The Konkani Script And Rules For Written Konkani

The Konkani script has fourteen vowels and consonants.The consonants each have an
inherent vowel which can be changed to another vowel or muted by means of diacritics (maatraa
म त ). Vowels can also be written with separate letters when they occur at the beginning of a word
or on their own. When two or more consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols are often
used which add the essential parts of first letter or letters in the sequence to the final letter.

Vowels स र

Vowel Sound Konkani Example English meaning

अ अवसर
A as in alarm Hurry

आ a as in arm आप य Call

इ i as in if इगर Church

ई ea as in eat ईथ प Ethiopia

उ u as in full उसक" concern

ऊ oo as in fool ऊव र" thunderstorm,

cyclone

ऋ ऋप-
- Hermit

ऎ e as in met ऎदर
0 ahead

ए a as in mate एक One

ऍ a as in and ऍससड Acid

ऐ ऐर वत indra's elephant
Ai

ऒ aw as in awe ऒट" Hole

ओ oa as in oak ओण@ Lane

औ pineapple
Au औनस
Special Diacritics

• ं anusvara: In Konkani, it is pronounced as a nasal stop homorganic to the

following consonant or as a nasalization of the preceding vowel when no
consonant follows. अBक (अङक), अBर (अञर), अBड (अणड), अBत (अनत), अBब (अमब),
ह Bव
• ःM visarga: rarely used; used in sanskrit loan words
• ऽ avagraha: is a symbol used to indicate lenghtening of अ . It is
usually transliterated with an apostrophe. The avagraha is also used for
prolonging vowel sounds in modern languages (ज ततऽसस - is happening)

Consonants व Bरन

क ka ख kha ग ga घ gha ङ nga

च cha छ chha र ja झ jha ञ nja

ट Ta ठ Tha ड Da ढ Dha @ Na

त ta/ च* tha द da/ ज@ ध dha/ झ+ न na

pa फ pha/ फ़# ब ba भ bha म ma

ya र ra ल la व va श sha

- Sha स sa ह ha ळ La

*च बचzB (tsaabche) - to bite

@ जय (dzaayi) – want
# फ़zसत0 (festu) - christian religious feast
+ झ Bकक (dzhaanki) – balltalks

hence the consonant-vowel combinations are

क~ क क कक क• क0 क€ क• कz क‚ कƒ क„ क" क क…
Rules for Written Konkani:

• Most words in Konkani are हसव Bत (ending in short vowels) e.g. क"Bकण@, हहBहद,
मर हठ, ह डड, करर, आप य

• This is a rule followed by all modern Indo-Aryan Languages. In a three-

letter word ending in a vowel other than अ the second letter, if अक र Bयत
(ending in अ), the अ is dropped whilst speaking. e.g. in ज रल" (written
dzaaralo), ल does not end in अ hence the word is read out as ज ल•
(dzaarlo) . same is not the case in बर (read as barap) as ends in अ.
Similarly, in words of four letters, the second consonant, if ending in a, will
drop the अ if the word ends in a vowel other than अ eg मह लगड" (
mhaalagaDo) is read as मह लगड" ( mhaalgaDo).
e.g. in Hindi "to do" is written as करन karanaa but read out as कन •
karnaa
in Marathi "to do" is written as कर@‚ karaNe but read out as क@‘ karNe
likewise, in Konkani "to do" is written as करचzB karachem but read out as
कच karchem

• Unlike Hindi, Marathi, Nepalese, Maithili and the bulk of Indo-Aryan

languages, Konkani words seldom end in a consonant. eg घर (read as
ghara), र ब (read as raaba), वत (read as vata), वच (vatsa). Hence if a word
originally ends in a consonant it needs to be shown with a पवर म (viraama)
e.g. मह न ~ mahaan

• One very interesting grammatical aspect unique to Konkani is that common

nouns undergo change in the vowel i.e. from long vowel द•घ• to short vowel
हसव when they are followed by a पत postposition (read preposition to
compare English grammar) or when they are converted to their adjective
form . Following are the vowel forms:
हसव / Short इ उ ऎ ऒ
स नन

द•घ• / ह ड Long ई ऊ ए ओ

Noun तšळ €त0 त‚र र

Adjective / यतळ BतB0 त0 त लzB तzर Bक "र"

postposition

Konkani on Your Personal Computer:

Keyboard fonts are difficult to type in as one has to remember every alphabet key therein. Hence
one should be looking at applications which provide for phonetic typing in Konkani. Currently,
there are two such applications
To type in Konkani, you will have to download a transliteration tool called Lipikaar. It is available
as a toolbar (read lipikaar ver 0.4.2) for Firefox as well as IE. If you download the windows
application tool (read ver. 8.6), you will be able to create Word documents, Presentations, Excel
Sheets, Memos, Emails, or simply chat in any messenger in Konkani. Be aware that the application
tool comes in 2 versions 32 bit and 64 bit. Download as per your system configuration. Choose
"Konkani" in the language option and start using it right away.

The links are as follows

For Firefox (firefox is an internet browser like Internet Explorer)

http://www.lipikaar.com/install/firefox-extension

For IE, Word documents, Presentations, Excel Sheets, Memos, Emails, or simply chat in any
messenger in Konkani Supports Windows XP and Vista.(p.s. please download te 32 bit or 64 bit as
per youe system config)

http://www.lipikaar.com/download/desktop

The second software is called Baraha. you can also download the free Baraha software at
http://www.baraha.com/download.htm

Copy and paste the link in your browser and voila!