Konkani in the Roman script

Roman Konkani is known to be the oldest preserved and protected literary tradition beginning from the 16th century AD.

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.

Thomas Stephens made vital contributions to the development of Roman Konkani orthography in the early 1600s.

Eduardo Bruno de Souza launched the first Roman Konkani monthly titled Udentechem Salok (Lotus of The East) in 1889, in Pune.

[5] Reginaldo Fernandes (1914–1994) wrote over 200 Konkani novels in the Roman script called Romanses.

Some examples of this are the growing online readership for Vauraddeancho Ixtt[9] and several groups and pages on social networking website Facebook[10] in support of Romi Konkani.

Goans who do not know Devanagari are unable to communicate with the state government in their own language and are forced to use English instead, contributing to the decline of Konkani.

In January 2013, the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court issued a notice to the state government on a Public Interest Litigation filed by the Romi Lipi Action Front seeking to amend the Official Language Act to grant official language status to Roman Konkani.

[13] In 2016, the Goa Su-Raj Party announced in its manifesto for the 2017 assembly elections that it supports official status for Roman Konkani.