Konkani goes global on Wiki

For the first time, the world will hear Konkani, the language spoken by people in the coastal states of Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. And it will be heard at ‘Wikimania’ — world conference on language interface and web media organised by the Wikipedia group at Haifa in Israel starting on August 2.

Thanks to the research done on ‘inter-script transliteration programme’ by the Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation at the World Konkani Centre, experts around the world can now have a glimpse of the rich literature, traditions, music, theatre and culture of Konkani people. “For the first time Konkani will break away from the barriers of scripts, which will give it a universal acceptance,” said Vaman Shenoy, director, Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation Basti.

The two Konkani scholars, Gurudutt Buntwalkar and Hariprasad Nadig, conceptualised this new ‘Inter-script Transliteration Programme’ in the ‘plug in’ version. In an exclusive preview to DNA Gurudutt said “Usage of multiple scripts in Konkani language has hindered sharing of knowledge between the communities. With the advent of Internet, technology has enabled an accessible knowledge sharing platform for Indian languages through Unicode.”

Like any language Konkani also had its share of conflicts over the script. “This new research initiative will end all that confusions,” said Gurudutt.