#Konknni | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gwendolynlerman · 3 years

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Languages of the world

Konkani (कोंकणी/ಕೊಂಕಣಿ/Konknni/കോങ്കണീ/کونکڼی)

Basic facts

Number of native speakers: 2.3 million

Official language: Goa (India)

Also spoken: Bahrain, Kenya, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States

Script: Devanagari, 51 letters/Kannada, 49 letters/Latin, 32 letters/Malayalam, 50 letters/Arabic, 31 letters

Grammatical cases: 3

Linguistic typology: fusional, SOV

Language family: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Southern Zone, Marathi-Konkani

Number of dialects: 3 main groups

History

<17th century - use of the Goykanadi script

Writing system and pronunciation

These are the letters that make up the Devanagari script: अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ऋ ऌ ए ॲ ऐ ओ ऑ औ अं अः क ख ग घ ङ च छ ज झ ञ ट ठ ड ढ ण त द ध न प फ ब भ म य र ऱ ल व ष श स ह ळ.

These are the letters that make up the Kannada script: ಅ ಆ ಇ ಈ ಉ ಊ ಋ ೠ ಎ ಏ ಒ ಓ ಐ ಔ ಕ ಖ ಗ ಘ ಙ ಚ ಛ ಜ ಝ ಞ ಟ ಠ ಡ ಢ ಣ ತ ಥ ದ ಧ ನ ಪ ಫ ಬ ಭ ಮ ಯ ರ ಲ ವ ಶ ಷ ಸ ಹ ಳ.

These are the letters that make up the Latin script: a ã b c ç d e g h i j k l m n n' ng o p r s t u w y.

These are the letters that make up the Malayalam script: അ ആ ഇ ഈ ഉ ഊ ഋ ൠ ഌ ൡ എ ഏ ഒ ഓ ഐ ഔ ക ഖ ഗ ഘ ങ ച ഛ ജ ഝ ഞ ട ഠ ഡ ഢ ണ ത ഥ ദ ധ ന പ ഫ ബ ഭ മ യ ര ല വ ശ �� സ ഹ ള.

These are the letters that make up the Arabic script: ا‎ آ‎‎ اے ي و ‎او ب پ طت ﭦ ج چ ەح د ﺭ صس ش ف ڤ ک گ ل م ن ڭ ڼ ڃ و ي.

Almost all vowels have a nasal form.

Grammar

Nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), two numbers (singular and plural), and three cases (nominative, genitive, and vocative).

Noun complements appear before the noun.

Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood, aspect, voice, person, and number.

Dialects

There are three dialect groups: Northern, Central, and Southern.

#langblr #konkani #lingblr

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guillemelgat · 5 years

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Linguistic Diversity Challenge: 2/6

What is the language called in English and the language itself?

In English the language is referred to as Canarese Konkani (or, more specifically, in Kerala as Travancore Konkani or Kerala Konkani). In the language itself it’s referred to as कॅनराचॆं कोंकणी or Kenarachem Konknni (not 100% if that’s the right transcription because I can’t read Devanagari, so I just took the Malayalam transcription).

Where is the language spoken?

The language is mainly spoken in Karnataka, including a large population near the city of Mangalore, but there is also a population of speakers in the area that was formerly a part of the kingdom of Travancore, including Cochin and Ernakulam as well as Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, and Kollam districts.

How many people speak the language?

In Kerala 69,449 people speak Konkani (presumably all speaking Canarese Konkani?? I can’t find numbers). A lot more people speak it in Karnataka though.

Which language family does it belong to? What are some of its relative languages?

Canarese Konkani is an Indo-European language, in the Marathi-Konkani subgroup. Since it’s a dialect group within Konkani, it’s most closely related to Goan Konkani, but is also (relatively) close to Marathi.

It should be noted that Canarese Konkani is considered a dialect group, so it’s technically neither a language or a single dialect, but rather a group of similar dialects (in contrast with Goan Konkani, for example). These dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible with dialects from the other dialect groupings, though, so they can safely be considered to be different enough for Canarese Konkani to be considered a “language” of sorts (to the extent that “languages” even exist). Within the language, there are dialect distinctions for different religions (Christian/Hindu is a major split in the forms of the language), as well as between castes, which exist in both Christian and Hindu Konkani communities. I’m not sure how good it is, but this website has a fairly thorough comparison of the dialects of the Saraswats and the Catholics in more general terms.

What writing system does the language use?

The official writing system is Devanagari. It can also be written in the Malayalam abugida in Kerala, as well as Latin, Kannada, and Persian scripts elsewhere.

What kind of grammatical features does the language have?

The language is Indo-European but has Dravidian influences as well. It’s an SOV language, and is head-last. It tends to have postpositions. While Goan Konkani has mostly dropped the auxiliary for the present progressive, in Canarese Konkani these distinctions are preserved. Dravidian influences include question markers in yes/no questions and negative markers being sentence-final. There has also been a process of degenetivization/dativization to match the Dravidian pattern.

What does the language sound like?

Vowels, listed in pairs of [short, long] except for ɛ and ə/ɵ which do not have long counterparts: [ɪ, iː], [e, eː], ɛ, ə/ɵ, [æ, aː], [u, uː], [o, oː]

Consonants: k, kʰ, g, gʰ, ŋ, ɦ, c, cʰ, ɟ, ɟʰ, ɲ, j, ɕ, ʃ, ʈ, ʈʰ, ɖ, ɖʰ, ɳ, ɽ, ɺ̣, ʂ, t̪, t̪ʰ, d̪, d̪ʰ, n, l, s, p, pʰ, b, bʰ, m, ʋ, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, f

The consonants are similar to those in Marathi and are fairly typical for an Indo-Aryan language.

The vowels are notable for their distinguishing between /e/, /ɛ/, and /æ/

What do you personally find interesting about the language?

To be quite honest, in learning about this language I think I learned a lot more about the history of the colonization of India, and finding out about how the Portuguese carried that colonization out in Goa was a pretty powerful experience. I honestly knew very little about Konkani, despite having heard of it before, and learning all of the history behind it for me was extremely impactful. I’m also a big fan of looking at differing dialects and also at the influences languages have on each other, and I think the different dialects of Konkani and Canarese Konkani are a really fascinating example of that.

#linguisticdiversitychallenge #also i think one of my dad's close friends is a konkani speaker from karnataka??#but i didn't know what the language was #also i never knew what language was spoken in goa and this really bothered me so i'm glad i know now #this is just an excuse to actually force me to learn stuff about india for once #canarese konkani #la vida sense queue #general:overview #general:challenge

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