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Author Archives: Nostalgoa

Kalchi Koddi

Kalchi koddi  used to be a very common phrase in the days gone by. Today it may not only sound stale but it may even be considered to represent something stale. Who would opt for yesterdays curry, after all? But such wasn’t the case in those days. Kalchi koddi owes its origin to the fact … Continue reading »

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Words /Apellations Referring to Various Types of Relationships

Although it might be more appropriate to class this post as a vocabulary item, for practical reasons I have decided to include it here in the Spoken Konkani section. The list given below is admittedly limited to the usage mostly among Goan Catholics and not all Konkani speaking people. The reason is not that we … Continue reading »

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Tor for, Mhojem ghor

Tor for, mhojem ghor , is perhaps best expressed in English as “My home is my home”, despite the latter’s apparent tautology. As we all know, a home has two important qualities. First, it is a place where you are free to do what you like — of course within limits. There is a Latin proverb somewhat to that effect: … Continue reading »

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Using Postpositions with Nouns or Pronouns

I have written earlier about postpositions, but a little repetition here will perhaps not be out of place. Some of us are so used to prepositions in English and perhaps other European languages, that they would naturally expect an equivalent in Konkani as well, and rightly so. We do have almost an exact equivalent of that … Continue reading »

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Regular Conjugations — Introduction

Incorporating grammar into the vocabulary is nothing new. That is the way students of Latin learn nouns and verbs, and that little extra load on vocabulary learning more than compensates for the easy acquisition of the corresponding grammar. That is the model I have adopted here. And that, in fact, is the only way to … Continue reading »

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Irregular verbs: Zanno zaunk & Nokllo zaunk

Like most languages, Konkani has a number of irregular verbs. We have already seen one of them: asonk, to be. Zanno zaunk (to know) and nokllo zaunk (not to know) are two others, which are very commonly used.   Zanno zaunk Singular Plural  1st Person  Hanv zannom  I know  Ami zannonv We know  2nd Person … Continue reading »

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Regular Declensions — Declension 1

We are now starting with regular declensions. I have classified regular declensions by their singular and plural flex stems. If any nouns form both their flex stems in the same manner, then they belong to the same declension, irrespective of their genders or the manner in which they form their (nominative) plurals. Thus ambo and … Continue reading »

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Declensions of Nouns — Introduction

General rules The way to form the various inflections is to take the crude form (singular or plural, according to the cases) and then add the particular case ending. In other words, the singular case or inflection is to be formed by adding the singular case ending to the singular flex stem, and the plural … Continue reading »

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Conjugations — 3

Indicative Present (negative) Singular Plural  1st Person  Hanv nam  I am not  Ami nanv We are not  2nd Person  Tum nai Thou art not  Tumi nant You are not  3rd Person  To na, ti na, tem na He/she/it is not  Te nant, teô nant, tim nant   They are not   Simple Past (negative) The past negatives … Continue reading »

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Hat pãy zhorounk

Hat-pãy zhorounk literally means to rub away or wear out one’s  hands and feet. The phrase is used to portray the dedicated hard work and intense labour one may have to go through for a relatively long period of time in order to further a particular cause like bringing up children or building up an  organization. The word zhorounk  brings … Continue reading »

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