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Telugu belongs to the family of Dravidian languages and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is also one among the 22 official national languages of India. In India, Telugu is the most spoken mother tongue after Hindi. 19th century Englishmen called it the "Italian of the East" as all words in Telugu end with a vowel sound and are often quite melodic to the ear.
History
The origins of Telugu are obscure. Clearly Telugu words appear in the Maharashtri Prakrit anthology of poems (the GadhaSaptashathi) collected by the first century BC Satavahana King Hala. Telugu speakers were probably the older Dravidian peoples inhabiting the land between Krishna and Godavari. Andhras were probably an Indo-European Aryan tribe, to which the Satavahanas also belonged, who immigrated from the north and settled the land. The two blended together to eventually produce the modern Telugu language and culture, for which the word Andhra is interchangeably used today. The first historical inscriptions in Telugu appear about the 7th century AD and known literature starts with Nannaya writing the Telugu Mahabharata in the 11th century. There is prolific literature ever since, but the golden age is thought to be the 16th century, under the patronage of the Vijayanagar Emperor Krishna Deva Raya. The western portion of the telugu speaking lands came under the influence of Muslim rulers continously since the 14th century, most recently the Nizams of Hyderabad. Old Sanskrit as well as Persian and Urdu influences show most in the Telugu dialect from those regions.In 1956, 10 Nizam districts and 4 districts of Rayalaseema were merged to the so called Northern Circar districts forming the modern language-based state of Andhra Pradesh.
Classification
Telugu is a member of the Telugu languages, along with Chenchu language, Savara language, and Waddar language. The Telugu languages are part of the South-central branch of the Dravidian languages.
Geographic distribution
Telugu is mainly spoken in Andhra Pradesh in India and in neighboring states in India, but it is also spoken in Bahrain, Fiji, Malaysia, Mauritius, United States, Singapore, United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates. Telugu people live in almost all parts of the World.
Official status
Telugu is one of the official languages of India. It is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh
Dialects
The dialects of Telugu identified by Ethnologue are Berad, Dasari, Dommara, Golari, Kamathi, Komtao, Konda-Reddi, Salewari, Telangana, Telugu, Vadaga, Vadari, Srikakula, Vishakapatnam, East Godavari, Rayalseema, Nellore and Guntur. In Tamil Nadu the Telugu dialect is classified into Salem, Coimbatore, Chennai Telugu dialects. It is also widely spoken in Virudhunagar, Tuticorin, maduar districts.
Derived languages
Creoles and other languages that are derived from this language.
Sounds
Vowels
అ ఆ ఇ ఈ ఉ ఊ ఋ ౠ ఌ ౡ ఎ ఏ ఐ ఒ ఓ ఔ అ౦ అః
Consonants
క ఖ గ ఘ ఙ
చ ఛ జ ఝ ఞ
ట ఠ డ ఢ ణ
త థ ద ధ న
ప ఫ బ భ మ
య ర ల వ శ ష స హ ళ ఱ
Phonology
Historical sound changes
Grammar
In Telugu, Karta(కర్త) (nominative case or the doer), Karma(కర్మ)(object of the verb) and Kriya(క్రియ) (action or the verb) follow a sequence. Linguists classify Telugu as a Dravidian Language as this pattern is found in other Dravidian languages but not in Sanskrit. Telugu also has the Vibhakthi(విభక్తి) (or preposition) tradition.
| Telugu - | Ramudu bantini kottadu రాముడు బంతిని కొట్టాడు |
| literally - | రాముడు (Rama) బంతి (ball) కొట్టు(hit) |
| Reformatting it - | Ramudu(Rama) hit the ball |
Telugu is often considered an agglutinative language, where certain syllables are added to the end of a noun in order to denote its case:
For example, the declension of Ramudu:
Nominative: Ramudu రాముడు - (-) रामः |
Accusative: Ramuduni రాముడుని (ని ni) रामम्
Instrumental: Ramuduki రాముడుకి (కి ki) रामेन
Dative: Ramuduki రాముడుకి (కి ki) रामाय
Ablative: Ramuduninchi రాముడునించి (నించి ninchi) रमत्
Genetive: Ramududi రాముడుది (ది di) रामस्य
These agglutinations apply to all nouns generally in the singular and plural
Vocabulary
Writing system
The Telugu (తెలుగు) script is believed to have evolved from the Brahmi script of the Ashokan era. Merchants took the Easern Chalukyan Script to Southeast Asia where it parented the scripts of Mon, Burmese, Thai, Khmer, C"am, Javanese and Balinese languages. Their similiarities to Telugu script can be discerned even today. Telugu is usually written using the Telugu alphabet, a Brahmic script. Its appearance is quite similar to the Kannada alphabet, it's closest cousin..
Telugu script is written from left to right and consists of sequences of simple and/or complex characters. The script is largely syllabic in nature - the basic units of writing are syllables. Since the number of possible syllables is very large, syllables are composed of more basic units such as vowels (achchu or swar) and consonants (hallu or vyanjan). Consonants in consonant clusters take shapes which are very different from the shapes they take elsewhere. Consonants are presumed to be pure consonants, that is, without any vowel sound in them. However, it is traditional to write and read consonants with an implied 'a' vowel sound. When consonants combine with other vowel signs, the vowel part is indicated orthographically using signs known as vowel maatras. The shapes of vowel maatras are also very different from the shapes of the corresponding vowels.
The overall pattern consists of 60 symbols, of which 16 are vowels, 3 vowel modifiers, and 41 consonants. Spaces are used between words as word separators.
The sentence ends with either a single (purna virama) or a double bar (deergh virama).
They also have a set of symbols for numerals, though Arabic numbers are typically used.
Telugu is assigned Unicode codepoints: 0C00-0C7F (3072-3199).
Examples
ఒకటి - one
రెండు - Two
మూడు - Three
అమ్మ - Mother
ఆవు - Cow
ఇల్లు - House
ఈగ - HouseFly
Literature in Telugu
The Vijayanagara dynasty produced one of the most prolific set of poets during the reign of Sri Krishnadevaraya. Tenali Ramakrishna, Dhoorjati, Allasani Peddanna were Krishnadevaraya's court poets.
Sri Pothuluri Verrabrahmendra Swami (like his western counterpart Nostradamus) composed "Kalagnanam", the records of the past, present, and future.
The famous epic in Indian literature Mahabharatha was translated into telugu over a period of a few centuries by Nannaya, Tikkana and Yerrapragada. Nannaya is also credited to have participated in formalizing telugu grammar.
A number of famous luminaries in classical Indian music called "Carnatic Music" wrote their works in telugu. Tyagaraja, Annamacharya and Kshetrayya are but a few of a number of contributors. Modern composers like Mysore Vasudevachari also chose Telugu as their medium of composition.
Some popular works and their authors
- Samagraandhra Saahithyamu (The Complete Telugu Literature) - Aarudhra
- Gona Ganna Reddy - Adavi Baapiraaju
- Naarayanarao - Adavi Baapiraaju
- Thuphaanu (The strom) - Adavi Baapiraaju
- Mama charithra (The Uncle's History) - Allasaani Peddana
- Bhagavatham - Bammera Pothana
- Chivaraku migilaedhi? (The remains?) - Buchchibabu
- Vishwambhara - C. Narayana Reddy
- Vijayavilaasamu - Chaemakoori Venkatakavi
- Gayopaakyaanam - Chilakamarti Lakshmi Narasimham
- Timiramu lo samaramu (The battle in the ocean)- Daasaradhi
- Paanasaala - Davvoori Raamireddy
- Krishna pakshamu (The waning phase of moon) - Devulapalli Krishna Sastri
- Sivabhaaratham - Gadiyaaram Venkatasesha Sastri
- Ranganaadha Raamayanamu - Gonabuddhaa Reddy
- Chithraangi - Chalam
- Maidhaanam - Chalam
- Saavithri - Chalam
- Kanyaasulkamu - Gurajada Apparao
- Gabbilamu (The untouchable bat) - Gurram Jashuva
- Piradousi - Gurram Jashuva
- Dasakumaara charithra - Kaethana
- Andhrakavula Charithra (The history of Andhra Poets)- Kandukuri Veeresalingam
- Raajasekhara Charithra (The history of Rajasekhara) - Kandukuri Veeresalingam
- Andhra Mahaabhaarathamu (The great Mahabharatha in Telugu) - Kavitrayam (Nannayya, Tikkana, Yerrapragada)
- Rukmini parinayamu (Rukmini's wedding) - Koochimanchi Timmana
- Sreenaadhudu (The poet Srinadha) - Korlapati Sriraamamurthy
- Maarkandaeya puraanamu - Maadhava
- Amaravati Kathalu (The stories from Amaravati)- Mullapudi Venkata Ramana
- Raamayana vishavruksham - Muppala Ranganayakamma
- Yenki paatalu - Nandoori Subbarao
- Kumaara Sambhavamu - Nanne Choadudu
- Bathikina collegee - Palagummi Padmarao
- Basava puraanamu - Palkooriki Somanaadhudu
- Saakshi (The witness) - Panuganti Lakshmi Narasimham
- Baalavyaakaranamu - Paravasthu Chinnayasuri
- Kalaa poornodhayamu - Pingali Soorana
- Alpajeevi (The miserable) - Rachakonda Viswanatha Sastri
- Vasu charithra - Ramaraaja Bhooshanudu
- Paakudu raallu - Ravuri Bharadwaj
- Jada kuchchulu - Raayaprolu Subbarao
- Ramyaaloakam - Raayaprolu Subbarao
- Aamukta Maalyadha - Sri Krishna Deva Raya
- Mahaaprasthaanamu - Sri Sri
- Haravilaasamu - Srinatha
- Kaasikandamu - Srinatha
- Palnaati veeracharithra - Srinatha
- Srungaara naishadhamu - Srinatha
- Aandhrula Saanghika Charithra - Suravaram Pratapareddy
- Paanduranga mahatyamu - Tenali Raamakrisha
- Baapu aathmakadha (Rashtra gaanamu) - Thummala Seetaraamamoorhty Chowdhary
- Nirvachanoththara Raamayanamu - Tikkana
- Paarijaathaapaharanamu - Timmana
- Devi bhaagavatham - Tirupati Venkata Kavulu
- Paandavodyogamulu - Tirupati Venkata Kavulu
- Merupula Marakalu - Tripuranaeni Gopichand
- Maala pilla - Unnava Lakshminaarayana
- Cheliyalikatta - Viswanatha Satyanarayana
- Kalpavrukshamu - Viswanatha Satyanarayana
- Kinnerasaani Paatalu - Viswanatha Satyanarayana
- Srimadraamaayana - Viswanatha Satyanarayana
- Swargaaniki Nichchenalu - Viswanatha Satyanarayana
- Vaeyipadagalu - Viswanatha Satyanarayana
- Yaeekaveera - Viswanatha Satyanarayana
- Harivansamu - Yerrapragada
- Nrusimhapuranam - Yerrapragada
See also
External links
Wikipedia articles written in this language are located at the
Telugu language Wikipedia
