Is or Was Konkani a Dialect of Marathi?

 

Is or Was Konkani a Dialect of Marathi?

Shrikant G. Talageri

 

One can discuss linguistic issues without dragging politics and communal elements into the subject. And the subject of this article is the subject which first brought me into the field of research and analysis work in linguistics and the history of languages in my high school days in the early seventies: "Is Konkani a dialect of Marathi?" This originally led me into the study of languages and linguistics and different alphabets of the world, and eventually into the research into and the solution of the problem of the geographical location of the Original Homeland of the Indo-European languages.

As seems to be happening increasingly frequently, the inspiration for this article was a series of innocuous tweets (brought to my notice) which mentioned me by name, which express the view that "Marathi-Konkani languages were eventually dialects which slowly converted into languages".

Is it a fact that "Marathi-Konkani languages were eventually dialects which slowly converted into languages"? No it is not: that is they were not dialects one of the other, or both of another earlier dialect/language, as is usually assumed. [Konkani is often claimed to be a dialect of Marathi. Some Konkani scholars try to turn this on its head by claiming (on the basis of words found in the Dnyaneshwari, practically the first Marathi book, which are found in Konkani but missing in standard and/or spoken Marathi today) that Konkani is older than Marathi, and that Marathi should therefore be called a dialect of Konkani].

 

Konkani had a different origin (from Marathi): the fact is that Konkani and Marathi are originally two totally different languages, derived from two totally different ancient Indo-Aryan dialects from different parts of India. Proto-Konkani was spoken in North India, in the region of the ancient homeland of the Saraswats: it was originally spoken in the Kashmir-to-Haryana area or the Vedic area, and was brought southwards by emigrants who carried it all the way to the coast of Maharashtra, later into Goa, and still later into coastal Karnataka and Kerala. Proto-Marathi on the other hand was the local language of the present region of Maharashtra.

When the Saraswats (maybe along with other communities from the area) migrated southwards, they brought their language with them. Their language underwent many changes, and was influenced by many other languages, in the course of their southward migration. When they settled down in the Konkan coast, more than a thousand years ago, their language greatly influenced the coastal and other nearby dialects of the Marathi spoken at the time, including the dialect spoken by Dnyaneshwar and used in his Dnyaneshwari. At the same time, Konkani was also greatly influenced by Marathi in the course of its millennium-long settlement in its vicinity, and there was also a wholesale acceptance by the Saraswats of the local culture. The result is that the two languages have come to appear to be close to each other.

Both the languages have influenced each other heavily in the last over a thousand years — and the people who brought Konkani south have merged so completely, in the ethnic sense, into the original people of coastal Maharashtra, Goa and coastal Karnataka (and Kerala) that they are not much different from their neighboring Marathi and Kannada/Tulu speaking communities (whose blood and cultures they have largely absorbed in themselves) and bear few "racial" characteristics of their northern origins — but a linguistic study establishes the different Prakritic origins of the two languages.

I have no desire at all to get into any political issues arising from the Konkani-Marathi relations: this article only clarifies the linguistic evidence. Marathi and Konkani have different linguistic origins (within the "Indo-Aryan" languages), but, as I have repeatedly stressed in my articles (where I have pointed out that the Indo-European and Dravidian languages are of different origins), "being different" does not mean "being mutually hostile". So, just so that some militant Marathi reader does not go off at a tangent on some such viewpoint, let me clarify that to all Konkani speakers, Marathi is a beloved second language close to their hearts (and, to Konkani speakers further south than Goa, Kannada and Tulu are also beloved second languages), and Konkani speakers have contributed enormously to the development of modern Marathi films, dramas, music and literature.

Speaking particularly of my own position vis-à-vis Marathi, I have always been (like all Konkani speakers) a lover of Marathi and have resented the indifferent and lackadaisical attitude of Marathi speakers and politicians (however much they may claim otherwise, and however much politics they may do in the name of Marathi) towards their rich language and culture:

1. Mumbai is probably the only place in India or the world where large numbers of people from other areas (and speaking other languages) can be born, brought up, and live their entire lives, without bothering to be able to speak the local language (Marathi) intelligibly.

2. While regional cultural bigwigs and politicians in many parts of India (after the start of cable TV in the early nineties) were busy starting or backing regional language channels in their states (DMK's Sun TV in 1993, Jaya TV in 1999), it was Maharashtra alone (though under a BJP-SS "Marathi manoos" government from 1995-1999) which never bothered to start a private Marathi language channel: the first two were started by non-Marathi sources: Alpha (now Zee) TV by the Goenkas in 1999 and ETV Marathi (now Colors Marathi) by the Eenadu Telugu group from Andhra in 2000.

3. In regional TV channels, Marathi channels even today are the only ones where musical competitions (like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, etc.) prominently feature Hindi songs equally or more frequently than the regional language (Marathi) ones.

4. While speakers of other major regional languages were busy uploading their old regional musical heritage of songs on youtube from the earliest days, Marathi music with its very rich heritage of songs was neglected by its speakers. So few songs were being uploaded (there were only one or two dedicated people doing this) that I myself started searching out and uploading old Marathi songs on youtube in 2011. [Today, there is an improvement in the situation, and there are many people doing this].

5. Which other language, than Marathi, has speakers who would not bother to correct (before it was too late, or even after it was too late) one of its greatest historical heroes having his name wrongly presented in the title of a film made in his name (Tanaji Malusare as "Tanhaji"), whatever the other undoubted merits of that film?

 

To return to the main point: a linguistic analysis of the Konkani language vis-à-vis Marathi establishes that Konkani is originally of a different Prakritic origin from Marathi: the two languages are phonologically, morphologically and grammatically completely different from each other. Konkani is sometimes different from most other modern Indo-Aryan languages as well, and its features bear similarities to those of Vedic Sanskrit, and indicate an origin in the Vedic area. It is only in vocabulary that a massive linguistic transformation has taken place in the original Konkani, but even here there are linguistic clues of its northern origins in the Vedic area.

I must make it clear that, for the purpose of our analysis here, I am examining Chitrapur Saraswat Konkani (ignoring minor variations between various sub-dialects of the Tenka or southern, and Badaga or northern, and other varieties,) because that is my own mother-tongue and therefore naturally known to me, and also because it exhibits the unique features of the original language extremely well; although, with dialectal differences, many of the other Konkani dialects of Karnataka also express them just as well. The dialects of Goa may also exhibit them to various extents, but there the Marathi influence is much stronger. And, while it is true that the dialects of Karnataka are influenced by Kannada especially in respect of vocabulary (and perhaps also by Tulu? I don't know if the Konkani word ta:ggu for "down, below, under" is a Tulu borrowing), those influences and borrowed elements are not claimed or claimable as original elements.

We will examine the case in the four following sections (I will call them chapters here):

Chapter 1. Phonology.

Chapter 2. Morphology.

Chapter 3. Grammar and Semantic Categories.

Chapter 4. The Vocabulary Aspect.

As Konkani (especially for the purposes of a linguistic analysis) has a very much wider range of sounds than any other modern Indian language, I will require to use a phonetic Roman alphabet which may cause some difficulty or irritation to the reader, but it is an unavoidable necessity.

 

 

Chapter 1. Phonology. 

 

Phonology is the study of the sounds and the sound system of a language. 

In writing Konkani, we will use the following letters to represent the Konkani sounds:

Konkani Vowels:

a ā    ɑ ᾱ    i ī   e ē    ɛ ɛ̄    u ū    o ō    ɔ ɔ̄

Konkani Consonants:

k g ṅ    c j ñ    ç ẓ    t d n    ṭ ḍ ṇ   p b m

y r l v ś ṣ s h ḷ

Nasal vowels:

ṁ (after the vowel).

Accents:

udātta (high tone): colon (:) after vowel.

svarita (stretched middle tone): double colon (::) after vowel.

 

I. The Vowel Sounds:

Marathi has the following six vowel sounds, of which three are found in both short and long forms. The Devanagari alphabet has only one symbol for both short and long a; however, the distinction is there. To check, ask a Hindi person from Delhi to read the Marathi words, as written in the Devanagari alphabet, घर and घरात. He will pronounce the second word correctly, but his pronunciation of the first word will not be correct: he will pronounce the  a  in both words short:  ghar  and  gharᾱt.  However it is  ghār  and  gharᾱt.

Thus, the Marathi vowels are:

 

	अ	आ	इ	उ	ए	ओ
Short	a	―	i	u	―	―
Long	ā	ᾱ	ī	ū	ē	ō

 

This is almost identical with the vowels in neighbouring Gujarati.

Konkani, however, has eight vowels. And all eight of them are found in both short and long forms. Thus, the Konkani vowels are:

 

	अ	आ	इ	उ	ए	ओ	अॅ	ऑ
Short	a	ɑ	i	u	e	o	ɛ	ɔ
Long	ā	ᾱ	ī	ū	ē	ō	ɛ̄	ɔ̄

However, length is non-phonemic in both Marathi as well as Konkani. Phonemic means where a difference in sound (in this case, in length of vowel) leads to a difference in meaning: thus, in Hindi, for example, length of vowel is phonemic; e.g. pilᾱ (make someone drink) and pīlᾱ (yellow), or gilᾱ (swallowed) and gīlᾱ (wet).

Only in one rather dubious case, we find what we may call phonemic length in Konkani: the word ekai (or else) as used in sentences like “ekai hᾱṁv ᾱj yᾱnɑ” (or, on second thoughts, I won't come today) versus ēkai (not even one), the latter as used in a rare sentence like “ēkai nᾱ, a:rdai nᾱ” (not even one, not even half) in reply to “ēk puṇi dī” (give at least one).

Incidentally, Kashmiri, for example, has a large number of vowels, like Konkani, and in both short and long forms.

 

We may, in passing note the rather liquid nature of Konkani as compared to the syllabic nature of Marathi:

mūiṁ   (muṅgī).

mhōu   (mādh).

nhāiṁ   (nadī).

phōu   (pōhē).

dhāiṁ   (dahī).

gūiṁ   (guphɑ̄).

vɔ̄:ṁvɔṁ   (ovɑ̄).

bhūiṁ   (bhūmī).

pɔ:vntɑ   (pōhatō).

vhɑ:vntɑ   (vɑ̄hatō).

bᾱiṁ   (vihīr, bᾱvḍī).

 

II. Nasal Vowels:

Nasal vowels are found in all the North Indian Indo-Aryan languages from Kashmir to Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh (the nasal sound will be represented by the symbol ṁ).

But nasal vowels are not a part of the phonology of Marathi. Open nasal vowels are completely absent in Marathi; and some closed nasal vowels (i.e., nasal vowels followed by a consonant) appear only in tatsama Sanskrit words used in Marathi, where the Sanskrit  aṁ  is pronounced as  auṁ  before the consonants  ra  la  va  śa  ṣa  sa  ha, and as  aiṁ  before the consonant  ya — a convention which Konkani has borrowed from Marathi. Thus, for example, Sanskrit words saṁyama saṁrakṣaṇa saṁlagna saṁvᾱda saṁśaya saṁsᾱra saṁhᾱra are pronounced in Marathi as  saiṁyam  sauṁrakṣaṇ  sauṁlagna  sauṁvᾱd  sauṁśay  sauṁsᾱr  sauṁhᾱr. Likewise  siṁha  as  siuṁha. Apart from this pronunciation of Sanskrit words, other closed nasal vowels are almost completely absent in Marathi: the only other words with nasals are  jēṁvhᾱ  kēṁvhᾱ  tēṁvhᾱ  and  aiṁśī  (which are usually de-nasalized in colloquial speech).

However, nasal vowels, both open and closed, are a rich part of the phonology of Konkani. There are countless common words, right from the personal pronouns  hᾱṁvaṁ  (I) and  tūṁvaṁ  (thou), having nasal vowels.  

And the nasal vowels are phonemic: thus,  mɑ:ttiṁ  (heads, plural of  mɑ:ttɛṁ, head) contrasts with  mɑ:tti  (mud).

In fact, entire classes of words are distinguished by the presence or absence of nasal vowels: the third person neutral singular, in most classes of words, is distinguished from the third person masculine plural by its nasal vowels:

tɛ̄  kᾱ:ḷɛ  ɑśi:lɛ (they were black)

tɛ̄ṁ  kᾱ:ḷɛṁ  ɑśi:lɛṁ  (it was black).

The nasal vowels are a strong proof of the northern origin of Konkani. Nasal vowels are completely absent in the Dravidian languages of South India, and they are absent in Marathi as well, since Marathi is the southernmost Indo-Aryan language bordering the Dravidian languages since thousands of years, and developed in this area in conjunction with the Dravidian languages; and the absence of nasal vowels is due to the historic influence of Dravidian phonology.

But Konkani is spoken even further South, in Goa as well as right in the territory of Kannada, Tulu and Malayalam. If Konkani had been a dialect of Marathi, it should, like the rest of Marathi, have also lost the nasal vowels: it would be strange if the only Marathi dialects to escape the influence of Dravidian phonology in this respect were to be the dialects spoken right inside the Dravidian territory, while Marathi dialects much further to the north were unable to escape this influence. Clearly, not only is Konkani not a dialect of Marathi, but it arrived in the area from the North long after Marathi had lost its nasal vowels due to the influence of Dravidian phonology.

         

III. Vowel Harmony:

Vowel harmony is a phonological feature found in some languages of the world, where the language tends to treat certain vowels as being in harmony with certain other vowels, and to modify the vowels in the word so that all the vowels in a word are in “harmony” with each other.

This feature is particularly prominent in the Uralo-Altaic languages (Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish, Mongolian, etc.). Take, for example, the Turkish numbers bir (one), iki (two), üç (three), dört (four), altï (six) and dokuz (nine). The suffix –inci  is used in order to derive the ordinal numbers from the cardinal numbers, but the vowel in the suffix changes to harmonize with the vowel in the word: thus we get birinci (first), ikinci (second), üçüncü (third), dörtüncü (fourth), altïncï (sixth) and dokuzuncu (ninth).   

The above is known as progressive vowel harmony, where the vowel in the suffix changes to harmonize with the vowel in the word. But, we also get regressive vowel harmony, where the vowel in the word changes to harmonize with the vowel in the suffix. This regressive vowel harmony is found in Kashmiri and some other languages of extreme northern India.

G A Zoograph in “Languages of South Asia and Africa — A Guide”, Volume 3, pgs. 116-117, writes: “Vowel-harmony and umlaut are evident in Kashmiri; as we have seen, traces of both are also found in Lahnda and Western Pahari (Grierson called this phenomenon ‘epenthesis’). Unlike the vowel harmony found in Turkic languages, which is based on progressive assimilation and hence particularly marked in the modulation of affixes, the vowel harmony of Kashmiri is based on regressive assimilation; this means that the root vowel changes under the influence of the vowel component of the affix….. Assimilation has a partial character and consists in a raising and rounding of root vowels”.

This regressive vowel harmony is found in Konkani as well. The following are the general rules of vowel harmony in Konkani:

1. When ɛ / ɔ  is followed by i / u, the former changes to e / o.

2. When e / o is followed by a / ɛ / ɔ, the former changes to ɛ / ɔ.

 

These changes are evident in the changes in gender or number in nouns, adjectives and verbs:

ghɔ̄:ḍɔ  (horse) = ghō:ḍi  (mare)

hɔ̄ḍa  (big, n.) = hōḍu  (big, m.),  hōḍi (big, f).

kɛ:ppɔ  (deaf, m.) = ke:ppi  (deaf, f),   kɛ:ppɛṁ  (deaf, n.).

kɛ̄:ḷɛṁ  (banana) = kē:ḷiṁ  (bananas).

 

There are a few rare exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony: the word ēka (one, n.),  ēku  (one, m.),  ēki  (one, f.), though the case form has  ɛ:kkɑ  (e.g. to one boy =  ɛ:kk  ça:llyᾱka).

This feature gives one more clear link between Konkani and the languages of the Kashmir-Sarasvati region.

 

IV. Tonal Accents:

The tonal accent is one of the most important and significant aspects of Konkani phonology.

The ancient Vedic language (spoken in the region of the Sarasvati river from where the Saraswats migrated southwards), along with other ancient Indo-European languages like Ancient Greek, had a system of tonal or pitch accents. This feature was already lost in most ancient Indo-European languages like Latin and even in Classical Sanskrit. However, Konkani has preserved a tonal accent system to this day.

There are three accents: udᾱtta (acute), anudᾱtta (grave) and svarit (circumflex). The  udᾱtta  accent is a high tonal accent found in any one syllable in most words; all the syllables in the word, which do not have the  udᾱtta  accent, have the  anudᾱtta  or low tonal accent. The  svarit  accent is a rare middle tonal accent found only in some words or grammatical forms.

Here, we will represent the  udᾱtta  accent by the colon (:), and the  svarit  by a double colon (::). 

 

The accents are phonemic in Konkani (as in the Vedic language). The following are some examples of simple words distinguished from each other only by the presence or absence of the udᾱtta accent, or by its different position in the word:

 

çōri   (thief, f.)	çō:ri   (theft)
ēki   (one, f.)	ē:ki   (unity)
vēṇi   (offspring's m-in-law)	vē:ṇi   (a flower-brooch)
bhᾱji   (roast)	bhᾱ:ji   (vegetable)
vᾱyu   (banana twine)	vᾱ:yu   (wind)
vᾱḍi   (serve food)	vᾱ:ḍi   (colony)
ẓᾱi   (want)	ẓᾱ:i   (a flower)
śᾱnti   (a ritual ceremony)	śᾱ:nti   (peace)
mᾱḷi   (wear flowers)	mᾱ:ḷi   (gardener)
pūri   (bury)	pū:ri   (a fried puri)
vᾱṭi   (grind)	vᾱ:ṭi   (a katori)
ẓōḍi   (earn)	ẓō:ḍi   (a pair)
dᾱṭi   (press/ thick, f.)	dā:ṭi   (thick friendship)
çōḷi   (rub)	cō:ḷi   (blouse)
ghᾱṭi   (churn)	ghᾱ:ṭi   (a ghat dweller)
sɑ:ngᾱti   (tell, pl.imp.)	sɑngᾱ:ti   (with)

  

Short nouns and very short verbs have the following contrasting forms: 

 

rᾱ:mᾱkai   (to Ram also)	rᾱmᾱ:kai   (than Ram)
sī:tēkai   (to Sita also)	sītē:kai   (than Sita)
gheu:ñcᾱkai   (to take also)	gheuñcᾱ:kai   (than taking)

 

Very short verbs, and most verbs ending in ai, ɑi, ui have the following contrasting forms:

 

dīśi   (worth giving)	dī:śi   (you may give)
dɑ:kkhaiśi   (worth showing)	dɑkkhai:śi   (you may show)

 

Some adverbs have the following contrasting forms:

 

ta:ggūci   (just below)	taggū:ci   (the one below, f.)
mɑ:kṣīci   (just behind)	mɑkṣī:ci   (the one behind, f.)

 

Some names ending in u are contrasted with some nicknames (not necessarily of the same names) ending in u by the udᾱtta accent:

 

rᾱmu   (Ram)	rᾱ:mu   (Ramu)
bᾱḷu   (Bal)	bᾱ:ḷu   (Balu)
vi:nōdu   (Vinod)	vinō:du   (short for Vinodini)
pra:mōdu   (Pramod)	pramō:du   (short for Pramodini)

 

Likewise, some words may be contrasted with nicknames ending in u:

vᾱsu   (smell)

vᾱ:su   (Vasu)

 

The  svarit  tone is more restricted in its occurrence, and, as in Vedic, a far less important part of the phonetic system of the language. It rarely occurs in normal words, and is usually found in emphatic forms of adjectives (which are used more regularly than the normal forms), occurring on the last vowel (with a suffix ci, which is often dropped) or on the second last vowel, e.g.: from  dᾱṭa  (thick, n.),  sᾱnu  (small, m.) and  bu:dvāntu  (clever, m.), we get the emphatic forms  dɑṭā::(ci),  sᾱ::nu  and  budvā::ntu.

A possible example of words distinguished by a  svarit  versus  udᾱtta  accent is: 

 

ho::ḷḷi   (huge, f.)

ho:ḷḷi   (elder co-wife)

Perhaps the only case where the  udᾱtta  is in an open vowel:

 

hɔ̄:   (of course, certainly)

hɔ̄   (he)

 

Similarly, in short verbs, we can distinguish the following forms:

 

vɑttā::ci   (reading)	vɑ:ttāci   (after reading)
pittā::ci   (drinking)	pi:ttāci   (after drinking)

The tonal accents distinguish Konkani from most other modern Indo-Aryan languages, and connect it with the Vedic language and the region of the ancient Sarasvati river homeland.

 

V. The Final Vowels:

Every word in Konkani ends in a vowel. This is the case even when non-Konkani words are used in Konkani. Thus, Salim, Charles and Elizabeth would be  sa:līmu,  cᾱrlsu  and eli:zᾱbetha, and this goes for all words, English or any other language, used while speaking in Konkani: words or names perceived to be masculine usually acquire an -u  after the final consonant, and other words usually acquire an -a.

But even more peculiar to Konkani is a phenomenon of dropping the final vowel in the middle of a sentence: all the words, except the last word in the sentence, usually drop the final vowel during speech. There are regular exceptions, but we need not go into the rules and exceptions in detail here.

Thus, for example, a Marathi sentence  malᾱ  tyᾱcyᾱ  gharī  ẓᾱyaçā  hōtā  (I wanted to go to his house) will be pronounced as it is; but the Konkani equivalent  mɑ:kkɑ  tɑga:lyɑ  ghᾱ:ra  va:ccɛṁ  ɑśi:lɛṁ  will be pronounced  mɑ:kk  tɑga:l  ghᾱ:r  va:cc  ɑśi:lɛṁ. And this is the case no matter how fast or slowly (except for long, dramatic or pompous pauses between words) the sentence is spoken.

Another aspect of this is the appearance of what is known as superscript vowels, or vowels which are sounded so faintly that they are almost inaudible. In very slow speech, these final vowels are sounded so faintly as to be almost inaudible, and the only thing a careful listener can discern is a faint vowel-like sound, which is almost the same for all the vowels. We need not go into this in detail here.

One result of this phenomenon is that grammar seems to become a bit simpler in some cases. Thus, the different forms of the possessive pronoun, as in the following example, get reduced to one single form in actual speech:

 

maga:lɔ   ça:llɔ   (my son)	maga:l   ça:llɔ
maga:lɛ   ça:llɛ   (my sons)	maga:l   ça:llɛ
maga:li   ça:lli   (my daughter)	maga:l   ça:lli
maga:lyɔ   ça:lyɔ   (my daughters)	maga:l   ça:lyɔ
maga:lɛṁ   ce:rḍu   (my child)	maga:l   ce:rḍu
maga:liṁ   ce:rḍvaṁ   (my children)	maga:l   ce:rḍvaṁ
maga:lyɑ   ça:llyᾱka (to my son)	maga:l   ça:llyᾱka

 

In this respect also, Konkani stands out distinctly from Marathi, where words can end in consonants or vowels, and where individual words are pronounced identically whether independent, in the middle of a sentence, or at the end of a sentence.

This short summary of the phonological features of Konkani shows the distinct linguistic identity of Konkani as well as its connections to the extreme North of India: Kashmir and the region of the ancient Sarasvati river.

 

TECHNICAL ELABORATION OF TONES IN KONKANI:

This is strictly not necessary for the average speaker (who just needs to know the high tone in any word if he wants to pronounce it correctly), but a short technical elaboration of the tones in Konkani follows for anyone interested in the technicalities of the tones:

The tones can be visualized as follows:

1. udᾱtta: high tone, like a string held tightly, with tension.

2. anudᾱtta: low tone, like a string held straight, but with no tension.

3. svarit: middle tone, like a rubber string held stretched, but not tightly.

 

HIGH TONE OCCURRENCE:

A word can have only one syllable (vowel) in the high tone. The high tone usually falls on the second-last syllable (vowel) or the third-last syllable (vowel). Words which fall in the third-last-syllable category, but have only two syllables, will obviously not have any high tone, and words which have the svarit tone will also not have a high tone.

1. Usually, nouns and adjectives ending in  ɔ,  ɑ,  ɛ,  ɛṁ, and the equivalent words in  i  and  iṁ,  have the high tone in the second-last syllable:

e.g. ça:llɔ (boy),  bhɔ̄:ḷɔ (simple, innocent, m.sing.),   mɑ:kkɑ (me),  ça:llē (boys),  bhɔ̄:ḷɛ (simple, innocent, pl.),  mɑ:ttɛṁ (head),  ça:lli (girl),  bhō:ḷi (simple, innocent, f.sing.),  mɑ:ttiṁ (heads).

2. In long words ending in ɔ,  ɑ,  ɛ, etc. the high tone may shift back to the third-last vowel:  vaçū:lɔ  (went, m.), but  vaçū:lēlɔ  (had gone, m.). Or  khimskhu:ṇṭēlɔ  (miser).

Negatives usually have the high tone in the third last vowel:  hᾱṇṇɑ  (does not bring),  ɑ:ppaina  (does not call),  ɑ:ppaini  (did not call).  

3. Usually, nouns and adjectives ending in  u,  a, and the equivalent words in  i, have the high tone in the third-last syllable:

rāyu (king),  hōḍu (big, m.sing.),  ghāra (house),  hɔ̄ḍa (big, n.sing.), hōḍi (big, f.sing),  bᾱ:gīla (door).

Also  ēku (one, m.),  ēki (one, f.),  eka (one, n.) 

But  rā:ṇi (queen) here, a separate word from "king", falls in the second-last-syllable category.

So do the plurals in aṁ:  ghā:raṁ (houses),  hɔ:ḍḍaṁ (big, pl.),  bɑ:glaṁ (doors).

4. Informal words ending in  u (endearments, pet-names, short-names, rude adjectives, etc., some of them ending in ū in Marathi, Hindi, etc.) have the high tone in the second-last syllable: ma:ḷḷu, dho:ppu, go:nnu, rᾱ:ju, rᾱ:mu, vinō:du (short for Vinodini), pramō:du (short for Pramodini), etc.     

5. The few agglutinated suffixes in Konkani (which is otherwise a highly inflectional language, as we will see later in the section on morphology) keep the high tone as in the original word:  ɑ:ppainɑ  (does not call, sing.),  ɑ:ppainɑ-ti  (do not call, pl.),  ɑ:ppainɑ-paḍɛ  (after called, e.g.  hᾱ:ṁv  ɑ:ppainɑ-paḍɛ, after I called),  ɑ:ppainɑ-śilɔ  (never used to call),  ɑ:ppainɑ-śi  (so as not to call), etc.

6. Words of one syllable typically have no high tone, except  hɔ̄:  (of course, certainly!).

7. Certain important function words (especially coordinating conjunctions) are practically toneless:

ɑni (and),  ɑnikai (still, as yet),  ẓɑlyɑri (but),  ẓɑlyɑriyi (still, nevertheless),   ẓɑvɔ (or),  mhoṇu (that),  mhaḷyɑri (means),  ekai (or else),  puṇi (at least),  naiẓɑlyɑri (or else),  çaḍɑvata (usually),  taśkornu (therefore),  taśmhoṇu (but note, on the other hand, at the same time),  tɛdamhaṇsari (till then),  ẓɑltari/ ẓɑltarikai (even then), etc.

Most of these function words are usually derived from other words by singling doubled consonants, shortening long vowels, and dropping tones, e.g.:

ẓɑ:llyᾱri  (if happens/becomes) = ẓɑlyari  (but).

mha:ḷḷyᾱri  (if said) = mhaḷyɑri  (means).

mhōṇṇu (saying/after saying) = mhoṇu (that).

ẓɑ:vvɔ  (let happen/become) = ẓɑvɔ  (or). 

ta:śśi-mhōṇṇu  (saying thus) = taśmhoṇu  (but note/ on the other hand/ at the same time).

ẓɑ:llɛ-tarī  (even if becomes/happens) =  ẓɑltari (even then).             

çaḍᾱ:vata  (extra, more) = çaḍɑvata  (usually).

8. Tones become subtly more sombre as the words become longer (although these minor subtleties are totally irrelevant in speech, they are noted here only for completeness of the analysis).

Thus the high tone in  panpa:nnᾱsa  (fifty each) is more sombre than the high tone in  pa:nnᾱsa  (fifty).

There are extremely fine shades of the low tone: like the high tone, the low tones also become progressively more sombre. Thus the low tone in the second-last syllable of  panpa:nnᾱsa  (fifty each) or  pɑ:ñçpᾱñça  (five each) is more sombre than the low tone in  pa:nnᾱsa  (fifty) or  pᾱñça  (five).

[As we saw, in short words, the high tone can distinguish two words as for example the following:  rᾱ:mᾱkai  (to Ram also) vs.  rᾱmᾱ:kai  (than Ram). This automatic tonal distinction is missing in long words: thus, the word  lakṣma:ṇᾱkai  stands for both "to Lakshman also" as well as "than Lakshman". However, an extremely subtle distinction: the  -ṇᾱkai   in the first seems (to me) to be more sombre than in the second.

Also, is there an extremely subtle distinction in the sombreness of the low tones in the word  dīsu (equivalent to Marathi  divas, "day") and  dīsu (equivalent to Marathi  divśī, "day")? In any case, the alternate Konkani words are distinct: dī:vāsu  and  divsu.]

 

 

Chapter 2.  Morphology.

Morphology, in linguistics, is the study of the formation of words and forms. It is concerned with the type and method by which words or forms are derived from root words, and not with the actual grammatical varieties and semantic aspects of word-formation. Languages are often classified on the basis of the morphological category to which they belong, and it is significant that Konkani belongs to a morphologically different category from almost all other modern Indian languages. In the case of no other modern Indian language would a separate discussion on its morphological category have made any sense. As we will see here by a comparison of the verbal conjugational formations of Konkani with those of the four other languages most commonly known to most Chitrapur Saraswats (Marathi, Hindi, English and Kannada), Konkani stands in one distinct category, while all the other four languages fall in another category.

There are basically three categories in which the verbal formations in any language can be classified: root languages, stem languages, and inflectional languages.

Root languages are languages in which the basic root word remains unchanged, and formations are made by simply putting different other words regularly before or after the root word (as, for example, in Chinese), or by adding regular prefixes or suffixes to the root word (as, for example, in Turkish). At a superficial glance, the following examples of conjugational formations in English seem to place the English language in this category:

Play,  do not play,  play-ed,  did not play,  will play,  will not play,  is play-ing,  is not play-ing,  are play-ing,  are not play-ing,  am play-ing,  am not play-ing,  was play-ing,  was not play-ing,  were play-ing,  were not play-ing,  will be play-ing,  will not be play-ing,  has been play-ing,  has not been play-ing, etc.

Inflectional Languages are languages in which the basic root word undergoes internal changes with or without the addition of other words, suffixes or prefixes; or where the suffix gets welded to the root word by fusion. The following examples of verbal conjugational formations in English illustrate this inflection:

Sing—sang—sung,   bring—brought,   eat—ate,  etc.

Stem languages are languages in which the basic root word undergoes some irregular inflectional changes, but these changes can be regularly classified into a limited and systematic number of stems for each verb, and these stems then function like regular root words: formations are made by simply putting different other words regularly before or after the stem, or by adding regular prefixes or suffixes to the stem:

 

I. English belongs to this category. All English verbs (the basic verb “to be” is always excepted) can be reduced to five stems. The following chart illustrates these stems for some common verbs:

 

VERB	do	sing	bring	read	eat	play	sink	go
1. basic	do-	sing-	bring-	read-	eat-	play-	sink-	go-
2. pr. sing.	does	sings	brings	reads	eats	plays	sinks	goes
3. past	did	sang	brought	read	ate	played	sank	went
4. perfect	done	sung	brought	read	eaten	played	sunk	gone
5. adjective	done	sung	brought	read	eaten	played	sunken	gone

1. It will be noted that only the first stem takes suffixes (like -ing) and, in the uncommon case, prefixes (like un-), by agglutination. The other stems do not take suffixes, but create forms by isolation.

2. The second stem is practically the same as the first stem + s/z,  but it becomes necessary to count it as a separate stem because of a single verb, do. Here, in Indian pronunciation at least, ḍū- becomes da-: does is pronounced as ḍaz, and not dūz. However, there are probably dialects of English where the word is pronounced as dūz, in which case, this stem would be superfluous and non-existent: the first stem would suffice for the present singular, with the suffix s/z.

3. The third stem is the most distinct from the first stem. It can be formed from the first stem by inflection (sing = sang, etc.), by agglutination (play = play-ed), or can have no relation to the first stem at all (go = went).

4. The fourth stem is again distinct from both the first and the third, and can be formed from the first stem by inflection (sing = sung, etc.) or by agglutination (play = play-ed).

5. The fifth stem is again practically the same as the fourth one, except in the case of a few verbs like sink, where the perfect form (it has sunk) differs from the adjectival form (the sunken ship).

So English presents few complications in its morphology.

Almost all modern Indian languages are stem languages. See below the stems for some common verbs in Hindi, Kannada and Marathi, the three languages known to most Chitrapur Saraswats. All the grammatical forms of the verb in Hindi, Marathi and Kannada, are derived from a small number of stems in each of these languages, illustrated below with examples for each of the three languages.

 

II. Hindi: The six verbal stems in Hindi:

 

VERB	ban	banᾱ	kar	ᾱ	jᾱ	sō	pī	dē	kɛhɛ
1 consonant suffix	ban-	banᾱ-	kar-	ᾱ-	jᾱ-	sō-	pī-	dē-	kɛhɛ-
2 vowel suffix	ban-	banᾱ-	kar-	ᾱ-	jᾱ-	sō-	pi-	d-	kah-
3 past	ban-	banᾱy-	kiy-	ᾱy-	gay-	sōy-	piy-	diy-	kah-
4  habitual	ban-	banᾱy-	kiy-	ᾱy-	jᾱy-	sōy-	piy-	diy-	kah-
5 past f. sing.	banī	banᾱī	kī	ᾱī	gaī	sōī	pī	dī	kahī
6 sp. pl. imperative	baniyē	banᾱiyē	kījiyē	ᾱiyē	jᾱiyē	sōiyē	pījiyē	dījiyē	kahiyē

 

Stem 1. with consonant suffixes:  -tᾱ,  -tē,  -tī,  -nᾱ,  -nē.

Stem 2. with vowel suffixes:  -ōgē,  -ō,  -ēgᾱ,  -ēṅgē,  -ēṁ,  -ē,  -ūṅgᾱ,  -ūṁ.

Stem 3. past suffix:  -ᾱ.    

Stem 4. same as past suffix 3, except in the case of a single verb jᾱ. Thus we get wō gayᾱ (he went), but wō jᾱyᾱ kartᾱ hɛi (he goes).

It will be noticed that the fifth and sixth stems do not take any suffixes. They are counted as separate "stems" only because they are irregular and have to be learnt separately.

So Hindi also presents few complications in its morphology.

 

III. Kannada: The six verbal stems in Kannada:

 

VERB	bᾱ	koḍu	koḷḷu	nillu	bare	mᾱḍu	hōgu
1 basic root	bar-	koḍ-	koḷḷ-	nill-	barey-	mᾱḍ-	hōg-
2 complete root	band(u)-	koṭṭ(u)-	koṇḍ(u)-	nint(u)-	bared(u)-	mᾱḍ(i)-	hōg(i)-
3 negative root	bᾱr-	koḍ-	koļļ-	nill-	bariy-	mᾱḍ-	hōg-
4 past root	band-	koṭṭ-	koṇḍ-	nint-	barēd-	mᾱḍid-	hōd-
5 n. past root	bantu	koṭṭitu	koṇḍitu	nintitu	barēyitu	mᾱḍitu	hōyitu
6 plural root	banni	koḍi(ri)	koļļi(ri)	nilli(ri)	bareyi(ri)	maađi(ri)	hoogi(ri)

Stem 1. suffixes such as -a (as in bara bēku, etc.) and -tᾱne, etc. (i.e. bar-tᾱne, bar-tᾱḷe, bar-tade, etc.). Here, again, there are only four stems which take suffixes. The last two are counted as separate stems only because they are irregular.

Stem 2. suffixes such as -iddᾱne, etc.

Stem 3. suffixes such as -adu/-ade (negative).

Stem 4. suffixes such as (past) -a, (conditional) -re, etc.

So Kannada also presents few complications in its morphology.

 

IV. Marathi: There are only five verbal stems in Marathi (plus one irregular suffix), and, even here, the first four of the stems are derived from the basic root verb by regular sound rules, so that there are actually only two independent stems which have to be separately learnt for each verb: the present stem and the past stem:

 

VERB	ẓᾱ	pī	dē	dhū	hō	pahᾱ	lihī	kār	uçāl	kᾱdh
1. consonant root	ẓᾱ-	pī-	dē-	dhū-	hō-	pᾱha-	lihi-	kar-	uçal-	kᾱdh-
2. vowel root	zᾱ-	pi-	dē-	dhu-	hō-	pᾱh-	lih-	kar-	uçl-	kᾱdh-
3. plural root	ẓᾱ-	pyᾱ-	dyᾱ-	dhuᾱ-	vhᾱ-	pahᾱ-	lihᾱ-	karᾱ-	uçlᾱ-	kᾱḍhᾱ-
4. gerund root	ẓᾱt	pīt	dēt	dhūt	hōt	pahᾱt	lihīt	karāt	uçlāt	kᾱḍhāt
5. past root	gē-	pyᾱ-	di-	dhut-	ẓhᾱ-	pᾱhi-	lihi-	kē-	uçal-	kᾱḍh-

The exemplary verbs given above are on the basis of phonology: short verbs (of one syllable) ending in ᾱ, ī, ē, ū, ō, longer verbs ending in ᾱ and ī, and finally verbs ending in consonants, but containing vowels a/ i/ u, which can have both short and long forms (in two categories: one-syllabled and two-syllabled), or vowels ᾱ/ ē/ ō, which have only long forms.

It will be seen that the second, third and fourth stems are formed from the first stem by regular phonetic changes: thus, if they are  dē-,  dyᾱ-, and  dēt  from  dē-, they will be  ghē-,  ghyᾱ-, and  ghēt from  ghē-. Likewise, short verbs with ā, ī and ū will shorten the vowel in all four stems (as in kār), long verbs with ā, ī and ū will shorten the vowel in the first root and drop it altogether in the second, third and fourth roots (as in uçāl), and long verbs with ᾱ, ē and ō will keep the long vowel in all four stems (as in kᾱdh).

Thus, for example (as for kār), the first four stems of  pūs  will be  pus-,  pus-,  pusᾱ-,  pusāt; and of pīḷ will be piḷ-,  piḷ-,  piḷᾱ- and  piḷāt.

The following are examples of some suffixes taken by the stems 1-3 and 5 (stem 4 is merely an irregular form, and does not take suffixes):

Stem 1. suffixes such as (present) -tō/ -tā/ -tē/ -tᾱt/ etc., -ṇᾱr,  -śīl, etc.

Stem 2. suffixes such as -ūn, -ē/-ī (ẓᾱ-ī, khēḷ-ē), etc.

Stem 3. suffixes such as -vē , -ylā, -yçē, etc.

Stem 5. suffixes such as (past) -lᾱ/ -lī/ -lā/ etc., -lyᾱ with post-positions (e.g. gē-lyᾱ vār,  gē-lyᾱ muḷē, etc), etc.

The only irregular form is the suffix  -ē/-ī  for the second stem. For some reason, different verbs arbitrarily take either  -ē  or  -ī (and the related suffixes -ēn/ -ēl  or  -īn/ -īl): thus zā-ī,  zᾱ-īn,  zᾱ-īl.

So Marathi also presents few complications in its morphology. In fact, almost all modern languages of India are stem languages. However, Konkani is a language which falls in a totally different category: like Vedic and Classical Sanskrit, it has a complex inflectional structure, and cannot be reduced to a system of stems.

 

V. Konkani:

To see the inflectional complexity of Konkani, take for example the following  grammatical forms of one Konkani verb vhāri (take away). Note the thirteen changes (of vowel, vowel-length and tone) within the vowel itself, apart from the consonantal changes (and the dropped verbal ending -i) between the verb and the suffix:

1.  vha:r-tɑ  (takes away). 

2.  vhar-tᾱ:lɔ  (used to take away).

3.  vhā:r-ᾱti  (take away, imp.pl.)

4.  vhār-nɑ  (does not take away).

5.  vho:r-kᾱ  (should take away).

6.  vhor-cᾱ:kai  (than taking away)

7.  vhō:r-ūkə  (to take away).

8.  vhōr-nu  (taking away).

9.  vhɔ̄:r-ɔ  (let take away).      

10.  vhɛ:l-lɛṁ  (took away, n.obj.).

11.  vhɛl-lē:lɛṁ  (had taken away, n.obj.).

12.  vhe:l-li  (took away, f.obj.).

13.  vhel-lē:li  (had taken away, f.obj.).

We see thirteen distinct changes in the vowel within the root verb above (a:  a  ā:  ā  o:  o  ō:  ō  ɔ̄:  ɛ:  ɛ  e:  e). It is not possible to postulate an unwieldy stem-system of thirteen stems; but even if we treat each of these thirteen changes as a stem, it is proved wrong as soon as we examine the equivalents of the above words with some other verb in comparison with the above verbal example. Thus what seems one (out of thirteen) stems in the case of the verb  vhāri  fails to serve as a regular stem when we try another verb  ghɛ̄ (take).

Thus, the first example above,  vha:r-tɑ  (takes away), seems to provide a stem vha:r-. And this stem seems to take on two more suffixes:  vha:r-tīda,  vha:r-śi. The corresponding form of ghɛ̄  (take) for  vha:r-tɑ  (takes away) is ghɛ:t-tɑ  (takes).  The corresponding forms of  ghɛ̄  (take)  for  vha:r-tīda  and  vha:r-śi  (in a stem language) should be  ghɛ:t-tīda  and  ghɛ:t-śi. But in fact, we have  ghe:t-tīda  and  ghē:-śi.

So Konkani is clearly not a stem language.

To rub it in, let us examine the corresponding forms for some of the examples above, for the two verbs with the same suffixes:

 

"STEM"	FORM	"STEM"	FORM
1. vha:r-	vha:r-tɑ   vha:r-tīda   vha:r-śi	ghɛ:t-   ghe:t-   ghē:-	ghɛ:t--tɑ   ghe:t-tīda   ghē:-śi
3. vhā:r-	vhā:r-ᾱti   vhā:r-ā-da   vhā:r-ā-śi	ghē:y-   ghɛ̄   ghē-	ghē:y-ᾱti   ghɛ̄-da   ghē-śi
4. vhār-	vhār-nɑ   vhār-ni	ghɛ̄-                       ghē-	ghɛ̄-nɑ   ghē-ni
5. vho:r-	vho:r-kɑ   vho:r-yēda	gheu:ṅ-   gheu:-	gheu:ṅ-kɑ   gheu:-yēda
7. vhō:r-	vhō:r-ū-ka   vhō:r-ūṁ	gheu:ñ-        ghē:-	gheu:ñ-cᾱ-ka   ghē:-ūṁ

 

So clearly Konkani verbs cannot be reduced to a system of stems.

 

Also, compare the following Konkani forms with their Marathi equivalents:

vhō:rūṁ  —  nē-ū    

vhɔ̄:rɔ  —  nē-ū  dē

vho:ryɑṁ  —  nē-ū  yᾱ

 

Konkani is an inflectional language: many factors contribute to cause changes within the verb when suffixes are added to it. In addition to these internal changes, the suffixes also get fused to the verb in a variety of ways (apart from the fusion in short verbs followed by a suffix with t, as in   ghɛ:t-ta above):

vāça + tɑ   —  va:t- tɑ   (goes).

vᾱci + tɑ   —  vɑ:t- tɑ   (reads).

hᾱḍi + nɑ  —  hᾱṇ-ṇɑ   (does not bring).

pāḍa + lɔ  —  pa:ḷḷɔ      (fell m.).

pāḍa + nu  —  pōṇṇu  (having fallen).

kᾱḍi + lɛṁ  ―  kɑ:ḷḷɛṁ  (took n.).

tᾱṇi + lɛṁ  —  tɑ:ḷḷɛṁ  (pulled).

 

Even here, we find what is known as hard versus soft inflection. Take the form vɑ:ḍ-tɑ, which is the present tense form of two different verbs ("serve food" and "grow"). The following are some other forms of the two verbs:

vɑ:ḍtɑ  (serves food)	vɑ:ḍtɑ  (grows)
vᾱṇṇɑ  (does not serve food)	vɑ:ḍḍanɑ  (does not grow)
vɑ:ḷḷɛṁ  (served food)	vɑ:ḍḷɛṁ  (grew)
vᾱṇṇi  (did not serve food)	vɑ:ḍḍani  (did not grow)
vᾱ:ḍaśnɑ  (will not serve food)	vɑ:ḍḍaśna  (will not grow)
vɑ:ḷḷyɑṁ  (has served food)	va:ḍḷyɑṁ  (has grown)
vɑḷḷē:lɛṁ  (had served food)	vɑḍḍī:lɛṁ  (had grown)

 

To sum up, Konkani is a highly inflectional language, perhaps the only one spoken in India today. It is, therefore, in a completely different category from Marathi, which is a regular stem language. The inflectional nature of the language again links Konkani to the Sarasvati area, the area of the Vedic language, which was also a highly inflectional language. The Vedic language, of course, had lost many of its grammatical forms and features already by the time Classical Sanskrit was established; and the Konkani language, thousands of years later, after having undergone the influences of so many languages, and after its long cohabitation with Marathi, cannot be expected to replicate actual Vedic verbal forms. But it still retains the inflectional character of the Vedic language.

 

 

Chapter 3. Grammar and Semantic Categories.

We have seen how Konkani has retained its fundamental phonological features and morphological structure through the ages, despite the overpowering influences of various languages during its journey southwards, and despite its close associations with Marathi in the last more than one millennium. In the field of grammar (grammatical categories and the semantic aspects of language use), the evidence is less fundamental, since it has been observed by linguists that almost all mainstream Indian languages have, in the course of the ages, settled down into a generally uniform grammatical format with only minor variations. Thus, for example, in the matter of syntax (word order), even languages so far apart as Hindi and Tamil have developed so closely that “a sentence in a Dravidian language like Tamil or Kannada becomes ordinarily good Bengali or Hindi by substituting Bengali or Hindi equivalents for the Dravidian words or forms, without modifying the word order” (S K Chatterji in “Origin and Development of the Bengali Language”, p.176), whereas even languages so closely related as English and German/Dutch have drifted so far apart that “the most important difference between English and the two German languages is the order of words. It is so great that half the work of translating a passage from a German or Dutch book remains to be done when the meaning of all the individual words is clear” (F. Bodmer in “The Loom of Language”, p.286).                     . 

Nevertheless, within a common grammatical framework, Konkani is distinctly different from Marathi, and has even developed a few significant aspects which set it apart not only from Marathi, but from most other Indian languages.

 

1. To begin with, although Konkani is morphologically a much more complex language than Marathi, grammatically it is a much simpler language, and usually has single forms where Marathi has many forms. The following examples will illustrate this:

For example, let us take the basic verb “to be”, which, as in most languages, is separate from all other verbs in its grammatical forms. In the simple present tense and habitual present tense, the Konkani verb only varies according to number. The Marathi verb, on the other hand, in the simple present, varies according to number and person, and in the habitual present, it varies according to gender, number and person. This second pattern is common for all other verbs in the present tense:           

 

Konkani	Marathi
All persons	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
ɑ:ssa	ᾱhē	ᾱhēs	ᾱhē
ɑ:ssāti	ᾱhōt	ᾱhᾱt	ᾱhēt
ɑ:stɑ	astō  (m)   astē  (f)	astōs  (m)   astēs  (f)	astō  (m)   astē  (f)   astā  (n)
ɑ:stᾱti	astō	astᾱ	astᾱt
va:ttɑ	ẓᾱtō  (m)   ẓᾱtē  (f)	ẓᾱtōs  (m)   ẓᾱtēs  (f)	ẓᾱtō  (m)   ẓᾱtē  (f)   ẓᾱtā  (n)
va:ttᾱti	ẓᾱtō	ẓᾱtᾱ	ẓᾱtᾱt

 

In most other tenses, the Konkani verb varies according to gender and number, while the Marathi verb varies according to gender, number and person. Konkani verbs do not basically vary according to person (except in introducing a nasal intonation in certain singular first person forms, whether under the influence of other languages or as a remnant of earlier personal variations). See the difference between the Konkani and the Marathi forms in the simple past tense for the verb "to go":     

 

Konkani	Marathi
All persons	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
vaçū:lɔ	gēlō	gēlᾱs	gēlᾱ
vaçū:lɛ	gēlō	gēlᾱt	gēlē
vaçū:li	gēlē	gēlīs	gēlī
vaçū:lyɔ	gēlō	gēlyᾱt	gēlyᾱ
vaçū:lɛṁ	―――	―――	gēlā
vaçū:liṁ	―――	―――	gēlīt

 

This is even more evident in the case of the negatives. See for example the number of forms that a simple past (singular) negative "did not go" has in Marathi, in contrast to the single Konkani form:

 

Konkani	Marathi
All persons	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
va:çāni	gēlō  nᾱhī   or   nᾱhī  gēlō	gēlᾱ  nᾱhīs   or   nᾱhī  gēlᾱs	gēlᾱ  nᾱhī   or   nᾱhī  gēlᾱ
	gēlē  nᾱhī   or   nᾱhī  gēlē	gēlī  nᾱhīs   or   nᾱhī  gēlīs	gēlī  nᾱhī   or   nᾱhī  gēlī
	―――	―――	gēlā nᾱhī    or   nᾱhī  gēlā

 

However, Konkani does have a little greater differentiation in some other respects.

For example, the single Marathi  ēk  (one) suffices for all genders, but Konkani has three forms:  ēka  (one, n.),  ēku  (one, m.),  ēki  (one, f.).

 

Likewise, in the first and second person singular personal pronoun, Konkani, like other northern languages, has special subjective forms for the past tense, while Marathi does not (again a Dravidian influence on Marathi missing in the latecomer Konkani):

 

Marathi	Konkani	Hindi
mī	hᾱṁvaṁ	mɛi
mī	hᾱ:ṁvɛṁ	mɛinē
tū	tūṁvaṁ	tū
tū	tū:ṁvɛṁ	tūnē

 

 

2. The second aspect is semantic: the grammatical forms in Konkani are usually formed in a different way from the equivalent forms in Marathi, and, in many cases, from the equivalent forms in most other Indian languages.

For example, the perfect tenses. In most North Indian languages, the present and past perfect tenses are formed by combining the past tense form (of the verb which is being conjugated) with the present or past forms of the verb “to be”: thus, the forms for “go” ("has gone" and "had gone") are equivalent to “went + is” and “went + was”. The South Indian forms are equivalent to “having-gone + is” and “having-gone + was”. Konkani, however, has independent forms:

 

Konkani	Marathi	Hindi	Kannada	Tamil
vaçū:lɑ     vaçū:lēlɔ	gēlᾱ  ᾱhē     gēlᾱ  hōtᾱ	gayᾱ  hɛi     gayᾱ  thᾱ	hōgi-iddᾱne     hōgi-iddanu	pōyi-irukkiṛᾱn   pōyi-irundᾱn

 

Likewise, conditionals: Konkani has an independent form where most North Indian languages form the conditionals in a certain way, by adding a particular word after the relevant tense form, e.g.:

 

Konkani	Marathi	Hindi
vaçū:lyᾱri	gēlō  tār   gēlē  tār   gēlᾱs  tār   gēlīs  tār   gēlᾱ  tār   gēlī  tār   gēlā tār   gēlyᾱ  tār	gayᾱ  tō   gayī  tō   gayē  tō

 

What is particularly unique to Konkani is its formation of negatives. In most other languages of the world, the negative is a direct negation of the positive form by the addition of a negating word, e.g.:

English:  I will go — I will not go.

Marathi:  mī  ẓᾱṇᾱr — mī  ẓᾱṇᾱr  nᾱhī / mī  nᾱhī  ẓᾱṇᾱr.

Hindi:  mɛi  jᾱūṅgᾱ — mɛi  nᾱhī  jᾱūṅgᾱ / mɛi  jᾱūṅgᾱ  nᾱhī.

Konkani:  hᾱṁv  va:tlɔ — hᾱṁv  va:çaśnɑ.

In a few rare languages, like our own Dravidian languages, the negative may not formally be a direct negation of the positive form which it negates, but it is a negation of some positive form (e.g., the Kannada simple negatives are the negations of the positive forms  hōg-vadu,   hōgalu  and  hōg-likke).

In Konkani, however, the simple negatives are independent formations, not directly derived from positive forms:

 

va:ttɑ (goes)	va:çānɑ (does not go)
vacū:lɔ (went)	va:çāni (did not go)
vattā:lɔ /  va:tlɔ (will go)	va:çaśnɑ (will not go)

The past negative is particularly special: while the present and future negatives at least have a recognizable  -nɑ  component (recognizable as the independent negative word nᾱ), the past negative  –ni  is a distinctly independent suffix (not found as an independent word).

 

Even when Konkani does not have purely independent forms for any grammatical phrase, its formations are often semantically different from Marathi, e.g.:

 

Phrase	Konkani	Marathi
would have gone	va:tl-śilɔ   = will-go + was	gēlᾱ  astᾱ   = went + is (subjunctive)
would not have gone	va:çaśnɑ-śilɔ   = will-not-go + was	gēlᾱ  nastᾱ   = went + is-not (subj.)
had not gone	va:çāni-śilɔ   = did-not-go + was	gēlᾱ  navhatᾱ   = went + was-not
was not going (habitual)	va:çānɑ-śilɔ   = does-not-go + was	ẓᾱt  navhatᾱ   = going + was-not

 

The above were some examples of the differences in formation of grammatical forms in Konkani and Marathi.

 

3. Finally, there are some grammatical features common to most North Indian languages, or even to both North and South Indian languages, which are completely missing in Konkani. Some examples:

a) Konkani does not have special subjunctive forms of verbs. A subjunctive form is a tense form used to indicate hypothetical situations, including conditionals. For example, “were” is a past tense plural form of the verb “to be”, as in “they were Indians” as opposed to “he was an Indian”.

But, in “if they were Indians” and “if he were an Indian”, the “were” represents a subjunctive form.

In Marathi, some of the subjunctive forms resemble the habitual present tense, but some of the forms are distinct, e.g. “tō  astō” ("he is", habitual present), but the subjunctives are “tō  astᾱ” ("he would have been") and “tō  astᾱ tār” ("if he were/had been"). In Hindi, the equivalent forms of the subjunctive forms are “vō  hōtᾱ” and “vō  hōtᾱ  tō”.  

The Marathi subjunctive forms (there are no subjunctive forms in Konkani) are:

 

	1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person
sing. m.	astō	astᾱs	astᾱ
sing. f.	astē	astīs	astī
sing. n.	----------	---------	astā
plural	astō	astᾱ	astē

 

There are also past subjunctive forms, conjugated like the normal past tense of other verbs (here, simply by changing the t in the present subjunctive forms to l):

 

	1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person
sing. m.	aslō	aslᾱs	aslᾱ
sing. f.	aslē	aslīs	aslī
sing. n.	----------	---------	aslā
plural	aslō	aslᾱ	aslē

The subjunctives are used mainly to express hypothetical or conditional situations. Konkani expresses conditional and hypothetical situations not with special subjunctive sets of forms, but with various other forms. The equivalents of the Marathi subjunctives (third person singular masculine) in Konkani are illustrated with the following examples:

 

MARATHI		KONKANI
astᾱ	nastᾱ	ɑsta:lśilɔ	ɑ:ssaśnᾱśilɔ
gēlᾱ  astᾱ	gēlᾱ  nastᾱ	va:tlśilɔ	va:çaśnᾱśilɔ
astᾱ  tār	nastᾱ  tār	aśi:l  ẓɑlyɑri	nᾱśi:l  ẓɑlyɑri
gēlᾱ  astᾱ  tār	gēlᾱ  nastᾱ  tār	vaçū:lyᾱri	va:çānᾱtlyɑri
astᾱ  tārī	nastᾱ  tārī	aśi:ltarī	nᾱśi:ltarī
gēlᾱ  astᾱ  tārī	gēlᾱ  nastᾱ  tārī	vaçū:ltarī	va:çānᾱtltarī
gēlᾱ  aslᾱ  tār	gēlᾱ  naslᾱ  tār	vaçū:lēl  ɑslyᾱri	va:çānīśil  ɑslyᾱri
gēlᾱ  aslᾱ  tārī	gēlᾱ  naslᾱ  tārī	vaçū:lēl   ɑśi:ltarī	va:çānīśil  ɑśi:ltarī OR vaçū:lēl  nᾱśi:ltarī

 

b) In respect of personal pronouns, Konkani is, again, rare among mainstream Indian languages in its use of second person pronouns. The respectful second person pronoun ᾱpāṇ, which also functions as the inclusive first-plus-second person pronoun, is absent in Konkani. 

Most Indian languages have a threefold method of addressing single persons: the singular, the plural and the respectful pronouns: e.g.  Hindi tū- tum- ᾱp,  Marathi tū- tumhī- ᾱpāṇ,  Kannada nīnu- nīvu- tᾱvu, etc.

Konkani, however, does not have the respectful pronoun form at all, and in general, the plural form also is never used in addressing a single person, except, in the case of Saraswat communities, the Swami of the community (and, by extension, perhaps the Swamis of other communities). (In more conservative circles, along with addressing the husband as hɑ:ṅgthᾱunu , which literally means "from here", women addressed elders of the husband’s family, or the family priests, in the plural). Surrounded by languages where it is not very respectful to address someone in the singular tense, Konkani speakers sometimes tend to defensively use the plural to avoid the possibility of giving offence, especially when addressing new acquaintances or elders from Konkani communities other than their own.   

Also Konkani lacks the inclusive plural (Marathi  ᾱmhī  is an exclusive plural, and  ᾱpāṇ  is used as an inclusive plural), found in Marathi and Gujarati under the influence of Dravidian languages (again, missed out by Konkani which is a relative latecomer in the region). The Marathi word  ᾱpāṇ   thus serves three functions: it is a respectful second person pronoun, an inclusive (first-plus-second person) plural pronoun, and a reflexive pronoun. In Konkani it is only used as a reflexive pronoun (ɑ:ppāṇa  in the sense svathɑ).

c) Konkani does not have the class of words with j/ẓ as in Marathi  jyᾱlᾱ,  jithē,  ẓasē, (Hindi  jiskō,  jahᾱṁ,  jɛisē) etc. The interrogative words kɔ̄:ṇᾱka,  khāiṁ,  ka:śśi,  etc. are used in their place, sometimes with a kī at the end of the clause (usually omitted in practice): kɔ̄:ṇᾱk  vacc  ɑss  kī,  tɔ̄  va:tlɔ = whoever wants to go will go.

(Due to Marathi influence, some people do introduce  ẓō,  jɛ̄,  etc. and use phrases like  ẓō   kɔ̄ṇa,  jɛ̄  khāiṁ,  jɛ̄  ka:śśi,  etc. which is not really proper Konkani. Or is the Konkani form described earlier itself a result of influence from the Dravidian languages which likewise do not have the equivalents of the class of words with j/ẓ?).

 

4. One feature unique to Konkani is three distinct forms of the question-word with the prefix "some" (somewhere, something, somehow, etc.), where Marathi has two forms and Hindi only one. This subtle distinction can be explained only by giving actual examples. Thus:

Do you want to go somewhere(/anywhere)?

Hindi: kahīṁ jᾱnᾱ hɛi kyᾱ ?

Marathi: kuṭhē ẓᾱyçāy kᾱ ?

Konkani: khaiṁ va:cc ɑ:ss vɛ̄ ?

 

He has gone somewhere.

Hindi: vō kahīṁ gayᾱ hɛi.

Marathi: tō kuṭhētarī gēlᾱ āhē.

Konkani: tɔ̄ khaiṁki vaçū:lɑ.

 

Let's go somewhere.

Hindi: kahīṁ jᾱēṅgē.

Marathi: kuṭhētarī ẓᾱū yᾱ.

Konkani: khaiṁpuṇi va:cyɑṁ.

 

There are many other minor aspects of semantic differences in grammatical usage in Konkani and Marathi, which a detailed study will reveal. Moreover, Konkani has a rich variety of word and sentence forms, which have not even been touched upon in this article. The above were a few examples of some prominent differences, which are notable, since, by and large, most Indian languages are grammatically homogeneous.

 

 

Chapter 4.  Vocabulary.

 

Vocabulary is always the first aspect, of any language, to be influenced by other languages, and it is the aspect that changes and evolves fastest. Hence, it is only natural that Konkani and Marathi, which have passed over a thousand years in very close contact with each other, and have evolved together during this period, should have borrowed words from each other and developed a considerable amount of vocabulary in common, and should have grown close to each other in this respect. Nevertheless, Konkani has preserved a reasonable bit of its original vocabulary, including some key words which give a clue to its separate, northern and Vedic-area antecedents.

The study of the vocabulary of any language is a lengthy and laborious process (as any lexicographer or dictionary-maker will testify) rather than an analytical process, and, in this article, we will only take a bird’s eye view of the subject.

Despite the massive Marathi influence, Konkani has retained a modicum of its original vocabulary, and has also retained some key words, which give irrefutable evidence of its separate northern affiliations, and specifically of its origins in the extreme northern region around the Vedic river Sarasvati.  First, a look at a few key words:

1. DOG and WATER:

Two of the most significant words, which provide a clue to the extreme northern, and Vedic, origins of Konkani, are the words for “dog” and “water”: Konkani  sū:ṇɛ  and  u:ddᾱka. These are derived from the Sanskrit words  śvan/śunaka  and  uda-ka. Almost all the other Indo-Aryan languages use words (e.g. Marathi  kutrᾱ  and  pᾱṇī) derived from later Sanskrit words kukkura and pᾱnīyam.

The words  kukkura and pᾱnīyam  are late words in Sanskrit, basically not found in the Vedic language or in any "Aryan"/Indo-European language outside India. The words  śvan/śunaka  and  uda-ka,  on the other hand, are ancient words, found in the Rigveda, with related words in many of the branches of Aryan languages outside India: unlikely though some of the correspondences may seem to the lay man, Greek húdor, English water, Hittite watar, Lithuanian vanduo, Gothic wato, Russian voda, Umbrian utur, etc. are all related to the Vedic  uda/udan/uda-ka  (Sinhalese, another language which migrated to the South from the northwest long before Konkani, preserves a pre-Vedic form  watura). Likewise, English hound, Greek kuon, Latin canis, Hittite suwana, Tocharian kon, Armenian shun, Lithuanian shuo, Avestan span, etc. are all related to the Vedic  śvan/śunaka.

In modern Indo-Aryan languages, apart from Konkani, only minor tribal languages of the extreme north and northwest, i.e. of Kashmir and nearby areas, have preserved words derived from or related to  uda-ka (Pashai wark,  Kalasha uk,  Chitrali ugh, etc.) and śvan/śunaka (Kashmiri  hune,  Pashai śuriṅ,  Kalasha śua,  Gawarbati  śunā,  Shina śūn, etc).

 

2. FIRST and SECOND PERSON NOMINATIVE SINGULAR PRONOUNS:

The first and second person nominative singular pronouns in Konkani (and perhaps, so far as I know, in Konkani alone among modern Indo-Aryan languages: and definitely not in Marathi) hᾱṁvaṁ and tūṁvaṁ are clearly derived from the Sanskrit nominative forms ahaṁ and tvaṁ.

Almost all modern Indo-Aryan languages, by contrast  have pronouns for the first person nominative singular derived from the Sanskrit dative form  mē:  for example, Hindi  maiṁ,  Marathi mī,  etc.

Gujarati and related neighbouring dialects like Kutchi, Malvi, etc. alone have words derived from ahaṁ:  i.e.  hūṁ, etc. But Gujarati still does not have the full case: the equivalents of Hindi maiṁ and maiṁ-ne in Gujarati are hūṁ and mēṁ (the second form being derived, like other modern Indo-Aryan forms, from the Sanskrit dative form mē) while Konkani has hᾱṁvaṁ and hᾱ:ṁvɛṁ . And the second person nominative singular form in Gujarati, moreover, as in most other Indo-Aryan (and indeed most other Indo-European languages) is tū, without the nasal ṁ sound in Sanskrit, which has been retained in Konkani tūṁvaṁ.

[Indo-European did not have third person personal pronouns, and these pronouns in most Indo-European languages are variously derived from different forms of demonstratives. In respect of third person pronouns,all Indo-Aryan languages have evolved differently, and Konkani and Marathi seem to have evolved forms in common: compare Marathi hᾱ-hī-hē and tō-tī-tē with Konkani hɔ̄-hī-hɛ̄ and tɔ̄-tī-tɛ̄].

 

3. SAY:

One important verb common to Konkani and Marathi is the Marathi verb mhāṇ, "say", found in Konkani as mhāṇa. Old Gujarati also has this verb in the form bhāṇ: as in the songs of the popular saint Narasimha Mehta: "bhaṇē Narsayyo", "says Narsayya", although now the common Gujarati word is keh, as in most other northern languages (e.g. Hindi kɛh). This evidence, however, shows that the word was originally common to the Maharashtra-Gujarat region, and so it must have been borrowed from Marathi by Konkani in the course of their long common history, and the original Konkani word must have been something like the northern words kɛh, etc.

While the word is now lost in Konkani, the fact that it must have been the original word in Konkani is proved by the fact that it survives in the important word khaiṁ, "it is said" or "it seems", a word used generally after a sentence to indicate that the statement represents hearsay. The Marathi and Kannada equivalents of this word are mhaṇē (derived from the verb mhāṇ, "say") and ante (derived from the verb annu, "say"). The word is used at the end of statements to indicate hearsay knowledge (e.g.  tɔ̄  vaçū:l  khaiṁ = "it seems he went").

 

4. THREE RIGVEDIC RICE-DISHES: 

The most significant evidence of the connections of Konkani with the extreme North and with the Vedic Sarasvati region is the fact that Konkani is the only language which preserves the names of all the three rice dishes used in Vedic rituals and named in the Rigveda: purōḷā  (a kind of rice pancake), apūpa  (a kind of rice cake), and odana (rice boiled in water or milk). The three names are still used in Konkani in tadbhava forms in a sense closest to the original, as pɔ̄:ḷɔ,  ɑ:ppɛṁ, and  ɑ:ddāṇa, and the second of the three has even been imparted to the South Indian languages as appam.

 

5. THE INTERROGATIVE AND THE PROHIBITIVE NEGATIVE:

Two significant words used in Konkani to convert a statement into an interrogative (though the second, derived from the Indo-European/Sanskrit prohibitive negative, of these two has acquired many more functions) hark back to Sanskrit: the words vɛ̄  and  mā.

While all modern Indo-Aryan languages use interrogative words like “what”, “why” (e.g. Marathi  kᾱy,  kᾱ), etc., or other words with the interrogative k-, to convert a statement into a question (e.g. tō  gēlā  kᾱy/kᾱ?:  "did he go?"), Konkani alone has a special word for this purpose: the word  vɛ̄, and the related  vayᾱ  with a touch of wonder (tɔ̄  vaçū:l  vɛ̄ / vayᾱ ?). This word,  vɛ̄  or  vayᾱ, is directly derived from the Sanskrit  vᾱ, which, among other things, is also used to convert a statement into a question.

The word  mā  (usually amplified to  marɛ̄  and  magɔ̄  addressed to males and females respectively) is also used to convert a statement into a question:  tɔ̄  vaçūl  mā / marɛ̄ / magɔ̄ ? (It is also used in exclamatory statements, etc.:  tɔ̄  vaçūl  mā / marɛ̄ / magɔ̄ !). The effect in the interrogative is equivalent to a negative  vɛ̄  (i.e. a  navɛ̄). The word  mā  originates in the Sanskrit prohibitive negative word  mᾱ. This is a word found only in five branches of Indo-European languages (Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Greek, Armenian, and Albanian). Found in both Vedic and Classical Sanskrit, it has survived only in the northwestern parts of India, and is found in Punjabi and in western Hindi as the word  mat  (e.g.  mat  jᾱ,  "don’t go"). However it is not found in the southern and eastern parts of North India: even the Hindi dialects of Bihar and most of U.P. and Madhya Pradesh do not have this word, and use  nᾱ  (e.g. nᾱ  jᾱ). Its survival in Konkani, albeit in this restricted form (since, for the actual prohibitive negative, Konkani now uses only the originally Marathi word  nakō  as  nɑ:kkɑ), is therefore one more clue to the northern-northwestern origins of Konkani.

 

6. SOME OTHER POSSIBLE NORTHERN REMNANTS:

What is interesting, in this context, is that Konkani has quite a few common North Indian Indo-Aryan words missing in Marathi, which has different words. They provide a clue to the northern origin of Konkani. Some examples:

 

	HINDI	KONKANI	MARATHI
Thursday	bṛhaspativᾱr	bra:stᾱru	guruvᾱr
Sunday	itvᾱr	ɑ:ytᾱru	ravivᾱr
inside	bhītar	bhi:ttēri	ᾱt
stone	patthar	phɑ:ttōru	dagāḍ
anywhere	kahīṁ	khaīṁ	kuṭhē  hī
back/again	vᾱpas	ɔpā::sa	parāt
mustard	sarsōṁ	sᾱ:sama	rᾱī / mōhrī
old	purᾱnᾱ	pɔ:rnɛṁ	ẓunā
high/up	ūpar	u:ppāra	uñça
straight	sīdhᾱ	śīdɑ	sarāḷ
brinjal/eggplant	bɛiṅgan	vɑ:iṅgāṇa	vᾱṅgī

Some of the Marathi words, of course, have also been borrowed in Konkani as alternate words, and Hindi has other alternative words similar to some of the Marathi ones.

Some Konkani words point to areas to the immediate north of Maharashtra, i.e. Gujarat:

 

	GUJARATI	KONKANI	MARATHI
want	jōiyē	ẓᾱi	pᾱhijē
see	juō	çōi	bāgh / pahᾱ

            

7. A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF DISTINCTIVE KONKANI VOCABULARY:

As pointed out earlier, due to mutual borrowing and a common history of more than a thousand years as close neighbours, the two languages share a large common or similar vocabulary. In many cases, the more complicated phonology and morphology of Konkani, and different grammatical subtleties, lead to some interesting differences even in many similar or related words. For example, no Konkani word is exactly like the equivalent form in Marathi:  there will at least be the minimal difference of a final vowel (and both the high and low tones are different from the toneless Marathi sounds): e.g.  ghāra  (with a final  a  and a low tone) rather than the Marathi  ghār  (without the final  a  and the tone). Some examples:

a) gender: e.g. Marathi  dᾱṭ  is equivalent to Konkani  dᾱṭu,  dᾱṭi  and dᾱṭa, and Marathi  ēk  is equivalent to Konkani  ēku,  ēki  and  eka.

b) number: e.g. Marathi  nᾱç  is equivalent to Konkani  nᾱñçu  singular, and nᾱñça  plural.

c) verbal versus nominal forms: e.g. Marathi  nᾱç  is also equivalent to Konkani  nᾱñça, verb, and  nᾱñçu, noun, and Marathi  mᾱr  is equivalent to Konkani mᾱri, verb, and  mᾱru, noun.

d) vocabulary: e.g. Marathi  vᾱṭ  is equivalent to Konkani  vᾱṭa  ("path"),  vᾱṭi ("grind"),  vᾱṇṭi  ("distribute") and  vᾱṇṭa  ("trouble", if equivalent to the Marathi vᾱṭ  as in the phrase  vᾱṭ  lᾱglī). A fifth meaning of the Marathi word, “feel”, is missing in Konkani (malᾱ  vᾱṭlā  is  mɑ:kk  di:stɑ  or  hᾱṁv  lɛ:ktɑ).

Two points should be noted:

1.There is also a large number of Kannada borrowings in Konkani which also differentiates the vocabulary sharply from Marathi, for example, in nouns, in just the names for different parts of a house, we get bᾱ:gīla (door),  ka:ṇḍi (window),  nɛ̄la (floor),  me:ṭṭu (step),  ci:ḷkɔ (latch),  etc.: the complete list of nouns of Kannada origin, in different categories, will be very long. Even in verbs, we get  ka:rḍūi,  kārga,  gi:ççūi,  çᾱḷi,  āḍci,  dᾱṇṭi,  na:mgūva,  ma:ḍçūi,  ba:ggūva,  bā:rāi,  bi:ssūi,  me:ççūva,  etc. Likewise in other categories of words like adjectives:  gu:ḍḍɔ,  ha:gūra, etc. There is even a Tulu word:  ta:ggu  (not found in most of the other Konkani dialects, which have sakala).  Surprisingly, this word is the standard Chitrapur Saraswat word all over Karnataka, and not only in the Mangalore area, almost as if it were a Konkani word borrowed in Tulu (where the proper word for “down” is  tirtt^u).

But the following lists (to the best of my ability and knowledge) will not contain words borrowed from Kannada (unless a word or two appears inadvertently).

Incidentally, Konkani contains many words constructed with a combination of a Kannada word and a non-Kannada word: pɑy-cīlaṁ पायचीलं (socks), bīgᾱ:-hᾱtu  बीगाहातु (key), e

2. Many Konkani words not actually used in spoken Marathi appear in the Dnyaneshwari and other saintly literature or as secondary words in modern Marathi literary and poetical works (e.g. ula for "speak", niḍhaḷ for forehead, etc.), or in the borderline Marathi dialects of Sindhudurg, or in double phrases where the second word is a Konkani word (e.g. gōrᾱ-gōmṭᾱ, lahᾱn-sᾱn, vēḍᾱ-pisᾱ ,etc.). These may be included in the lists.

We will only list a very few representative examples of the more distinctive vocabulary below (Marathi and English equivalents in brackets), as the study of the vocabulary of any language is a vast subject.

.

SOME VERBS:

ẓᾱ (hō - become, happen).

vāça (ẓᾱ - go).

vhāri (nē - take away).

hᾱḍi (ᾱṇ - bring).

da:vāri (ṭhēv - keep).

dɛ̄ṁva (utār - climb down, descend).

ɑ:ppāḍi (śīv - touch).

ɑ:ppāi (bōlav - call).

nīmgi (vicᾱr - ask).

u:llai (bōl - speak).

çāmka (çᾱl - walk).

dhᾱmpi (zhᾱk - cover).

māsti (tuḍāv - step on, stamp on).

lɛ̄ṁva (çᾱṭ - lick).

lᾱśi (zᾱḷ - burn).

u:gḍᾱs-kāri/ẓᾱ (ᾱṭhāv - remember, recall).

u:gḍᾱs-da:vāri (lakṣᾱt-ṭhēv - remember, keep in mind).

u:mbōḷi (kapḍē-dhū, wash clothes).

ghᾱṭi (ghusaḷ - churn).

pāḷɛ, çōi (pahᾱ, bāgh - look, see). 

pᾱva (pōhōç - reach).

pīndi (phᾱḍ - tear).

bhēti (phōḍ - break)

bhɔ̄ṁva (bhaṭāk, phīr - wander, roam).

khōmbi (ṭōç - prick, pierce).

ni:ddɛ (zhōp - sleep).

lɛ̄k-kāri (mōẓ - count).

vᾱṇṭ-kᾱḍi (kaṣṭa-kār - work hard).

ghūṁva, ghu:vṇḍɑi (phīr, phirāv - turn/spin).

 

SOME NOUNS:

u:ddᾱka (pᾱṇī - water).

u:ẓẓɔ (ᾱg - fire).

ūba (vᾱph - vapour).

vāta (ūn - sunshine).

phɑ:llɔ (pahᾱṭ - dawn).

śīṁ (hivᾱḷᾱ - winter, cold).

dha:ggu (unhᾱḷɑ - summer, heat). 

rūku (ẓhᾱḍ - tree).

sū:ṇɛ̄ (kutrā - dog).

ẓha:ḷkɛṁ (mᾱsᾱ - fish).

su:ṅgāṭa (kōḷmbī - prawn).

mɑ:ṇḍūku (bēdūk - frog).

so:kṇi (pᾱl - lizard).

ẓā:ḷᾱra (ḍhᾱs - mosquito).

lɛktā:lɛ, dɑ:yji (nᾱtēvᾱīk - relatives).

gurtᾱ:cɛ (ōḷkhīçē - acquaintances).

mhalgā:ḍɛ (vaḍīldhᾱrī-maṇḍaḷī - elders).

prᾱy-ẓɑllē:lɛ (vayaskār - elderly people).

prᾱ:yē(k)-āyyī:lɛ (tarūṇ - youngsters)    

dɑ:rlɛ  (purūṣ - males).

bɑ:mmūṇu (navrᾱ, patī - husband).

ho:rḍīka (lagna - wedding).

hɔ̄ra (ẓōḍpā - bridal/married couple).

hɔ̄:rᾱṇa (varāt - procession).

hō:rētu (vār - bridegroom).

hɔ:kkāla (vadhū - bride).

kū:ḷᾱra (mᾱhēr - married woman's maternal home).

bɑ:ppūsu, ᾱnu (bᾱbᾱ, vaḍīl - father). 

ᾱvsu (ᾱī - mother).

mhᾱntu, bɑppō:lyɔ, bɑ:ppɑ  (kᾱkᾱ - pat. uncle).

mhᾱva, pɑ:cci (kākī - pat. aunt).

mɑ:vḷɔ, mᾱmu (mᾱmᾱ - mat. uncle).

mᾱ:vaḷṇi, pɑ:cci (mᾱmī - mat. aunt).

mᾱuṁ (sᾱsarē - father-in-law).

mᾱiṁ (sᾱsū - mother-in-law). 

dhū:va (lēk - daughter).

dhū:ḍi (bhᾱcī - niece)

ça:llɔ (mulgᾱ - boy, son).

ça:lli (mulgī - girl, daughter).

ce:rḍu (mūl - child).

cɛ̄:ḍɔ (nōkar, gaḍī - servant).

cē:ḍu (nōkrīṇ , kᾱmvᾱlī - maid-servant).

cē:ḍi (nᾱykīṇ - prostitute).

rɑ:npi (ācārī - cook).

nī:ḍāḷa (kapāḷ - forehead).

pɔ:llɔ (gᾱl - cheek).

hɛ:rdɔ (chhᾱtī - chest).

kūrṭu (kambar - waist).

di:mbi (guḍghā - knee).

khāḍa (dᾱḍhī - beard).

phɑ:nti (vēṇī - braid, plait).

bᾱla (śēpūṭ - tail).

hūma (ghᾱm - sweat).

killō:ṇi (uçkī - hiccup).

ɑṅgvᾱ:liṁ (kapḍē - clothes).

rɑ:ndāpa (swaypᾱk - cooking).

ɑ:ydᾱna (bhᾱṇḍā - vessel).

rɑ:ndāi (ᾱmṭī - curry, veg.).

hu:mmāṇa (ᾱmṭī - curry, non-veg.).

va:kkāda (auṣādh - medicine).

bhɑ:ṅgᾱra (sōnā - gold).  

dantū:ṇi (kaṅghī - comb).

ba:ḍḍi (kᾱṭhī - stick).

sɑ:ttɛṁ (chatrī - umbrella).

mᾱ:ṇᾱi (pᾱṭ - wooden seat for floor).

ba:yrᾱsu (pancᾱ - thin towel).

mɑ:ndri (çaṭaī - straw mat).

vā:ṇāti (bhintā - wall).

va:ṭṭɔ (bhōk - hole).

phōṇḍu (kha:ḍḍᾱ - pit, pothole).     

nɛ̄:vᾱna (kᾱrāṇ - reason).

u:gḍᾱsu (ᾱṭhvāṇ - memory).

 

SOME ADJECTIVES:

ba:dda (kharā - true).

pha:ṭṭi (khōṭā - false).

hɔ̄ḍa (mōṭhā - big).

sᾱna (lahᾱn - small).

dīgu (unça - tall).

thōru (ẓᾱḍᾱ - fat).

sā:pūru (bᾱrīk - thin).

dhā:vɛṁ (pᾱṇḍhrā - white).

haḷdū:vɛṁ (pivḷā - yellow).

pɑ:cvɛṁ (hirvā - green).

hūna (garam - hot).

phūṭa (svaccha - clean).

sau:rāga (svasta - cheap, inexpensive).

vi:ṅgāḍa (vēgḷā - different).

gɔ:mṭɔ (dēkhṇᾱ, sundār - beautiful, handsome).

pi:ssɔ (vēḍᾱ - mad).

kɛ:ppɔ (bahirᾱ - deaf).

uprᾱ:ṭi (ulṭā - opposite).

 

SOME ADVERBS:

hɑ:ṅgɑ (ithē, ikḍē - here).

thāiṁ (tithē, tikḍē - there).

lɑ:ggi (ẓavāḷ - nearby).

mū:khᾱri (puḍhē - ahead, in front).

mɑ:kṣi (mᾱgē - behind).

ta:ggu, sakā:la, mū:ḷᾱntu (khᾱltī - down, underneath). 

bhi:ttēri (ᾱt - inside).

ba:glēka (bᾱẓūlᾱ - beside, at the side).

peldī:kᾱka (palīkaḍē - to the further side).

phᾱi (udyᾱ - tomorrow).

phalphalyᾱ:ri (pahᾱṭē - early in the morning).

hyᾱ-pha:ntɑṁ (yᾱ-vēḷī - this time).

makṣī:-pha:ntɑṁ (mᾱgchyᾱ-vēḷī - last time).

mukhᾱ:vail-pha:ntɑṁ (pudhcyᾱ-vēḷī - next time).

pōruṁ (mᾱgcyᾱ-varṣī - last year).

mukhᾱ:rīka (puḍhcyᾱ-varṣī - next year).       

ɛ:kḷᾱka (ᾱdhī - first, earlier, before).

ɛ:kɛkḷᾱka (survᾱtīlᾱ - at first).

cikke-tɑ:vaḷi (thoḍyᾱ-vēḷᾱ-pūrvī - a short while ago).

mɑ:ggīri (māg, nantār - later, afterwards).

magī:rsari (śēvṭī - at last, finally). [kaḍē:rsari has Kannada ingredient].

ti:tlbhittēri , itlyᾱ:ntu (tēvdhyᾱt - just then, suddenly).

ᾱ:rtᾱntu (hallī - recently, nowadays).

ɑnikai (aẓūn, aẓūn-paryanta - yet, as yet).

ye:ddōḷ-thai (ᾱtᾱ-paryanta - till/by now).

te:ddōḷ-thai, tɑ:vaḷ-thai  (tō-paryanta - till/by then).

tɛdamhaṇsari (tō-paryanta - till/by then).

yeddo:ḷcᾱka (sadhyᾱ - so far, at present, currently).   

ghaḍyᾱ::ntu (kṣaṇᾱt - suddenly in a moment).

ɔpā:sa (punhᾱ, parāt - again).

ēksai (punhᾱ-punhᾱ, ēk-sᾱrkhā - again and again).

pū:ḍɛ (pūrvī - formerly, long ago).

mhasta-mɑ:kṣi (phᾱr-pūrvī - very long ago, once upon a time).

tɑttɑ:vaḷi (adhūn-madhūn - every now and then).

paylē:-mhaṇkɛ (pūrvī sᾱrkhā - as before).

kɛnnᾱñcē:-vɑri (nehmī pramᾱṇē - as usual).

çāḍa (jᾱstā - more).

ū:ṇɛ (kamī - less). [Marathi uses uṇīv as a noun "shortage, deficiency").

çaḍᾱ:vāta (adhik, jᾱstā - extra).

[But çaḍɑvata (jᾱstā karūn - usually)].

mhasta (phᾱr, bharpūr - plenty, lots of).  

cikkɛ (thōḍāsā - a little bit).

[cikɛ, bagēynɛ before imperative verb (Marathi ẓarᾱ) = just].

çaḍᾱ:n-çāḍa (jᾱstīt-jᾱsta - maximum).

uṇyᾱ:n- ūṇɛ (kamīt-kamī - minimum, at the least).

ẓɑ:ltitlɛṁ (hōīl-tēvdhā - as much as possible).

ẓᾱimhoṇu, ẓau:nkɑmhoṇu (muddɑmūn - deliberately).

nustēmpuṇi (ugīç - unnecessarily).

nōḷettā:: (gapcup, śᾱntapaṇē - quietly).

yɛ:dtɛdyɑka (ẓarᾱ-ẓarᾱvarūn - for every small thing).

auṁsā:rᾱnɛ (ghᾱī-ghᾱīt - in a hurry, hastily).

samā:: (vyavasthit - properly).

 

SOME NOUN SUFFIXES (POST-POSITIONS):

[ça:llɔ (mulgᾱ - boy)]

ça:llyᾱ-ka (mulᾱ-lᾱ - to the boy).

çallyᾱ:-galɛṁ (mulᾱ-çā - the boy's).

çallyᾱ:-lyɑgi (mulᾱ-kaḍē - near/with the boy).

çallyᾱ:-lyɑgthaunu (mulᾱ-kaḍūn - from the boy).

çallyᾱ:-lyɑgthai (mulᾱ-paryanta - till the boy).

çallyᾱ:-guṇi (mulᾱ-sᾱṭhī - for the boy).

çallyᾱ:-kai (mulᾱ-pēkṣᾱ - than the boy).

çallyᾱ:-vɑri/gɑri/mhaṇke (mulᾱ-sᾱrkhā - like the boy).

çallyᾱ:-miti (mulᾱ-muḷē - because of the boy).

çallyᾱ:-suttū:: (mulᾱ-bhōvatī - around the boy).

çallyᾱ:-dikᾱnɛ(thaunu) (mulᾱ-cyᾱ-bᾱẓūnē - from the boy's side).  

çallyᾱ:-lɛkhɑka (mulᾱ-cyᾱ-tarphēnē - on behalf of the boy).

 

SOME VERBAL SUFFIXES/FORMS:

[vāça (ẓᾱ - go)].  

va:çūka (ẓᾱylᾱ - to go).

va:çānᾱ-ẓauñcᾱka (na-ẓᾱylᾱ - to not go).

va:çkᾱ, va:çkᾱẓa (ẓᾱvē, ẓᾱylᾱ-havē - must go, should go).

va:çūnaẓẓa (ẓᾱū-nayē - must not go, should not go).

va:cyēda (ẓᾱū-śaktō - can go).

va:çānɑstānɑ (na-ẓᾱtᾱ - without going).

vaçū:ltaśi, va:cc-bhittēri (ẓᾱtᾱç - as soon as * goes/went).

va:çānɑpaḍɛ (gēlyᾱvār - after * goes/went).

va:cc-ɛkḷᾱka (ẓᾱycyᾱ-ᾱdhī - before going, before * goes/went).

va:çāsari (ẓᾱī-paryanta - until * goes/went).

va:çātlagēnɛ, va:çāddhōrnu (gēlyᾱ-pᾱsūn - until * goes/went).

vaçū:lmiti (gēlyᾱ-muḷē - because * went).

 

ADJECTIVAL PREFIXES/FORMS:

[hɔ̄ḍa (mōṭhā - big)].

çāḍ hɔ̄ḍa (jāstā mōṭhā - bigger).

itlyᾱ:nt hɔ̄ḍa (sarvᾱt mōṭhā - biggest).

cike hɔ̄ḍa (ẓarᾱ mōṭhā - slightly big) .

ani cike hɔ̄ḍa (ᾱṇkhīn thōḍā mōṭhā - slightly bigger).

*-kai hɔ̄ḍa (*-pēkṣᾱ mōṭhā - bigger than *).

mhasta hɔ̄ḍa (phᾱr mōṭhā - very big).

bhō hɔ̄ḍa (adhik mōṭhā - too big).

samā:: hɔ̄ḍa (vyavasthit mōṭhā - properly big).

Actually, this sort of thing could go on and on and it was not my intention to enlarge on the subject of vocabulary in this article. If someone goes deeply into the matter and produces a list of Konkani words, grammatical and sentence forms, names of local plants and trees, special culinary items, pejoratives and semi-pejoratives and endearments, slang and sayings and idioms, and traditional rural folk vocabulary, etc. etc. it will be a very big task. This article was only meant to give a sample representation of distinctive Konkani vocabulary.

I will only end with a few important words which deserve special mention:

vhāi (hō - yes).

nᾱ (nᾱhī - no).

nāiṁ (navhē - not).

hɔ̄ṁ, ẓᾱyda (barā, çᾱlēl - okay, all right).   

ẓɑlyɑri (pāṇ - but).

ẓɑvɔ, ekai (kiṁvᾱ - or).

naivɛ̄, naiẓɑlyari, ekai (nahī tār - or else).

[ẓɑvɔ is used as a kind of alternating-"etc.". Thus : "cᾱ ẓɑvɔ ẓᾱi vɛ̄?" : "do you want tea or something?"]. 

mhaḷyɑri (mhaṇjē - meaning, that is).

ēk phantɑṁ/peṭi, (ek-dᾱ - once). 

i:ttɛṁ? (kasā kᾱy? - "hello, how are you?" when meeting someone).

 

Words added to a sentence to indicate:

1. hearsay: khaiṁ (mhaṇē - it is said, it seems, I am told) 

2. speculation: itki, ɑ:skᾱ (asēl - perhaps, maybe).

3. question: vɛ̄, vayᾱ, navɛ, naiṁ, havɛ, mā, kī  (kᾱ, kᾱy, nᾱ).                           

 

The purpose of this article was:

a) to present a picture of the Konkani language as it is (how many Konkani speakers had even suspected that their language contained so many distinct phonological, morphological and grammatical features which give it such a unique place among the Indo-Aryan languages?),

b) to show that Konkani is a rich, ancient language with a hoary identity of its own, and not a dialect or poor cousin of Marathi.

The intention is not to appeal for a future for Konkani as an official language of a political territory or as a medium of education, but to appeal for its secure future, in as pure a form as possible, as the primary means of expression in domestic and community circles and its increasing use in dramas, etc.