On Mon, 18 Jul 2011 MD <[email protected]> wrote: <<On the above verse, 'saan' is not used in universal Konkni. 'Saan' means 'laan' or small. However, 'piray' (Prai) means age, not long life. Long life is 'laamb aavk'. Naturally some words could be'Greek' to some.>>
Comment: At last something sensible is coming through. Thanks. I do not know what "universal Konkni" exactly means; this is the first time I am coming across this term. But in my Salcete Konkani "san" is used; it was used much more in my childhood (mid-twentieth century) but not so much now. Both 'san" and 'lhan' mean 'small' but the two terms are not exactly synonymous. 'Lhan' refers to size whereas 'san' refers to age. For instance, to my grandmother I was her 'mhalvot natu' and my youngest brother her 'sanolo natu'. My father was her 'mhalvot put' whilst his youngest brother was always her 'sanolo' although he was no longer a minor. Further, an elephant calf is larger than a fully grown dog. Between the two the elephant calf is 'san' whereas the dog is 'lhan'. This is my humble understanding. 'Avk' or 'aukh' is not found in my Konkani at all; I find it only in the Bible. But 'piray' is. It does mean 'age' but, by extension, it could also include 'long life' when in search for a short crisp term which, I presume, is sometimes the requirement of a poet. Moreover, we do say 'tachi piray zalea' when we want to say 'he has become old' or 'he has lived a long life.' Hope this helps readers to realise that the Konkani language it is not so "Greek" after all. Sebastian Borges
