Glimpses of the Konkani Language at the Turn of the 16th Century - Vol 7 by red mackerel

L. A. ftodrigncl

l(0llmill ut0uAGt TI IIIE TURI{ llF THE l OTII 8.

eHilP$E$ 0F IHE

Separata do Dolettrn do Inrtltuto

Mosrer Bregrrgr'

Tlpogretta Rargel

- Brrtort. @cr'

No' 135

-1982

VII a comparison of their vocabulary

Jnaneshvara and

he Aryans, having crossed the Indian

border from the north-west by 1500 B.C. or perhaps earlier, were trekking over India in different cardinal points. A group of these Indo-Aryans, consisting of Saraswat Brahmins and probably also of Punjabi Kshatriyas, speaking a

North Indian tongue, descended southwards, and,, having assimilated

route various Prakrits of Western India and Northern Deccan, reached, after a long march, the region of Konkan by the 8th. c.

A.D.

Here, two centuries

later, i.e. by the l0th c., of the fusion of the above said speeches was born

first modern Indo-Aryan language-the Konkani, which in the llth c. attained full adulthood, under the Dravidian rule, whose Kannada tongue

the

exercised substantial influence on the former.

c., the young Maharashtrian poet-saint, Jnaneshvara, founded the Marathi language with his large literary work of which " the most famous is a Marathi metrical paraphrase of the Bhagavad Gita Later on in the l3th.

called the Jnaneshvari

" (V. Raghavan,

Sources

of Indian

Tradition,

As a language of a politically independent land, Marathi progressed quickly, while Konkani could not, as it always remained under alien dominion; yet the latter, thanks to its Columbia University Press, New York,

1960

6 plenitude of maturity and vocabulary, went on slowly growing till the intrusion of the Portuguese missionaries in the l6th. c., which caused a halt

offour centuries; however, as a by'product ofthe evangelization, the padres left linguistic and religious literary work, thus preserving some Konkani material which is today of great value for the reconstitution of that language.

It is intended hereby to establish a comparison

between

the Marathi

of Jnaneshvara (13th. c.) and the Konkani of Diogo Ribeiro (16th. c.). For thispurpose are used the Jnaneshvarichem Shobd-Bhandara by Ramachandra Naraina velingkar, Bombay, 1959, and the manuscript Konkani'Portuguese vocabulary of L526 bY Ribeiro.

a) An examination of the above two works shows that, on the whole, both fnaneshvari and Ribeiro's vocabulary consist of the same lexical body, that is, almost all the vocables found in one are also found in the other and vice-versa. The similarity between the two is so impressive that a Konkani speaker will feel that Jnaneshvara's Marathi is a form of the Konkani language, and a Marathi speaker will find that Ribeiro's Konkani vocabulary is a Marathi lexical comPilation.

b) vocables, which have become obsolete or today are not used by the common people, specially by the christians, are found both in Jnaneshvara .and in Ribeiro, such as:

Jnaneshvara

z Ont; Ribeiro

2. Jn

Ontkoronn

J. Jn

Ott;

R: Oti-

Ont-end.

: Ontkoronn-heart, mind. much,verY.

;

Odbhuf- marvellous. 5. Jn Ondhkar, Ondhar, Andhar; R: Ondkar, Onilar-darkness' 6. Jn Ombor; R: Ombor-sky. 7. Jn : Obhiman-pride ; R: Obhiman-dishonour. (N.B. Both Jesuits 4. Jn

Odbhut- marvel

and Franciscans ofthe l7th. c. record obhiman with the meaning of dishonour, but in modern Konkani (Dalgado) it means pride as it

and in the modern Marathi and Hindi dictionaries ; l7th. cmissionaries give gorv for pride, anC, himun for honour, and, hence does in Jn,

obhiman for dishonour).

8. Jn: Orchonnem; R: Orchon-worship. 9. Jn: Olp; R: Otp-tittte. 10. Jn : Ovkal; R: Ovkall- improper time. 11. Jn: Ovdhan; R: Ovodh--attention. 12. Jn: ovsor-proper time; R: ousor-time

fixed by the village owner$

for holding meetings.

13. Jn : Ovos dark night; R : Oyos new moon. 14. Jn : Osivar; R: Asivar -horse. 15. Jn: Osti; R: Osri- bone. 16. Jn : Auuh: R: Outth three and half. 17. Jn: Anknnem-to make signs after measurementl. R: Ankitam_to draw lines on plank or clotb. 18. Jn: Akarannem -to take shape; R: Akaritam-to design. 19. Jn: Akhor; R: Okher-letter of tbe alphabet. 20. Jn: Angul; R: Angull-finger. 21. Jn: Ady; R: Ady -beginrring, origin. 22. Jn : Abh?onn ; R :' Obhronn attire.

23. Jn: Amulai R: Amulo-husband. 24. Jn: Alos; R: Alos - indisposition. 25 Jn: Ason; R: Ason- sear, 26. Jn: Utpot'ty-birth ; R : Utpoty-procreation. 27" Jn: Udor; R: (Idhor -vuomb. 28. Jn : Upchar ; R : Upchar-sacred ceremony. 29. Jn: Ushnn; R: Usttnn-heat. 30. Jn: Kodli; R: Mutthelem 1Port. cadalim) - a banana. 3l' Jn: Korvim; R: Korvim-by means of. 32. Jn: Korunna; R: Korunna-grace. 33. Jn: Korta; R: Kort -maker, doer. 34. Jn: Kolantor -interest; K: Kallantor-usury.

fl 8

Jn: 36. Jn: 37. Jn: 38. Jn: 39. Jn: 40. Jn: 3s.

41.

44. 45.

46. 47. 48.

R: Kovonn -wbo'

i R : Kosrnoll-human excrement' -stench Kaz; R: Kaz-business. Kanji-canjy; R : Kanzi- sour canjY' Koshmol

Kamna

; R: Kamna-

lust.

Kaia; R: Koia-bodY. Jn: Karie; R: Karie-business, action.

42. Jn: 43.

Kovonn;

Jn: Jn: Jn: Jn: Jn: Jn: Jn: Jn:

Ktmor-son; R:

Kumor

Prince'

Kut; R: Kulli-familY, race. Kupika; Rz KuPi- bottle. Khanildem

;

R z Khanddem- sword'

R: Goghor-skY. Gondhy; R: GondY -stench.

Gogon;

Gudilha;

Rz Guddi-flag.

R: Gotr -familY, race. Gamtta; R: Gomtto - PrettY, nice' 50. 51. Jn: Go1sfii; R: GofsSi-wra. 49.

Gotr;

52, Jn: Gram; Rz Gram-village' 53. Jn: Ghon; R: Ghon-rain. 54. Jn : Chokr; R: Chokr-discus ( a weapon)' 55. Jn z Chokrvarty; R: Chokrvoty - Emperor' 56. Jn z Chang; R: Chang -good' 57. Jn : Chalnnern; R: Chaltanr-to walk' A 5g. Jn z Chintamonni - a gem that satisfies il{ o\ one's desires; B' z Chintmonni

a Precious stone'

R; Chhaia-shadow' 60. Jn: Zol; R: Zoll-water. 59.

Jn z Chhaia;

61. Jn ; Chumbnnem-tolick ; R z Chumbitam-to kiss' 62, Jn: Zhanknnem; R: Zhankitam, Ddhankitam, Ddhampitam-to to close.

63. Jn : Tthauva; R; Tthavo-aware' 64. Jn ; Tthannvi,Tthanndivi; R: Tthanndivo-lamp with

I I

I,'

stand'

covcr,

-9

Jn: Ddhor cattle ; R: Ddhor -. dead cow. 66. Jn: Tonv; R: Tonv - then. 67. Jn: Tir R: Tirim - on the border

65.

-border;

68,

69. Jn

70. Jn

7t. Jn 1't

73.

74. Jn

75. Jn 76. Jn 77. Jn

78. Jn

79. Jn 80. Jn 81. Jn

82. Jn 83.

84. Jn 85.

; R: Doltodr-poverty, misery. Dorponn; R: Dorpinn or Dorponn - mirror. Data, Datar; Rt Data, Datar - giver, benefactor. Dirgh; R: Dirg-long. Drove ; R: Drove l - wealth, money. Noggr ; R: Nogor - city. Nabhikar ; R: Nabhikar - safety. Doridr

Ni[; R: Niko -- good. ] . Nirlep; R: Nillep pure. -clean, Nishkolonk ; R : Nikollork - immaculate.

Nir; R: Nfr-water. Nepur ; R : Nepur-anklet. Pod - foot ; R : Poil -footstep. Poris; R : Porls - a stone that turns iron into.gold.

Povon;

Poyon-wind.

; R : Patthowt- city. Patal I R : Patall -underworld. Patr I R: Patr - vessel, pot. Patthonn

Fapar-kick.

86. Jn

Pampor;

87. Jn

Par: R: Par -end.

93. Jn

Pqr gighth part of day, i. e. space of Pentth ; R : pentth-markâ&#x201A;Źt. Probha; R: Probha- ligbt. Proson'n ; R : Proson'n -favourable. Ba, Pita, Pitr ; R : Ba, Pita, Pitr -father. Bonem; R: Bonem- food.

94. Jn

Bol;

88.

89. Jn 90.

9t.

92. Jn

Pahar;

95. Jn

R: Bol-word. Bhsk; R: Bhak-speech.

'96_ Jn

Bhannem;

R: Bhannem-lable for meals.

3 hours.

1097, Jn: Bhatar; R: Bhatar -husband' 98. Jn: Bhushonr; R : Bhushann- elegance'

lnz Bhojonn; R: Bhoionn-food' 100. Jn Mosh; R: Mosh-ink' flo1. Jn; Mauli; R: Mauli-mother' [02. Jn: Mat; R: Mat-talk. r03. ln: Mas; R: Mas-month' ;104. Jn Mim; R; Mitn-t. ,105. Jn Mukt ; R ; Mugt -salvation, 99.

106. 007. ,108.

iI09.

I 10. ,111.

t12. il 13. ,114. ,1.15.

beatitude'

Jn: Mudraz Rz Mudra-seal' lnz Mus; R: Mns-crucible' lnz Moho; Rz Moho-love' Jnz Yutra; Rz Yatra-Pllgrimage' Jn: Yogie; Jn: YonY;

Rz Yogie-idoneous

R: YonY-caste' Jnz Rokodd; R: Rokodd-readY

money'

Jn; Rom; R: Ron-hair of bodY' !r: Lin; R: Linn-humble' Jnz Von-desert; R Von-iungle'

means of' [ 16. Jr.: Voroun; R: Yoroun-bY l17. Jnz Varta; R: Varta-news' to spend' [ 18. Jn; Technnenr; R: Vechitam,l19. Jn ',120.

Slrostr

; R:

z. Shikhor; R

Xestr

Sikhor

weapon'

peak of mountain'

: Sftilc; R: Si/ta - rock' Jn Shubh; R: Srbh-good' Jn: S/rri; R: Sri-a prefix of

't21. Jn il,22.

tt23.

or things. 0,24. !n; sondeho;

honour lused for

Sondeho-doubt'

t25. Jn : Somaromb ; R : Somoromb-festival' c,26. Jn: Sis: R: Sins--head' rn. Jn: Sez; R: Sez-=ledding'

128. Jn; Sevnnem; R: Sevitam-to eat. 129. In: Som; R: Sozt -moon. I30. Jn: Sneo; R: ,Szeo-love.

l3l.

Jn: Hak; R: Hak -shout. I32. Jn : Hatt; R: Hatt - market. 133. Jn: Hin; R: Hinn-mean. l3a. Jn: Tambddem; R: Tambiddem-red. c) Many vocables in Jnaneshvarara present the same morphological forms and functions as in Ribeiro, but later on the Marathi morphology has

other cases a vocable originally common to both Konkani and Marathi, almost lost its use in one of them, or changed the meaning.

changed;

Examples

l. Jn: obhimanu; R: obhimanu. (M. is short

B. Here and henceafter finar

2. Jn: Adharu; R: Adhanr - help. 3. Jn : Ahati; R: verbs in 3rd person

plural ofpresent tense cative mood end in ati, v.g. yetati, kortari, etc.

of the indi-

udok; R; udok-wate{. (formerry a coormon vocabre, to-day more use in Konkani thafrl\4arathi ). Jn : Punn ; R :, Punn- at least. ( tn Ribeiro : ponn _ but

5. -but 6. Jn: Ier; R : Yer, Her - other (same use as in Udok). 7. Jn: Gorbu; R: Gorbu-foetus. 8. Jn: Ghansu; R:, Ghansu-mouthful. 9. Jn : Ghottu; R: Ghottu - sip, f0. Jn: Zogu; R: Zogu-world. 11. Jn : Zo, zi, zem; te... ze ; R: Zo, zi, zem (qwi, quae, quod; Relative or demonstrative pronoun.

it has )

is, ea,

id'1_

72. Jn: Dadula; R: Dadulo-man, husband. 13. Jn : Porimol; R : Po'noll sweet smell (more used in Konkani). 14. Jn : Panni ; R : panni -- tide ( the meaning slightly changed ). -water 15. Jn: Paru; R: Paru -end. 16. Jn: Bolu; R: Bolu - word.

12.-17. Jn : Mim; R: Mim, Hanv -- l. 18. Jn: Mukuttu; R: Mokuttu-crown. 19. Jn : Voroun; R: Voroun-by means of (presently wrun)' 20. Jn: Vortonnem; R: Vortotam-to happen, to behave, to prevail, to become, to exist, etcr... fThis verb did not have the meaning and function of the copulatirff" nr, as of late it has been used and abused in Konkani

21. Jn.. Vicharnnem; R: Vicharitam -to ast, to consider (Presently in Konkani is more trsed in the selse of to ask, while in Marathi is more used as to consider).

22. Jn: Shri; R: Sri-prefix of honour (presently little used in Konkani). 23. Jn Sont; R: Sorr-Saint (In l(onkani, under the influence of Portuguese

^Scn

24. Jn: Von

ro,

it became Sant).

-desert;

R: Yon-jungle.

d) A number of vocables, namely noun8, adjectives, pronouns and verbs. bear their own characteristic morphological forms in Jnaneshvara arrd in Ribeiro, which mark pronounced differentiation emerging between the nascent Marathi and the adult Konkani speeches. Examples:

Ankitam (Ankunk). (while Jnaneshvara pfesents the verbs in the infinitive, Ribeiro follows the classical Latin pattern of giving the first person singular of the present tense of the indicative

L Jn: Anknnenz; R :

mood. The Konkani infinitive ends in unk or onk and I\{arathi in nnem).

2. Jn Akarnnem; R: Alcaritam ( Akarunk ) 3. Jn R : Atma; Atmo -- soul. ( Nominative case of noun ). 4. Jn Adolnnem; R: Adolltam ( Adollunk ) -to stumble' 5. Jn Amulai R: Amulo- husband. 6. Jn Avoddnaem; R: Avoddtam ( Avddunk ) - to like. 7. In Uddnnem; R: Uddtam ( Uddunk J - to flY. 8. Jn j{Jnna, nni, nnem; R: (Jnno, i, ern - mean, less (adjective ). 9. Jn (Jtorrurcm; R : Utortam ( Utrunk ) - to cross to the other bank. 10. Jn Umbra; R: Humor - sill of door.

lgr

-*.

Koiki.ram ( Kotltwttk,) -to'lnbrrate. (In Ribe-iro: ,.._ri" nlKeth:64g^14parration, i4qtrygfiion-- 1p anoul).ir ,..,: . ,,r ;i af fppa bHlnt -_!o,be -such l2:,',j[!t,: ,fiovponnem:3t \: Korpatam ( Korppnk )

1ir',ritf,i,, Kothnabm:

1r'.i

ingcookingpot. i .,

.,.:.r:

ir . :,.,,,,, ,,

Jn: Korta; R: Kort ln); .Korto' i, em iadj.), - docr, maker' 14. Jn: Gabha ; R :,G4b-,foetus. 15. ln: Guddha; R: Guddi-flqg. tlenx; R: Gonxtoo i, eln (aO;.1 ,- beautiful' 16. Jn: Gomtta, ,tti, 17. Jn: Ghanna; R: Ghanno - Oil-mill. 18. Jn': Chtimpa; R; Champo-a florver'tree'1 Miehelia ch'a'mpam\' .''.''; r9. tn':''Ch\lniein ; R : Chatiam ( Chatmkl -towalk. r1.,

20,

2l 22. 23.

24. 25. 26.

Jn: Chumbnnem; R: Chumbtam ( Chumbunk) -to kiss' Jn: Zhranknnent; R: Zhankitam ( Zhankunk) -'to close' jn' ,' ii'ioord, ni, ,e* :' R:' ftlraio. i, em-aware. Jn": Tthriinititi; R : Tthanndivo - lamp wlth starid Jn i:datia; k:t btadulo- mart. rniriiiari;'h.,' Nirto* ( Nivonk ) - to become cool. Jn irt Nivarnnem; R: :Nivar!am ( Nivarunk 1 to deliver. Puint;

27. Jn 28.

ln:

itonn

*but

Pophol; 'P.: PhoPofl

29. Jn,: Iontl

(

at least

;'R ; Zontr'-machine.

Jn: Rov'b; R:'Rouo i,Piece; bit.

31.

: Lansem ;:'\ :

33. Ju

areca nut'

30.

32. Jn

Punn

I-ashemi'burn.

lt$ftotam'( Vortonlc ),'"' to hafpen' to'bdha,ver' etc' Vielwrnnqm;:R,;',Vicbartam {':Vicharunk ) '_1o ask, to consider. Vor tonnem

;

R:,{ggh,tam

(

Vechunk ) '--

to spend

34.

!n':

35.

Jn: Somorpnnem; R:; Somorpitam ( Somorpunk) --to offer' Jn sevnnew; R: rsevflam ( Sevunk ) --toeat-

36.

V.qhwem

earlier,

is tbree centuries

than the Vtaritni, lod, u, such, Jnandeva or'Jnaneshvara,

1he

olcler

l3th.

e.r'

-to have utilized found the former a full'fledged language, which he seems his newly born mother copiously in his gigantic task of the formation of

tongue,byfeedingitwithabundantvocabulary'modellingwithmorpholas a result the size ogical flexions, and attiring with syntactic constructions; is well worth or the amount of the vocabulary, contained in lhe Jnaneshvari, view seems to be confirmed also by Dr' V' P' Chavan

a dictionary. This

,.draw largely upon vocaburary which is sven who asserts that Jnaneshwar

nowKonkaniinformanddifrcultforMarathireaderstofollow''. Fr.DiogoRibeiro(1560-1633)compiledhisKonkanivocabularybythe endofthel6th.c',bymakinguseofthecompilationmadebyhispredecescenturies after the work of sors of rhe Society of Jesus, that is to say, three i

Jnanadeva(1275-|296).Nevertheless'aswehaveseen,theKonkaniofthe l6th.c.andtheMarathiofthel3th.c.aremadeofalmostthesamebulkof features, and apparently the lexicon, and retain a few common morphological grown more oppulent and same syntax, while in the l6th' c' the later had political conditions' frondose than the former oil account of different

produced flourishing Thereafter. the Marathi made great strides and speech into a long literature, while the Portuguese sway thrust the Konkani the former, in its evolutionary process' rendered obsolete a

hibernation; vocables; and the great part of its vocabulary, and acquired numerous new vocabulary' split latter, during the stormy winter, lost over half of its which destroyed its haphazardly into inconstant morphological flexions' standardization, and deranged its syntactic structure' language was In the circumstances, that is, considering that the Konkani

borninthel0th.c.,andgrewfullyadultinthellth'c''whiletheMarathi attained the perfection, was born in the 13th. c., when the former had already three clear hypoofwhich Jnaneshvara availed to enrich his speech, at least

thesescanbeformulated:a)thattheKonkaniandtheMarathiwere three centuries later' the born of two dffirent Prakrits, first the Konkani anJ, of the same Prakrit Marathi ; t) that the Konkani and the Marathi were born was born of at the above two chronological stages ; and c) that the Marathi

-ls

' the Konkani when tbe latter was three centuries old. Here is an interesting field for the students of linguistics to dig wide and deep, and, by investigating down the evolutionary course of the two languages, detect their early stems rooted into Indo-Aryan parent language. It is relevant to the matter the opinion of M. Govind Pai, according to whom Marathi was born rashtri Prakrit of Vidharba, and Konkani of Magadhi prakrit.

of Maha-

For the purpose of the above investigation, one has to regard the frame of the general classification of the language families, which however should not be taken as exhaudtive, definitive and final. It runs approximately on the following lines:

Language families, groups and sub-groups

Aryan or Indo-European family covers at least twelve main groups, namely:

Indo'Iranian comprising the Indo-aryan sub-group of vedic, sanskrit and Pali, and the lranian sub-group of persian and other old dead spee-

ches; b) Tocarian, c) Armenian, dt Traco-phrygian, and e) Hittite tongues. have vanished; f) Beltic: Lithuanian and, Lettish; g) slavonic: Russian, polish, Czech, Bulgarian, etc.; h) Illyric: Albanian; i) Hellenic; Greek, and other

old dead tongues i

Celtic: old Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, etc.; Germanic:

German, Dutch, Scandinavian (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish), Flemish and English

i \ Lain:

French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian and Rumanian.

2. Finno-Ugrian: Finnish, Magyar (Hungarian), Esthonian, 3. Semitic: Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopian, etc. 4. Hamitic: Somali, Berber, etc. 5. Indo-Chinese: Chinese, Tibetan, Siamese, Burmese. 6. Malayo-Polynesian: Malay, Fijian, etc.

7. Turco-Tartar:

Lappish, etc.

Turkish, Tartar, etc.

8. Dravidian:

Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada (these are South Indian languages with no relation to the Indo-Aryan speeches).

9. Bantu:

Swahili, Luganda, Kafir, Zulu, etc. (these are Central and South African tongues, while Hamitic family covers Northern Africa )

-families do not comprise all tlre languages of 'the world. Around hirndred' language group$ are still .to be assembled into larger families, and they ihclude groups likA',,lapaneserKorean, Australian, Manchu, Ge'orgian, Papuan' Mexican, Basqud, etc'' And whether Nevertheless,

all

the

above , recognized

these families converge

into one

single parent langua$e

or not is

yet

to be imagined. The abOve exposed classification of the world langu1ge-s if performed by the comparative method of studying their evolution. Throe, moft iopor.tant elements of this method are: common or simil{r basic yqcafuary, grammatical structure and phonological

evolwtion'

u:mely " personal pronouns; verbs expressing basic zctivities such as come and go, give tnd' rqualities, take, eat and clrink, live and ilie; adiectives denoting elementaf! tTU such as young and old, big und small, high and deepi or namesl "l.Ot:l for universally distributedobjects, such as earth,dog,stonerwdter,fre, for r" parts of the bodl', such as h.ead, ear, eyd, nos'e, moutlt, o,t tot, 6lloa 1Utio1 ship, such as father, mother, sister, br:other", On the otherhand, words confined to a special aspect of cultural life, such as names of metals' tools and yehicles, of numbers, weights and measures, do not indicate close evolu-

Basic vocabulary includes conservattye root-Wordg,

tionary relationship among languages. Grammatical structureincludes mainly common morphologipal features of the languages in the accidence or flexion of their individual words, such as af iumb,er, tense, personz comp:5!vi3671, 'tolce, case, mood, and gender. But the

community of the morphological peculiarities, without the corroboratioo of the similarity of basic vocabulary, though it is'a Ctrong eVidence'of tht rela-

tionship, does not lead to a sure conclusion.

c) Phonologioal evolutionconsists in the consistent sound changes among the related languages. So the Latin ovum (egg) is oeuf in French, huevo in Spanish, ovo in Portuguese, and uovo in ltalian; and the English to, tongtte and tin ate zu, zunge and zinn in German wirere the initial z is pronounced tJ.

*17 Such three linguistic features, making scientificary rerated languages,

give them resembrances which make practicary rerated ranguages intelligibility ot intercommunicability.

mutuar

In the immense

sky of the worrd tongues, the Konkani speech twinkres in the Arvan or Indo-European famirv, Indo-Iraniar,;;;-;";;."*r;; sub-group of Vedic and Sanskrit languages.

RnrnnrNces:

l. Jos6 Pereira , Literary Konkani,Dharwar, 1973 ) Frederick Bodmer, The Loom of Language, London,

1914

POST SCRIPTUTI

THE FIRST KONKANI VOCABULARY

{ I I

"'-'ri On the information conveyed to me by Mr. Arvind K. Babladker;,the learned librarian of the Gcvernment Higher Secondary School, paqiim, Goa, (the old portuguese Liceu Nacionar Afonso de Atbuquerque de .Nova Goa), that he had winpowed out from.thc thick dust ofthe sherves of the aboye Lyceum library, three ord manuscript volumes of Konkani vocaburariqs in Roman script. which he courd not foilow, on l4th July l9g2 I crimbed up the 140 steps of the arcbitectural stairs of the hill (Altinho) on whigb stand the five rnajestic buildingq of the Lyceum school.

Mr' Babladker enthusiastically put on the table the three vo,umes for my study. I sat for long hours and scrutinized them, one by oo", ,nrri

pleasant surprises.

I comparcd them with the Jesuit and Franciscan manuin the centrar Libraryof panjim. ;*

script Konkani vocaburaries, existing afg my fndings:

vocaburario da Lingoa canarim, feito peros padres da cornpanhis. d6 Jesus' que resiclido na Christandade de salcet€t € notetlt€nte acreis:eirldd,ttdo;in 3

'18

wrios rnodos de fallar pello Padre Diogo Ribeiro ila companhia. Anno This vocabulary is absolutely the same as the Konkani-Portuguese voca' bulary of Padre Diogo Ribeiro, dated 1626, which is in the central Library i the contents of the two are absolutely identical only with different hand' writing, and the Lyceum vocabulary is worse preserve<i than that of the 1626-

Library. A slight difference of wording is found in the titles of the twocopies:whilethetitleoftheCentralLibrarycopyhastheexpression que residido (who que residem ( who are residing ), that of the Lyceum says were residing), and theword tnesma (same) in the expression da mesma central

Companhia(ofthesameSociety)isomittedintheLyceumcopy:the former seems to be a correction, while the latter just a slip of the pen'

undoubtedly, the Lyceum volume and that two copies of the same vocabularY.

b) A

Portuguese-Konkani vocabulary, which

the central Library ate

is also same as Diogo

Ribeiro's Portuguese-Konkani vocabulary, existing in the Central Library, the former being very badly preserved and the pages bound all in disorder' two copies So this volume of Lyceum and that of the Central Library are also of the same Portuguese-Konkani vocabulary'

porruguese-Konkani vocabulary

in a very bad condition.

Its

the letters A,B,C,D, and part of E are missing. The number of the entries of the existing 170 pages are about 7700; the entries of the missing pages would be around 300 ; so the total number of entries

initial

pages covering

of the whole vocabulary would be 8000' All the vocables of this volume

are found in the Diogo Ribeiro's Portu-

guese--Konkani vocabulary with the same Konkani meanings, but sometimes in Ribeiro are found additional Konkani meanings to the same Portuguese

in Ribeiro; the system of transliteration in this vocabulary is same as that of Ribeiro. The latter has around 11500 entries, that is, 3500 entries more than those of the former. The pages are not numbered as it is the case of all vocabularies

word;

the former has only meanings and no phrases as are

of that epoch.

i I I

L il:

---

obviously, this vocaburary was compired by the Jesuits, predecessors of -Diogo Ribeiro, who subsequentry augmented the same by adding more Kon-

kani meanings to the previous portuguese words, and about 3500 more entries, phrases, idioms and proverbs. This is the first Jesuit Konkani vocaburary, compiled probabry before 1570. But this Portuguese-Konkani volume was preceded by a KonkaniPortuguese

one. I

had suspected previously that the first Jesuit vocabulary or lost completely; but now that the existence

was either hidden somewhere

of its one volume is known, one can hope to