Konkani

Konkani is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-European family of languages and is spoken along the western coast of India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages mentioned in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution and the official language of the Indian state of Goa. The first Konkani inscription is dated 1187 A.D.It is a minority language inMaharashtra, Karnataka, northern Kerala (Kasaragod district),Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu.Konkani is a member of the southern Indo-Aryan language group. It retains elements of Old Indo-Aryan structures and shows similarities with both  western and eastern Indo-Aryan languages.

 

It is quite possible that Old Konkani was just referred to as Prakrit by its speakers. Among the inscriptions at the foot of the colossal statue of Bahubali at Sravanabelagola in Karnataka are two lines reading thus: (i) Sri Chamundaraje Karaviyale and (ii) Sri Ganga raje sutthale karaviyale.The first line was inscribed circa 981 AD and the second line in 116-17 AD.The language of these lines is Konkani according to Dr. S.B. Kulkarni (former head of Department of Marathi, Nagpur University) and Dr. Jose Pereira (former professor, Fordham University, USA). Considering these arguments, these inscriptions at Sravanabe-legola may be considered the earliest Konkani inscriptions in Devanagari script. Reference to the name Konkani is not found in literature prior to 13th century. The first reference of the name Konkani is in "Abhanga 263" of the 13th century Marathi saint poet, Namadeva (1270–1350).Konkani has been known by a variety of names: Canarim, Concanim, Gomantaki, Bramana and Goani. It is called Amchi Bhas (our language) by native speakers (Amchi Gele in Dakshina Kannada), and Govi  or Goenchi Bhas by others. Learned Marathi speakers tend to call it Gomantaki.Konkani was commonly referred to as Lingua Canarim by the Portuguese and Lingua Brahmana by Catholic missionaries.The Portuguese later started referring to Konkani as Lingua Concanim.

 

The name Canarim or Lingua 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

 

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), calledLingua Canarim Brámana or simply Brámana de Goa. The latter was the preferred choice of the Europeans, and also of other castes, for writing, sermons, and religious purposes