Page:A Konkani Grammar by Angelus Francis Xavier Maffei.pdf/421



I premise as the foundation of this Chapter, that from the very beginning of this Grammar, I intended 1) to write a Grammar to be circulated privately only among my brethren of the Society who know Latin, other Grammars etc.; 2) to omit all niceties, although required by exactness, especially as regards spelling, in which point I did not follow the Kanarese but the Roman alphabet. Hence many things are to be found, which are not exact, if we judge of them according to the full science of Grammar. But there is a rule of common sense to judge of such works, not bad in themselves, according to the intention of the author. In order to judge about other things, e.g., order, style etc.,consider that this Grammar has been composed within a few months. As to Gleaning, I must limit myself to the most necessary things, leaving many other things to the Dictionary, and omitting others in order not to increase too much the size of this book. As to Cleaning, I do not correct things which depend on the extraordinary circumstances, in which this book has been composed, e.g. order, style, exercises, foreign words etc. Some Cleaning will be left to the Dictionary, for the above reason.

1) The explanation of the vowels and consonants is only approximate; strictly we should distinguish four a (see p. 191); hence short vowels too can have the stress of the voice as "tzăḍ =much” (see l.c. and p. 231, para. 8, d.). 2) What I say of the Kanarese manner of writing etc. must be understood not of the Kanarese language, but of the Kanarese letters, used also for Tuļu by the Basel Mission Press in Mangalore. This regards especially the ್ which in Kanarese very seldom occurs and even then shows absence of a vowel; in