Sunday 6 July 2008

Amchigela - an endonym for Konkani


Most communities have an endonym (A name they use for themselves) and an ectonym 9 a aname used by other to call the particular community) . Many places have these too.


Amongst konkanis specially saraswats the word amchigela/Amchigele is an endonym. Konknno is perhaps an ectonym. I have put in the emblem of the amchigele UAE samaj as an example :)
Amchi means 'ours' and gela means language. Therefore all konkanis call themselves 'people speaking our language' or amchigela/amchigelo!!! Konkani itself is also known as amchigela or our tongue!!!
Bharat is an endonym whereas Indos, India, Inde are all ecotnyms.
Cymru is an Endonym and Wales is an ectonym.
Eire an Endonym and Ireland an ectonym.
Goem is an endonym whereas Goa is an ectonym.
Mumbai is an endonym whereas Bombay was an ectonym for many'
Some of the aimiable names for other indian communities include... All ectonyms... Gujju for gujrati, Mallu for Malayali, Bong for Bengali.
So next time you meat an amchi -i.e. Konkani chap, ask him/her do you speak amchigela? :)



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

this is not the correct definition of ectonym. what you mean in this post is EXOnym.