Translation, Script and Orality: Becoming a Language of State English 2021

Translation, Script and Orality: Becoming a Language of State traces debates around transcription/translation in Konkani that eventually contoured the development of the language towards nationalist or state-seeking forms. Though the book is structured around contemporary linguistic states such as Goa, Pinto argues for a focus on aspects of language that deviate from the nationalist literary norm. The present volume is structured as a long essay, interspersed with excerpts from the introductions and prefaces to transcribed/translated texts. The historically significant extracts demonstrate the shifts in perspectives with regard to transcription and translation, and reveal how what was once termed a dialect, acquired the symbolic attributes of cultural dominance necessitated by nationalist discourse.