________ is spoken by around 2.5 million people, mainly on the central west coast of India, and it is the official language of Goa.

The correct answer is Konkani.

Key Points

• Konkani language, Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-European language family. Konkani is spoken by some 2.5 million people, mainly on the central west coast of India, where it is the official language of Goa state. 
• It is also associated particularly with the city of Mangalore (Mangaluru) in southwestern Karnataka and is spoken especially along the west coast of Maharashtra state.
• It is one of the 22 Scheduled languages mentioned in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution.
• The Konkani people kept the language alive as a dialect in their homes and social gatherings in this area. Konkani is an Indo-Aryan language derived from the mother of all Indian languages, Sanskrit and Prakrit language.

Additional Information

• The substratum of the Konkani language lies in the speech of Austroasiatic tribes called Kurukh, Oraon, and Kukni, whose modern representatives are languages like Kurukh and its dialects including Kurux, Kunrukh, Kunna, and Malto.
• According to the Indian Anthropological Society, these Australoid tribes speaking Austro-Asiatic or Munda languages who once inhabited Konkan migrated to Northern India (Chota Nagpur Plateau, Mirzapur) and are not found in Konkan anymore.
• The grammatical impact of the Dravidian languages on the structure and syntax of Indo-Aryan languages is difficult to fathom. Some linguists explain this anomaly by arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan and New Indo-Aryan were built on a Dravidian substratum.
• Some examples of Konkani words of Dravidian origin are: naall (coconut), madval (washerman), choru (cooked rice), and mulo (radish).