GSB
Before we reach NKGSB, lets start with GSB - Goud Saraswat Brahman. (गौड़ सारस्वत ब्राह्मण)
Saraswati river:
There are lots of theories about who we are. Amongst all these the most accepted is that we were dwellers of the Saraswati (सरस्वती ) bank which dis-appeared (गुप्तगामिनि ). We were forced to migrate because of this.
There is no general agreement on how did we move to the current Konkan region. Some say the movement is as old as the one in which परषुराम created Goa. Others say the word (गौड़) is an indication of Bengal association.
Further, some believe we moved out of Goa only after Portuguese invasion. where as there are theories it was a natural dispersion soon after movement from Saraswati bank. The Portuguese ensured by reportedly burning all our कोंकणी books and material that we have no clue about our actual movement and a person like me would keep guessing about how it could have happened. (This is a great material for research and a short film on National Geographic)
West coast migration:
All the Konkani settlers initially settled at the west coast. Arguably because they took sea route to reach from Saraswati. This is also related to the fish eating habits among these Brahmans which was a reason for a verbal fight with other so called pure Brahmans.
Here too a theory exists that our Guru (स्वामी जी ) told us to eat fish during migration as no other food was avaialble near the drying Saraswati river. He strictly advised to just eat fish for survival and later revert to vegetarian food. However I think fish is such tasty that history calls us the first non vgetarian Brahmans.
Later dispersed into internal regions, but still remained concentrated near the west coastal line.
Types of people and language
However different theories be there are following types of Konkani and people:
1. Maharashtra south coastal - I would say these are rather Malvani. We do have a lot of words in common, but lets call this as Malvani rather than Konkani
2. Goa: Goa is official Konkani. Although Goans call them the real Konkani, this is highly influenced with Portuguese - both words as well as tone.
3. NK GSB; North Kanara GSB. Northern coastal line of Karnatak. Lets not draw a boundary where North starts. Similar to the Portuguese influence, this part has some words from Urdu - like Khabar (Due to some Muslim rulers). (I am NKGSB)
4 SK GSB. the SK GSB short form is not as commonly used as much as NKGSB. Here there is a lot of influece from Kannada words and tone.
5 Kerala coastline. You would have guessed by now that these GSB have a lotof words, practices and tone influenced form Malayalam.
(I have not considered some other variations like Rajapur Saraswat which actually sound too different from the Konkani I speak)
Coming to the main question - Why a separate section for NK GSB:
Goa Konkani is different and has a State behind it to protect and conserve Goan Konkani and practices. This sounds too different to the extent that many a times, I cannot understand what is going around.
South Kanarites are probably the smartest here and the most business oriented. They have to their Credit four Nationalized banks and a lot of other such organisations. Though the closes to the NKGSB language and practices, they are noticably different in food, words and slang. For instance the word for Onion in South Kanara GSB would sound like an alian to an NK GSB.
Their jokes too are too different and so is their food.
North Kanarites are supposedly more hard working (may be a less smart in selling themselves). Being a NKGSB, I see that the language we speak, the food we eat, the typical Jokes we crack, the lori that is sung for our babies is fast getting exticnct. If you search for Konkani language food and jokes, you are mostly bound to hit a site managed by a South Kanara person (remember? then are good at marketing).
Mostly NKGSB settlers migrated to Mumbai have started speaking Marathi now and similarly those in Bangalore.
I saw that the project Konkani website is too much supervisioned that I cannot easily put my words over there in the list.
So, in order to save this micro-minor community of NKGSB, I am planning to maintain this blog which could have language guide, food guide and other articles in NK Konkani.
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