Konkani, A Language or An Identity? An Evidence-Based Report

An individual’s identity is dependent and involves personal exploration of one’s ethnicity, occupation, gender roles, region, language, political ideology, and religious beliefs (Cooper & Denner, 1998). Language is an institution of identity construction both individually and collectively, and it helps one to form meaning in a particular context and roots one to the region to which one belongs (Clément et al., 2000; Wodak, 2012). Many Indian vernacular languages underwent an excellent change post-independence, as each ethnic group has a language they identify with. Such an identity is based on the language spoken by the Konkans, who speak Konkani.