Konkani ( ), formerly Concani, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Konkani people, primarily in the Konkan region, along the western coast of India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages mentioned in the Indian Constitution, and the official language of the Indian state of Goa. It is also spoken in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat as well as Daman, Diu & Silvassa.
Konkani is a member of the Southern Indo-Aryan language group. It retains elements of Vedic structures and shows similarities with both Western and Eastern Indo-Aryan languages. The first known Konkani inscription, dated to the 2nd century AD and sometimes claimed as "Old Marathi" is the one at Arvalem; the second oldest Konkani inscription, is one of those at Shravanabelagola, dated to between 981 AD and 1117 AD, it was wrongly touted as "Old Marathi" from the time it was discovered and interpreted. Other Konkani inscriptions are found scattered across the Konkan region, especially from Kurla in Bombay (Mumbai) to Ponda, Goa.
Many Konkani dialects are spoken along and beyond the Konkan region, from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; most of which are only partially mutually intelligible with one another due to a lack of linguistic contact and exchanges with the standard and principal forms of Konkani. It is also spoken by migrants outside of the Konkan proper, in Nagpore, Surat, Kochi, Mangalore, Ahmedabad, Karachi, New Delhi, etc. Dialects such as Malvani, Chitpavani, and Damani in Maharashtra are threatened by language assimilation into the linguistic majority of non-Konkani states and territories of India.
Classification Konkani belongs to the Indo-Aryan language branch. It is part of the Marathi-Konkani group of the southern Indo-Aryan languages. It is inflexive, and less distant from Sanskrit as compared to other modern Indo-Aryan languages. Linguists describe Konkani as a fusion of a variety of Prakrit vernacular languages. This could be attributed to the confluence of immigrants that the Konkan coast has witnessed over the years.
Names and their etymology It is quite possible that Old Konkani was just referred to as Prakrit by its speakers. Reference to the name Konkani is not found in literature prior to the 13th century. The first reference of the name Konkani is in "Abhanga 263" of the 13th century Hindu Marathi saint poet, Namadeva (1270–1350). Konkani has been known by a variety of names: Canarim, Concanim, Gomantaki, Bramana, and Goani. Learned Marathi speakers tend to call it Gomantaki.M. Saldanha 717. J. Thekkedath, however, quotes Jose Pereira to the following effect: "A lay brother of the College of St Paul around 1563 composed the first grammar of Konkani. His work was continued by Fr Henry Henriques and later by Fr Thomas Stephens. The grammar of Fr Stephens was ready in manuscript form before the year 1619." (Jose Pereira, ed., "Gaspar de S. Miguel's Arte da Lingoa Canarim, parte 2a, Sintaxis copiossisima na lingoa Bramana e pollida," Journal of the University of Bombay [Sept. 1967] 3–5, as cited in J. Thekkedath, History of Christianity in India, vol. II: From the Middle of the Sixteenth to the End of the Seventeenth Century (1542–1700) [Bangalore: TPI for CHAI, 1982] 409).
Konkani was commonly referred to as Língua Canarim by the Portuguese and Língua Brahmana by Catholic missionaries. The Portuguese later started referring to Konkani as Língua Concanim. The name Canarim or Língua Canarim, which is how the 16th century European Jesuit Thomas Stephens refers to it in the title of his famous work Arte da lingoa Canarim, has always been intriguing. It is possible that the term is derived from the Persian word for coast, kinara; if so, it would mean "the language of the coast". The problem is that this term overlaps with Kanarese or Kannada.Arte Canarina na lingoa do Norte. Anonymous MS, edited by Cunha Rivara under the title: Gramática da Língua Concani no dialecto do Norte, composta no seculo XVII por um Missionário Português; e agora pela primeira vez dada à estampa (Nova Goa: Imprensa Nacional, 1858). Cunha Rivara suggested that the author was either a Franciscan or a Jesuit residing in Thana on the island of Salcete; hence the reference to a 'Portuguese missionary' in the title.Portuguese chronicler João de Barros (1552) Decadas de Asia, Dec. I, Bk.9, ch.1, says that the western Ghats ("serra Gate") goes along the coast, and forms a long and thin strip of coastal land "they call Concan, and its people properly called Concanis, but we call them Canarese." (Barros, p.295-96). He differentiates the "Concanis" people on the coast from the "Decanis" people east of the Ghats. He identifies the "Rio Bate" (Thane Creek of Mumbai) as the northern border of this Concan region. But he sets the "Rio Aliga" (Kali River) as the political boundary between the "Kingdom of Decan" (Deccan sultanates) and the "Province of Canará" (vassal of "Bisnaga", Vijayanagara Empire). All the European authors, however, recognised two forms of the language in Goa: the plebeian, called Canarim, and the more regular (used by the educated classes), called Língua Canarim Brâmana or simply Brâmana de Goa. The latter was the preferred choice of the Europeans, and also of other castes, for writing, sermons, and religious purposes.Mariano Saldanha, "História de Gramática Concani," Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 8 (1935–37) 715. See also M. L. SarDessai, A History of Konkani Literature: From 1500 to 1992 (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2000) 42–43.
There are different views as to the origin of the word Konkan and hence Konkani: V. P. Chavan states that the etymology of Konkan and hence Konkani is derived from the Kannada word konku meaning 'uneven ground'. The Kannada origin suggests that Konkana might have included Kannada territory and 'uneven ground' suggests the hilly nature of the territory. Konku in Kannada also means that which is 'not straight' and is 'crooked. The word Konkan comes from the Kukkana (Kokna) tribe, who were the original inhabitants of the land where Konkani originated. According to some texts of Puranas, Parashurama shot his arrow into the sea and commanded the Sea God to recede up to the point where his arrow landed. The new piece of land thus recovered came to be known as Konkan meaning piece of earth or corner of earth, kōṇa (corner) + kaṇa (piece). This legend is mentioned in Sahyadrikhanda of the Skanda Purana.
History Proposed substrate influences
The grammatical influence of the Dravidian languages on the structure and syntax of Indo-Aryan languages is difficult to fathom. Some linguists explain this anomaly by arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan and New Indo-Aryan were built on a Dravidian substratum.Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003)The Dravidian Languages Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. at pp. 40–41. Some examples of Konkani words of Dravidian origin are: naall (coconut), madval (washerman), choru (cooked rice) and mulo (radish).Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003) The Dravidian Languages Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. at pp. 12. Linguists also suggest that the substratum of Marathi and Konkani is more closely related to Dravidian Kannada.Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003) The Dravidian Languages Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. at pp.4–6.
Prehistory and early development Migrations of Indo-Aryan vernacular speakers have occurred throughout the history of the Indian west coast. Around 1100-700 BC the first wave of Indo-Aryans dialect speakers might have occurred, with the second wave appearing around 700-500 BC. Many spoke old Indo-Aryan vernacular languages, which may be loosely related to Vedic Sanskrit; others still spoke Dravidian and Desi dialects. Thus the ancient Konkani Prakrit was born as a confluence of the Indo-Aryan dialects while accepting many words from Dravidian speech. Some linguists assume Shauraseni to be its progenitor whereas some call it Paisaci. The influence of Paisachi over Konkani can be proved in the findings of Taraporewala, who in his book Elements of Science of Languages (Calcutta University) ascertained that Konkani showed many Dardic features that are found in present-day Kashmiri. Thus, the archaic form of old Konkani is referred to as Paishachi by some linguists. This progenitor of Konkani (or Paishachi Apabhramsha) has preserved an older form of phonetic and grammatic development, showing a great variety of verbal forms found in Sanskrit and a large number of grammatical forms that are not found in Marathi. (Examples of this are found in many works like Dnyaneshwari, and Leela Charitra.) Konkani thus developed with overall Sanskrit complexity and grammatical structure, which eventually developed into a lexical fund of its own. The second wave of Indo-Aryans is believed to have been accompanied by Dravidians from the Deccan plateau. Paishachi is also considered to be an Aryan language spoken by Dravidians.
Goa and Konkan were ruled by the Konkan Mauryas and the Bhojas; as a result, numerous migrations occurred from north, east and western India. Immigrants spoke various vernacular languages, which led to a mixture of features of Eastern and Western Prakrit. It was later substantially influenced by Magadhi Prakrit. The overtones of Pali (the liturgical language of the Buddhists) also played a very important role in the development of Konkani Apabhramsha grammar and vocabulary. A major number of linguistic innovations in Konkani are shared with Eastern Indo-Aryan languages like Bengali and Oriya, which have their roots in Magadhi.
Maharashtri Prakrit is the ancestor of Marathi and Konkani, it was the official language of the Satavahana Empire that ruled Goa and Konkan in the early centuries of the Common Era. Under the patronage of the Satavahana Empire, Maharashtri became the most widespread Prakrit of its time. Studying early Maharashtri compilations, many linguists have called Konkani "the first-born daughter of Maharashtri". This old language that was prevalent contemporary to old Marathi is found to be distinct from its counterpart.
The Sauraseni influence on Konkani is not as prominent as that of Maharashtri. Very few Konkani words are found to follow the Sauraseni pattern. Konkani forms are rather more akin to Pali than the corresponding Sauraseni forms. The major Sauraseni influence on Konkani is the ao sound found at the end of many nouns in Sauraseni, which becomes o or u in Konkani. Examples include: dando, suno, raakhano, dukh, rukhu, manisu (from Prakrit), dandao, sunnao, rakkhakao, dukkhao, vukkhao, vrukkhao, and mannisso. Another example could be the sound of ण at the beginning of words; it is still retained in many Konkani words of archaic Shauraseni origin, such as णव (nine). Archaic Konkani born out of Shauraseni vernacular Prakrit at the earlier stage of the evolution (and later Maharashtri Prakrit), was commonly spoken until 875 AD, and at its later phase ultimately developed into Apabhramsha, which could be called a predecessor of old Konkani.
Although most of the stone inscriptions and copper plates found in Goa (and other parts of Konkan) from the 2nd century BC to the 10th century AD are in Prakrit-influenced Sanskrit (mostly written in early Brahmi and archaic Dravidian Brahmi), most of the places, grants, agricultural-related terms, and names of some people are in Konkani. This suggests that Konkani was spoken in Goa and Konkan.