07-01-061
61
KONKAN STANDARD.
Mar
h
is the principal language of all the coast districts of the Bombay Presidency,
from Daman in the north to Rajapur in the south. The northern part of this territory
from Daman to Umbargaon, is divided between Marh
and Gujart,
and the influence of the latter language is also felt farther south, the vocabulary
being, to some extent, Gujart.
This element is not, however, strong.
In the south Marh
gradually develops into K
ka
,
the connecting links being Sagam
var
and Bnk
on one side, and Ku
on the other.
The Marh
spoken in the territory defined above is closely related to the language of
the Dekhan. In some characteristic points, however, it differs, much in the
same way as is the case with the Marh
of Berar and the Central Provinces.
It has already been remarked, and it will be shown below, that the dialects
spoken by the Ku
bs
of Poona and the 
hkurs
of Nasik mainly agree with the Marh
of the Konkan. They will therefore, so far as materials are available, be dealt
with in connec- tion with that form of the language.
The Marh
of the Dekhan is the language of the literature and of the Government. Through
the gradual spreading of education it more and more influences the dialects
of the coast districts, and the specimens received from Kolaba, Janjira, and
Ratnagiri, and professing to be written in Sagamvar,
one of the dialects of the Konkan, have proved to be in the usual language of
Marh
literature. Most of them represent the speech of the educated classes, which
is more or less influenced by the written language all over the Konkan.
The Portuguese missionaries, to whom we are indebted for a grammar of the
dialect as spoken in Salsette, call it the northern dialect of Kka.
It is not, however, a dialect of Kka,
but a form of speech intermediary between that dialect and the Standard form
of Marh
current in the Dekhan. It may conveniently be designated as the Konkan Standard
of Marh.
This name cannot lead to confusion. It has long been customary to state that
Marh
has two main dialects, one belonging to the Konkan, and the other current in
the Dekhan. The Konkan Standard corresponds to the former. It must, however,
be borne in mind that this dialect is different from Kka,
the language of the Southern Konkan.
The Konkan Standard has been returned under a bewildering mass of different
names, partly denoting locality and partly caste or occupation. To the former
class belong Bnk,
Dama,
Gh,
Mol,
and Sagamvar;
to the latter 
gr,
Bhar,
Dhangar,
Karh,
Kirist
v,
K,
Kub,
Parbh,
and hkr.
These so-called dialects will be separately dealt with below. In this place
we shall consider them all as one form of speech, with slight local variations.
The Konkan Standard is the principal language of Thana, the Jawhar State, Kolaba, Janjira, and the northern part of Ratnagiri. It is spoken by about 2 1/2 million people.