Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the following persons who allowed me to extract Konkani data and who helped me a lot in my field trips: Mohan Gaukar, Pushpa Pai, Geeta Kini, Kelkar, Asha Palankar, Prakash Palankar, Amesh Gaokar, Vishnu Kolagekar, Satyawan Beling, Sajay Beling, Vithoba Vaygaokar, Shenoy, Madhavi Sardesay, Smita Kerkar, Sharat Raykar, Kalika Mehta, Aruna Dubhashi, Pushpa Rajapure-Tapas, Dinashree Mahambare, Ganesh Nayak, Desouza, Mariyan Rodric, Vaman Varde, staff at the International Konkani Kendra (Manglore) and students from Matond who preferred to remain anonymous. Thanks to Madhur Barve and Pratap Naik for giving me beautiful photographs of Goa. I thank Tanvi Suhas for preparing the lay-out and for careful proof-reading. I am grateful to Melanie Green for her patience, accuracy and suggestions in editing this work. Finally, I thank my wife, son, daughter-in-law and two young granddaughters for their help and cooperation.