Konkani in the Roman script

Konkani in the Roman script, commonly known as Roman Konkani or Romi Konknni (Goan Konkani: रोमी कोंक्णी, Rōmī Kōṅkṇī) refers to the writing of the Konkani language in the Roman script. While Konkani is written in five different scripts altogether, Roman Konkani is widely used. Roman Konkani is known to be the oldest preserved and protected literary tradition beginning from the 16th century AD.

Cover of the Doutrina Christam by Fr. Thomas Stephens, the first published work in Roman Konkani and any other Indian language.

An estimated 500,000 people use Roman Konkani. The use of Devanagari script for Konkani, which is now its official script, first occurred in AD 1187.[1][2][better source needed] Roman Konkani was not mandated as official script by law, for decades even after the Konkani language agitation of the 1960s. However in 2013,[citation needed] an ordinance passed by the Government of Goa allows the use of the Roman script alongside Devanagari Konkani and Marathi for official communication.

The terms 'Konkani in the Roman script' and 'Roman Konkani' do not merely refer to the fact that the language is written in the Roman script, but they also refer to the dialects traditionally written in this script, namely, the Bardesi (Bardes) and Saxtti (Salcette) variants as opposed to the Antruzi (Ponda) dialect written in Devanagari.

  1. ^ Kamat, Dr. Krishnanand. "The origin and development of Konkani language". To serves as a distant learning resource for lesser known topics about India.
  2. ^ Mother Tongue blues — Madhavi Sardesai