Goan (Konkani: गोंयकार Goenkar) is the demonym used to describe the people of the Indian state of Goa,who form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Scytho-Dravidian and Negrito ethnic and/or linguistic ancestries.^[2][3] They speak different dialects of Konkani natively.^[4] Goan Hindus may refer to themselves as Konkane^{[citation needed]} (Devanagari:कोंकणे), meaning the residents of Konkan. Goanese is an incorrect usage for Goans.^[5]

Language[link]

Goans speak the Konkani language, a Prakrit based language belonging to the Southern group of Indo-Aryan Languages. Various dialects of Konkani spoken by the Goans include Bardeskari, Sashtikari, Pednekari, Antruj bhas, whereas Konkani spoken by the Catholics is notably different from those of the Hindus, with a lot of Portuguese influence in its vocabulary. Konkani was suppressed under the Portuguese rule, playing a minor part in education of the past generations. They are mostly multilingual and Marathi has played a significant role for Hindus especially amongst its monolingual lower castes.^[4] Most Goans were educated in Portuguese in the past. There is a very small minority of descendants of the Portuguese, most of whom are of mixed descent and speak Portuguese.^[6]

They use Devanagari and Latin script for education as well as communication (personal, formal and religious). In the past Goykanadi, Modi, Kannada scripts were used which later fell into disuse owing to many social, political and religious reasons.^[7][8]

Religion[link]

Goans comprise a predominantly Hindu and Roman Catholic population and a small Muslim community. The majority of population in Goa follow Hinduism, and are divided into many different castes and sub-castes, known as Jatis. They use their village names to identify their clans, some of them use titles. Some even are known by the occupation their ancestors have been practicing; Nayak, Borkar, Raikar, Prabhu, Kamat, Lotlikar, Chodankar, Naik, Bhat, Tari, Gaude are few examples.^[9]

The Catholics on the other hand display a strong Portuguese influence, because of the 451 years as a Portuguese colony. Portuguese names are common among the Christians. The Caste system is still followed by Goan Catholics. Some Catholic families also share Indo-Portuguese ancestry. The native Muslims are small in number and are popularly known as Moir (Konkani: मैर ).^[9][10]

Geographical distribution[link]

Goans have been migrating all along the coast and across the world for the last six centuries because of many socio-religious and economic reasons, the diaspora are commonly known as the Konkani people, residing in the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala who do not refer to themselves as Goans. Many Goans have settled in Mumbai (Bombay) in the last century and still identify themselves as Goans. India's Goan population is mainly concentrated in the mega cities like Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Pune.^[11]

Until the early 1970s there were substantial populations of Goans in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Angola. The end of colonial rule and the subsequent waves of explusion of Indians from Kenya and Uganda forced the community to migrate elsewhere.^[11] The Gulf News put the number of Goans residing outside India as approximately 300,000.^[1]

See also[link]

• Goan Catholics
• Goan Hindus
• Konkani people
• Goan cuisine
• List of people from Goa

References[link]

Look up Goan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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