Page:A Konkani Grammar by Angelus Francis Xavier Maffei.pdf/27



The Konkani language was formerly written with the alphabet called Bālabōdha or Nāgar; sometimes it was written with the Mōḍi Alphabet, which is the Mahrāṭṭi Alphabet. Now the Kanarese Alphabet is generally used, and although it does not express all Konkani sounds, yet it is better adapted for this than the Latin Alphabet. But as the Kanarese Alphabet is not known to the greater part of my brethren, for whom I write, I shall use the Latin Alphabet, with the required modifications, which I am going to explain.

First of all, I premise that I pronounce and read all Konkani words written with Roman characters, as Latin is pronounced and read in Italy and more or less also in England by Catholics, with some few exceptions to be explained later on.

Now let us explain the Konkani Alphabet and the modifications to be introduced in the Latin Alphabet in order to make it express the Konkani sounds.

Although I am aware that many things should be said about this point of Orthography, yet I will limit myself for the present to the most essential observations.

The vowels are the same as in Latin, but each simple vowel has two sounds and in Kanarese two different characters: one sound is long, the other is short. The long vowels are