Page:A Konkani Grammar by Angelus Francis Xavier Maffei.pdf/368



1. The following translation was intended for beginners; wherefore it is very literal, and here and there not well agreeing with the nature of Konkani; if it had been somewhat free, as it should be apart from such necessity, the beginners could not have found in the English translation the Konkani sentence. This aim must be kept in view in order to judge about this translation. I grant that a freer translation would have been more Konkani.

2. The words between brackets are not words of the Holy Bible but explanations inserted by me when the literal translation was not sufficient to convey a clear notion. Such explanations, together with the footnotes, have been taken either from Menochio or from the English Douay Version.

3. In the translation with Kanarese letters I introduce three new signs in order the better to express thereby the Konkani sounds. These are ಜ಼ = z, ಚ಼ = ts; ಁ above the consonant to express ụ or ạ (half vowel). This ಁ has been used already in such a way by the Basel Mission Press of Mangalore; see Polyglot Vocabulary, p. xv. The simple ಜ = j, ಚ = č. I use ್ for the Sanskrit "virāma", i.e. as a sign of the absence of any vowel or half vowel, as in Kanarese too this ್ has such a meaning.

4. For the sake of convenience I put first the Kanarese alphabet.