Konkani(Devanāgarī:कोंकणी , Kōṅkaṇī),is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-European family of languages and is spoken on the western coast of India. It has approximately 3.6 million speakers. It is one of the official languages of India and is the official language of the Indian state of Goa. It is a minority language in Karnataka and northern Kerala (Kasaragod district).

Konkani is member of southern Indo-Aryan language group, most closely related to Marathi. It retains elements of the old Indo-European language structure and shows similarities with both western as well as Eastern Indo-Aryan languages.

It is quite possible that Old Konkani was just referred to as Prakrit by its speakers. Reference to the name Konkani is not found in literature prior to 14th century.We have first reference to the name Konkani in the abhanga 263,of the 14th century Marathi saint poet, Namadeva(1270–1350). Konkani has been known by a variety of names: canarim, concanim, gomantaki, bramana, goani. It is called amchi bhas (our language) by native speakers, and govi or Goenchi bhas by others. Learned Marathi speakers tend to call it Gomantaki.

Konkani people (Devanagari:कोंकणी लोक,Koṅkaṇī lok,कोंकणे Koṅkaṇe,or sometimes कोंकणस्थ Koṅkaṇstha), form a group of people mainly found in the Konkan Coast of western India whose mother-tongue is the Konkani language.

The word Konkan and in turn Konkani is derived from Kuṅkaṇ or Kuṅkaṇu.Different authorities explain etymology of this word differently.Kokani language is Dilect of Marathi Some include:

Thus the name Konkane, comes from the word Konkaṇ,which means the people of Konkan.

The Konkani people speak different dialects of Konkani, their native tongue; although a very high percentage are bilingual. This is because the Konkanis are spread out across the western coast of India,and dwell in areas where they have to interact with other non-Konkani speaking people on daily basis.It is believed that majority of them originated in Maharashtra and Goa, and migrated along the coast and even inland in last few centuries due to various socio-economical as well as religious reason.They can be found in the Konkan Division, Goa, Canara and small pockets in Kerala. Many have later migrated to different parts of Gujarat, Desh region of Maharashtra and North Karnataka, and parts of Madhya Pradesh.^{[citation needed]}