Hi, as you now Konkani is the language used in most areas of Goa. Although Konkani is considered by some linguists as a separate language some considere it a dialect of Marathi. Yet is is different enough although it uses same hindi alphabet. While Marathi language is spoken in western India, principally in the state of Maharashtra, including the city of Bombay and it extenda down the coast as far as Goa, its 65 million speakers and ranks as one of the major languages of India facilitates the search of resources. Hence as much fewer people speak Konkani, about 4, 5 million, there are fewe4r resources in the web, and even less free. However, Doubleclicking the links below will take you to Konkani language resources
http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/konkani/konkani.htm
Here is a link to a Bangalorean site where you can find fronm music, radio, lessons etc. You will find some bassic lessons in Konkani language doubleclicking the link and selecting the Konkani hearder bellow home will take yo to the free lessons:
http://www.raknno.com/
Here bellow are more links to konkani but I am afraid they are pay konkani products Dictionary (8), Literature (1), Proverbs (1) and Reference (2) :
http://www.worldlanguage.com/Languages/Konkani-SeeMarathi.htm
And if you follow this link you will find many other links to Konkani language including instruction, audios, etc:
http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/konkani/index.htm
Or other links to Konkani on line rersources:
http://www.altavista.com/web/results?itag=ody&q=%2Bkonkani+%2Baudio+%2Blanguage+%2Blearning&kgs=0&kls=0
This last link will take you to Marathi language resources Children's Books (1), Desk Top Publishing (2), Dictionary (2), Fonts (7), General Office (1), Grammar Checking (1), Keyboard Stickers (2), Learn (3)
Movies/Videos (1), Movies/Videos|Drama (4), Proverbs (1), Reference (2), Software - Mac (2), Software - Windows (14), Spell Checking (3), System (6), and Word Processing (6):
http://www.worldlanguage.com/Languages/Marathi.htm?CalledFrom=210325
The Konkani people like to trace their history back to 4000 BC. The movement of these tribes to the region of present-day Goa is sometimes traced back to the 11th century AD.
However, well-documented history starts from the time of the Maratha empire in the 15th century. A large fraction of the population now live in the Konkan coastal pockets of the Ratnagiri and Sawantwadi districts of Maharashtra, Goa, and coastal Karnataka and Kerala. These settlements can be dated from the early 16th Century.
During the 14th century rule of the Kings of Gujarat over the islands of Bombay, a people called Naitias first appeared in these islands. They are believed to be Konkanis.
The Siddis are a Konkani people of African origin, who trace their history back to their arrival in India in the 13th century from Ethiopia. A Sidi held the Janjira sea fort during the Maratha-Portuguese wars of the 16th century.
The Doctrina Christi, published in 1622 by the British missionary Fr. Thomas Stephens, was the first book in Konkani. Believed to be the first printed book in an Asian language, this book uses the Roman script. In 1640 Stephens also published Arte da Lingoa Canarim, a Konkani grammar book written in 1580. The Devanagari script was first used in 1675 in a treatise on Ayurveda. The first newspaper in Konkani, O Konkani, was started in 1886. Presently, Konkani also uses the Kannada as well as the Arabic scripts.
Among famous Konkanis one can count Guru Dutt, a famous film-maker, Remo Fernandes a well-known pop-singer, Prakash Padukone, a former Badminton world champion, Julio Riberio, once the chief of Police in Bombay and India's ex-ambassador to Rumania, and Narsing Rao Benegal who helped Ambedkar in drafting the Indian constitution.
Hope it helped U
S