From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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 18 national languages of India. 19th century Britishers called it the "Italian of the East" as all words in Telugu end with an vowel sound.
| Telugu (Telugu) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | India |
| Region: | Andhra Pradesh and neighboring states |
| Total speakers: | 70 Million |
| Ranking: | 15 |
| Genetic classification: |
Dravidian South-central Telugu Telugu |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | India |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1: | te |
| ISO 639-2: | tel |
| SIL: | TCW |
History
Telugu was initially called Tenugu or even Andhra bhasha. Andhra was the name of the tribe that resided in the area which is currently called Andhra Pradesh. Prakrut had significant effect on Telugu in the earlier ages. But from Nannayya, Sanskrit had major influence on Telugu for the next 500-600 years.
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 and neighboring states of India, but it is also spoken in Bahrain, Fiji, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, and United Arab Emirates.
In Telugu, Karta(nominative case or the doer), Karma(object of the verb) and Kriya(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 (or preposition) tradition.
Official status
Telugu is one of the National languages of IndiaDialects
The dialects of Telugu identified by the Ethnologue are Berad, Dasari, Dommara, Golari, Kamathi, Komtao, Konda-Reddi, Salewari, Telangana, Telugu, Vadaga, Vadari, Srikakula, Vishakapatnam, East Godaveri, Rayalseema, Nellore and Guntur.Derived languages
Creoles and other languages that are derived from this language.Sounds
Vowels
Consonants
Phonology
Historical sound changes
Grammar
| Telugu - | Ramudu bantini kottenu |
| literally - | Rama ball hit |
| Reformatting it - | Rama hit the ball |
Vocabulary
Writing system
Telugu is usually written using the Telugu alphabet, a Brahmic script. The Telugu script is phonetic in nature. It has 56 characters in total. Its appearance is quite similar to the Kannada alphabet. It is assigned Unicode codepoints: 0C00-0C7F (3072-3199).
