Konkani is a modern Indo-Aryan language
and a state language of the Indian state Goa.
Until recently, it was considered a dialect of
Marathi, but it is now considered an independent
language. Konkani has several varieties,
including the Manglore variety spoken in the
south of Goa, the Gawdi variety spoken by the
Gawda ethnic group, and the Goan (Panaji)
variety. The latter is the focus of this description,
and is the variety used in schools, media and
state administration. The book provides a
descriptive linguistic analysis of Konkani based
on spoken and written data collected by the
author during extensive fieldwork. The linguistic
features of Konkani phonology, morphology,
word-formation and syntax are described in
detail, and where significant, compared with the
Manglore and Gawdi varieties. Since Konkani
is undergoing standardisation, and since it
has close contact with Marathi, significant
similarities and differences between the two
languages are also discussed. Konkani has
the honour of being the subject of the oldest
European grammatical work on any Indian
language: Thomas Stephens’ Arte da Lingoa
Canarim published in . This grammar
is thus the most recent addition to the long
tradition of Konkani grammars.