deletion of schwas, any speech output would sound unnatural.
As a result of schwa syncope, the Konkani pronunciation of many words differs from that expected from a literal Sanskrit-style rendering of Devanagari. For instance, करता is kartā not karatā, आपयता is āpaytā not āpayatā, वेद is vēd not vēda and मिरसांग is mirsāṅg not mirasāṅga.
For instance, the letter sequence ळब is pronounced differently in मळब maḷab "sky" and मळबा'र maḷbār "in the sky". While native speakers correctly pronounce the sequences differently in different contexts, non-native speakers and voice-synthesis software can make them "sound very unnatural", making it "extremely difficult for the listener" to grasp the intended meaning.

Vowel nasalization

With some words that contain /n/ or /m/ consonants separated from succeeding consonants by schwas, the schwa deletion process has the effect of nasalizing any preceding vowels. Some examples in Konkani include:
  1. The final inherent अ is generally omitted; e.g. देव is dēv not dēva.
  2. In a word of three letters ending with a vowel other than the inherent अ, if the second consonant ends in अ, then the अ of the second consonant is silenced. e.g. चॆरकॊ is cerko not cerako.
  3. In a word of four letters ending with a vowel other than the inherent अ, the second consonant, if it ends in अ, then the अ of the second consonant is silenced. e.g. उपकार is upkār not upakāra.
  4. Verb roots always end in a consonant even if they undergo declination. e.g. आपंव +चॆं= आपंवचॆं, hence one says āpãvcẽ not āpãvacẽ , आपय+ता=आपयता, hence we say āpaytā not āpayatā
  5. More details about the schwa deletion rules are given on the Konkanverter website.

    Citations