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. 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. The 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 clear 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 has been prolific literature ever since, but the golden age is considered by many 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 [[Mughal empire||Mughal rulers] during and after the 14th century, and most recently byt the |Nizams of Hyderabad. Ancient Sanskrit, Persian and Urdu influences show most in the Telugu dialect from these regions.

In 1956, 10 Nizam districts and 4 districts of Rayalaseema were merged to the so-called Northern Circar districts forming the modern telugu vernacular 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(Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharastra, Orissa) in India, but it is also spoken in Bahrain, Fiji, Malaysia, Mauritius, United States, Singapore, United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates. They have become a successful Asian Indian community in the USA However Telugu is virtually dead in the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.[1].

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, Madurai and Thanjavur districts.

Derived languages

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 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 (masculine singular):

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 a very prolific set of poets during the reign of Sri Krishnadevaraya. Tenali Ramakrishna, Dhoorjati and Allasani Peddanna were Krishnadevaraya's court poets.

Sri Potluri Veerabrahmendra Swami (like his western counterpart Nostradamus) composed "Kalagnanam", the records of the past, present, and future.

The famous indian literary epic, the 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 among a large number of contributors. Modern composers like Mysore Vasudevachari also chose Telugu as their medium of composition.

Some popular works and their authors

• Samagraandhra Saahithyamu (సమగ్రాంధ్ర సాహిత్యము) (The Complete Telugu Literature) - Aarudhra (ఆరుద్ర)
• Gona Ganna Reddy - Adavi Baapiraaju
• Naarayanarao - Adavi Baapiraaju
• Thuphaanu (The storm) - 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 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
• Budugu - 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

• List of Telugu films

External links

• Ethnologue report for Telugu
• Telugu - Italian of the East
• On-line English-Telugu Dictionaries (C. P. Brown's and V. Rao Vemuri's)
• List of online Telugu-related resources
• Telugu organizations in the USA.