“….It is evident that the Konkani language is not that very slight dialectic difference which exists between the language of the Dakhan and the corresponding country of the Konkan , but is quite distinct from , though cognate with , Marâthî , with a predominance of Sanskrit words and a faint Turanian or Dravidian element . It has an elaborate grammar of its own and a rich vocabulary , derived from different sources , all elements having now in course of time lost their autonomy , and become so fused together that only a careful analysis can discover their origin or etymology . All the components entering into its formation can be explained both by the geographical position of the language , being wedged into between two great and powerful families of languages in India , viz . , Aryan and Drâvidian , and considerably influenced by an European language , which has had a longer period of existence here than any other Western tongue , and by the several political vicissitudes that country has undergone in the course of the last eight or ten centuries , besides the ethnological difference or relations of its inhabitants , which can be distinguished by the examination of the dialects , provincialisms and prosodiacal accentuations , peculiar to each class , from the Farazes to the Senoys , making up the population of the Konkan” .
Jose Gerson da Cunha