and the auxiliary is partially dropped. When the southern dialects came in contact with Dravidian languages this difference became more prominent in dialects spoken in Karnataka whereas Goan Konkani still retains the original form. For example, "I eat" and "I am eating" sound similar in Goan Konkani, due to loss of auxiliary in colloquial speech. "Hāv khātā" corresponds to "I am eating". On the other hand, in Karnataka Konkani "hāv khātā" corresponds to "I eat", and "hāv khātoāsā" or "hāv khāter āsā" means "I am eating". However the word "jito" (living) is universal, "to jitoāsā" (he is living). Out of eight grammatical cases, Konkani has totally lost the dative, the locative, and the ablative. It has partially lost the accusative and the instrumental cases too. So the preserved cases are: the nominative, the genitive, and the vocative case. Apabhramsha and metathesis Like Marathi and Gujarati, the Konkani language has three genders. During the Middle Ages, most of the Indo-Aryan languages lost their neuter gender, except Maharashtri, in which it is retained much more in Marathi than Konkani. Gender in Konkani is purely grammatical and unconnected to sex. Metathesis is a characteristic of all the middle and modern Indo-Aryan languages including Konkani. Consider the Sanskrit word "स्नुषा" (daughter-in law). Here, the ष is dropped, and स्नु alone is utilised, स्नु-->स/नु and you get the word सुन (metathesis of ukar). Unlike Sanskrit, anusvara has great importance in Konkani. A characteristic of Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, Konkani still retains the anusvara on the initial or final syllable. Similarly visarga, is totally lost and is assimilated with उ and/or ओ. For example, in Sanskrit दीपः becomes दिवो and दुःख becomes दुख. Konkani retains the pitch accent, which is a direct derivative of Vedic accent, which probably would account for "nasalism" in Konkani. The "breathed" accent is retained in most of the tatsamas than the tadbhavas. Declension also affects the accent. Konkani has lost its passive voice, and now the transitive verbs in their perfects are equivalent to passives. Konkani has rejected ऋ, ॠ, ऌ, ॡ, ष, and क्ष, which are assimilated with र, ख, ह, श and स. Sanskrit compound letters are avoided in Konkani. For example, in Sanskrit द्वे, प्राय, गृहस्थ, उद्योत become बे, पिराय, गिरेस्त, and उज्जो respectively in Konkani. Vocabulary The vocabulary from Konkani comes from a number of sources. The main source is Prakrits. So Sanskrit as a whole has played