Telugu language

Telugu
తెలుగు
Native to	India
Region	Andhra Pradesh
Native speakers	70 million native, 75 million total
Language family	Dravidian South-Central Telugu Telugu
Writing system	Vatteluttu
Official status
Official language in	India
Language codes
ISO 639-1	te
ISO 639-2	tel
ISO 639-3	tel

Telugu (తెలుగు) is a Dravidian language in origin, primarily spoken in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where it is the official language. It is the Dravidian language with the largest number of speakers (including non-native speakers), the second most spoken language in India after Hindi/Urdu and one of the twenty-three national languages of the Republic of India. In addition, it is also spoken among a diaspora population in the USA, Malaysia, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji, Réunion, Trinidad and the UK among other countries around the world. Telugu is one of the languages of Carnatic Music, the Classical music of South India. Telugu is also popularly called the Italian of the East, because spoken Telugu sounds as though every word ends in a vowel, hence giving it a mellifluous quality.

History

Origins

Telugu originated from the Proto-Dravidian language, but also has features of Indo-Aryan languages. It probably split from Proto-Dravidian between 1500 BCE and 900 BCE. Telugu belongs to the South-central Dravidian language subfamily, whose members originated from the Proto-Dravidian spoken in the central part of the Deccan plateau. Other languages of the South-Central group include the rustic Gondi, Konda, Kui and Kuvi languages, all of which are linguistically closest to Telugu. It is the most widely spoken language in the Dravidian language family.

Etymology of Telugu

The etymology of the word Telugu is not known for certain. It is explained as being derived from trilinga, as in "the country of the three lingas". According to a Hindu legend, Shiva is said to have descended in the form of a linga upon the three mountains Kalesvara, Srisaila, and Bhimeshvara. These mountains form the traditional boundaries of the Telugu region. Other forms of the word, such as Telunga, Telinga, and Tenunga were also seen. It is also said that Trilinga, in the form "Triliggon" occurs in Ptolemy as the name of a locality to the east of the Ganges . Other scholars compare Trilinga with other local names mentioned by Pliny, such as Bolingae, Maccocalingae, and Modogalingam. The latter name is given as that of an island in the Ganges. A.D. Campbell, in the introduction to his Telugu grammar, suggested that Modogalingam may be explained as a Telugu translation of Trilingam, and compared the first part of the word modoga, with mUDuga, a poetical form for Telugu mUDu, three. Bishop Caldwell, on the other hand, explained Modogalingam as representing a Telugu mUDugalingam, the three Kalingas, a local name which occurs in Sanskrit inscriptions and one of the Puranas. Kalinga occurs in the Ashoka Inscriptions, and in the form Kling, it has become, in the Malay country, the common word for the people of Continental India.

According to K.L. Ranjanam, the word is rather derived from talaing, who were chiefs who conquered the Andhra region. M.R. Shastri is of the opinion that it is from telunga, an amalgamation of the Gondi words telu, meaning "white", and the pluralization -unga, probably referring to white or fair-skinned people. In another view courtesy of G.J. Somayaji, ten- refers to 'south' in Proto-Dravidian, and the word could be derived from tenungu meaning "people of the South"..

The old Aryan name for the Telugu country seems to be Andhra, and the replacement of this term by Trilinga seems to be due to an adaptation by the Aryans of a Telugu word. It seems probable that the base of this word is teli, and that -nga, or gu is the common Dravidian formative element. A base teli occurs in Telugu teli, bright; teliyuTa, to perceive, etc. However, this etymology is contested. Telugu pandits commonly state Tenugu to be the proper form of the word, and explain this as the ‘mellifluous language’ from tEne, honey. The word Kalinga might be derived from the same base as Telugu kaluguTa, to live to exist, and would then simply mean ‘man.’

The origin of Telugu name might seem to be new, but it is strongly believed as Prakrit itself was called Telugu in the mean of the history of language. The exact age of Prakrit cannot be determined.

Telugu as a distinct language

It is possible to broadly define four stages in the linguistic history of the Telugu language:

200 BCE - 500 CE

The discovery of a Brahmi label inscription reading Thambhaya Dhaanam engraved on the soap stone reliquary datable to 2nd century B.C., on paleographical ground reveals the ancient nature of the language. Other primary sources are Prakrit/Sanskrit inscriptions found in the region, in which Telugu places and personal names are found. From this we know that the language of the people was Telugu, while the rulers, who were of the Satavahana dynasty, spoke Prakrit. Telugu words appear in the Maharashtri Prakrit anthology of poems (the Gathasaptashathi) collected by the first century BCE Satavahana King Hala. Telugu speakers were probably the oldest peoples inhabiting the land between the Krishna and Godavari rivers.

500 CE - 1100 CE

The first inscription that is entirely in Telugu corresponds to the second phase of Telugu history. This inscription dated 575 CE was found in the Cuddapah district region and is attributed to the Renati Cholas. They broke with the prevailing fashion of using Sanskrit and introduced the tradition of writing royal proclamations in the local language. During the next fifty years, Telugu inscriptions appeared in the neighboring Anantapuram and all the surrounding regions. The first available Telugu inscription in the coastal Andhra Pradesh comes from about 633 CE. Around the same time, the Chalukya kings of Telangana also started using Telugu for inscriptions. Telugu was most exposed to the influence of Sanskrit, as opposed to Prakrit, during this period. This period mainly corresponded to the advent of literature in Telugu. This literature was initially found in inscriptions and poetry in the courts of the rulers, and later in written works such as Nannayya's Mahabharatam (1022 CE). During the time of Nannayya, the literary language diverged from the popular language. This was also a period of phonetic changes in the spoken language.

1100 CE - 1400 CE

The third phase is marked by further stylization and sophistication of the literary language. Ketana (thirteenth century) in fact prohibited the use of spoken words in poetic works. This period also saw the beginning of Muslim rule in the Telangana region.

1400 CE - 1900 CE

During the fourth phase, Telugu underwent a great deal of change (as did other Indian languages), progressing from medieval to modern. The language of the Telangana region started to split into a distinct dialect due to Muslim influence: Sultanate rule under the Tughlaq dynasty had been established earlier in the northern Deccan during the fourteenth century. South of the Godavari river (Rayalaseema region), however, the Vijayanagara empire gained dominance from 1336 till the late 1600s, reaching its peak during the rule of Krishnadevaraya in the sixteenth century, when Telugu literature experienced what is considered to be its golden age. In the latter half of the seventeenth century, Muslim rule, now in the hands of the Mughals, strengthened and extended further south, culminating in the establishment of the princely state of Hyderabad by the Asaf Jah dynasty in 1724. This heralded an era of Persian/Arabic influence in the Telugu language, especially among the people of Hyderabad. The effect is also felt in the prose of the early 19th century, as in the Kaifiyats.

1900 CE to date

The period of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries saw the influence of the English language and modern communication/printing press as an effect of the British rule, especially in the areas that were part of the Madras Presidency. Literature from this time had a mix of classical and modern traditions and included works by scholars like Kandukuri Viresalingam and Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao.

Since the 1940s, what was considered an elite literary form of the Telugu language has now spread to the common people with the introduction of mass media like television, radio and newspapers. This form of the language is also taught in schools as a standard. In the current decade the Telugu language, like other Indian languages, has undergone globalization due to the increasing settlement of Telugu-speaking people abroad. Modern Telugu movies, although still retaining their dramatic quality, are linguistically separate from post-Independence films.

Geographic distribution

Telugu is mainly spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh and to a lesser extent in the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh in India. It is also spoken in Bahrain, Fiji, Malaysia,Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates and the United States where there is a considerable Telugu diaspora. Telugu people are the second largest linguistic unit in India after Hindi.

Official status

Telugu is one of the 23 official languages of India. It was declared the official language of Andhra Pradesh when the state was formed in October 1953 on linguistic lines.

It also has official language status in the Yanam District of the Union Territory of Pondicherry.

Dialects

The dialects of Telugu identified by Ethnologue are [1] Berad · Dasari · Dommara · Golari · Kamathi · Komtao · Konda-Reddi · Salewari · Telangana · Telugu · Vadaga · Srikakula · Vishakhapatnam · Thoorupu Godavari · Rayalseema · Nellore · Guntur · Vadari · Yanadi (Yenadi)

In Tamil Nadu the Telugu dialect is classified into Salem, Coimbatore, and Chennai Telugu dialects. It is also widely spoken in Virudhunagar, Tuticorin, Madurai and Thanjavur districts.

Along with the most standard forms of Indian languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi, Standard Telugu is often called a Shuddha Bhaasha ("pure language").

Sounds

Nineteenth-century Englishmen called Telugu the Italian of the East as all native words in Telugu end with a vowel sound, but it is believed that Italian explorer Niccolò Da Conti coined the phrase in the fifteenth century. Possibly because of its high use of open syllables (consonant+vowel), Telugu is sometimes also nicknamed "Tenugu", which means "as sweet as honey".

Vowels

Like other major Dravidian languages, the Telugu vowel set adds short /e/ and /o/ in addition to the long /eː/ and /oː/ of the Indo-Aryan languages.

అ

ఆ

ఇ

ఈ

ఉ

ఊ

ఋ

ౠ

ఌ

ౡ

ఎ

ఏ

ఐ

ఒ

ఓ

ఔ

అం

అః

/a/

/ɑː/

/ɪ/

/iː/

/u/

/uː/

/ru/

/ruː/

/lu/

/luː/

/e/

/eː/

/ai/

/o/

/oː/

/au/

/am/

/aha/

The rhotics ఋ and ౠ (originally /r/ and /rː/), like the liquids ఌ and ౡ (originally /l/ and /lː/) have now turned into the syllables /ru/, /ruː/, /lu/, /luː/ respectively. They are fast going out of currency and are no longer included in the standard Telugu school textbooks issued by the government of Andhra Pradesh, which now prefers the actual consonants with a /u/ appended (e.g. /ruʃɪ/ (monk) used to be written ఋషి but nowadays, రుషి is preferred).

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 క్ష ఱ

The consonants correspond almost one-to-one to the set in sanskrit, with two exceptions. One is the historical form of /r/ ఱ which is now again being phased out by the current form ర. (e.g. /gurːam/ (horse) was written గుఱ్ఱం but is now written గుర్రం). The other is the retroflex lateral ళ /ɭ/.

The table below indicates the articulation of consonants in Telugu.

Telugu Vyanjana Ucchārana Pattika

Prayatna Niyamāvali		Kanthyamu (jihvā Mūlam)		Tālavyamu (jihvā Madhyam)		Mūrdhanyamu (jihvāgramu)		Dantyamu (jihvāgramu)		Dantōshtyam		Ōshtyamu (adhōstamu)
Sparśam, Śvāsam, Alpaprānam		ka		ca		Ta		ta		-		pa
Sparśam, Śvāsam, Mahāprānam		kha		cha		Tha		tha		-		pha
Sparśam, Nādam, Alpaprānam		ga		ja		Da		da		-		ba
Sparśam, Nādam, Mahāprānam		gha		jha		Dha		dha		-		bha
Sparśam, Nādam, Alpaprānam, Anunāsikam, Dravam, Avyāhatam		nga		nja		Na		na		-		ma
Antastham, Nādam, Alpaprānam, Dravam, Avyāhatam		-		ya		ra (Lunthitam) La (Pārśvikam)		la (Pārśvikam) Ra(Kampitam)		va		-
Ūshmamu, Śvāsam,Mahāprānam, Avyāhatam		Visarga		śa		sha		sa		-		-
Ūshmamu, Nādam,Mahāprānam, Avyāhatam		ha		-		-		-		-		-

Phonology

Though the Telugu consonant set lists aspirated consonants (both voiced and unvoiced), they're reserved mostly for transcribing Sanskrit borrowings. To most native speakers, the aspirated and unaspirated consonants are practically allophonic (like in Tamil). The distinction is made however, rather strictly, in written or literary Telugu.

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. Telugu also has the Vibhakthi విభక్తి (preposition) tradition.

Telugu	రాముడు (Ramudu) బంతిని (bantini) కొట్టాడు(kottadu)
Literal translation	Rama ball hit
Reformatted	"Rama hit the ball"

Inflection

Telugu is often considered an agglutinative language, where certain syllables are added to the end of a noun in order to denote its case:

Instrumental	Ramunito	రామునితో	(తో; to)
Dative	Ramuniki	రామునికి	(కి; ki or కు; ku)
Ablative	Ramudininchi	రాముడినుంచి	(నుంచి; nunchi)
Genitive	Ramuni	రాముని	(ని; ni)

These agglutinations apply to all nouns generally in the singular and plural.

Here is how other cases are manifested in Telugu:

Location

Case	Usage	English example	Telugu example
Adessive case	adjacent location	near/at/by the house	ఇంటి/పక్క /ɪŋʈɪprakːa/
Inessive case	inside something	inside the house	ఇంట్లో /ɪŋʈloː/
Locative case	location	at/on/in the house	ఇంటిదగ్గర /ɪŋʈɪd̪agːara/
Superessive case	on the surface	on (top of) the house	ఇంటిపై /ɪŋʈɪpaj/

Motion

Case	Usage	English example	Telugu example
Allative case	movement to (the adjacency of) something	to the house	ఇంటికి /ɪŋʈɪkɪ/, ఇంటివైపు /ɪŋʈɪvajpu/
Delative case	movement from the surface	from (the top of) the house	ఇంటిపైనుంచి /ɪŋʈɪnɪɲcɪ/
Egressive case	marking the beginning of a movement or time	beginning from the house	ఇంటినుంచి /ɪŋʈɪnɪɲcɪ/ (ఇంటికెల్లి /ɪŋʈɪkelːɪ/ in some dialects)
Elative case	out of something	out of the house	ఇంటిలోనుంచి /ɪŋʈɪnɪɲcɪ/ (ఇంట్లకెల్లి /ɪŋʈlakelːɪ/ in some dialects)
Illative case	movement into something	into the house	ఇంటిలోనికి /ɪŋʈɪloːnɪkɪ/ (ఇంట్లోకి /ɪŋʈloːkɪ/)
Sublative case	movement onto the surface	on(to) the house	ఇంటిపైకి /ɪŋʈɪpajkɪ/
Terminative case	marking the end of a movement or time	as far as the house	ఇంటివరకు /ɪŋʈɪvaraku/

Morphosyntactic alignment

Case	Usage	English example	Telugu example
Oblique case	all-round case; any situation except nominative	concerning the house	ఇంటిగురించి /ɪŋʈɪgurɪɲcɪ/

Relation

Case	Usage	English example	Telugu example
Benefactive case	for, for the benefit of, intended for	for the house	ఇంటికోసం /ɪŋʈɪkoːsam/ (ఇంటికొరకు /ɪŋʈɪkoraku/)
Causal case	because, because of	because of the house	ఇంటివలన /ɪŋʈɪvalana/
Comitative case	in company of something	with the house	ఇంటితో /ɪŋʈɪt̪oː/
Possessive case	direct possession of something	owned by the house	ఇంటియొక్క /ɪŋʈɪjokːa/

Polyagglutination

While the examples given above are single agglutinations, Telugu allows for polyagglutination, the unique feature of being able to add multiple suffixes to words to denote more complex features:

For example, one can affix both "నుంచి; nunchi - from" and "లో; lo - in" to a noun to denote from within. An example of this: "రాములోనుంచి; ramuloninchi - from within Ramu"

Here is an example of a triple agglutination: "వాటిమధ్యలోనుంచి; vāṭimadʰyalōninchi - from in between them"

Vowel harmony

Like in Turkish, Hungarian and Finnish, Telugu words have vowels in inflectional suffixes harmonised with the vowels of the preceding syllable.

Inclusive/exclusive pronouns

Telugu exhibits one of the rare features that Dravidian languages share with few others: the inclusive and exclusive we. The bifurcation of the First Person Plural pronoun (we in English) into inclusive (మనము; manamu) and exclusive (మేము; mēmu) versions can also be found in Tamil and Malayalam, although it is not used in modern Kannada.

Gender

Telugu pronouns follow the systems for gender and respect also found in other Indian languages. The second person plural మీరు /miːru/ is used in addressing someone with respect, and there are also respectful third personal pronouns (ఆయన /ɑːjana/ m. and ఆవిడ /ɑːvɪɽa/ f.) pertaining to both genders. A specialty of the Telugu language, however, is that the third person non-respectful feminine (అది /ad̪ɪ/) is used to refer to objects, and there is no special neuter gender that is used.

Vocabulary

Like all Dravidian languages, Telugu has a base of words which are essentially Dravidian in origin. Words that describe objects/actions associated with common or everyday life: like తల; tala (head), పులి; puli (tiger), ఊరు; ūru (town/city) have cognates in other Dravidian languages and are indigenous to the Dravidian language family.

However, Telugu is also largely Sanskritized, that is, it has a wide variety of words of Sanskrit/Prakrit origin. The Indo-Aryan influence can be attributed historically to the rule of the Satavahana kings, who used Prakrit as the official language of courts and government, and to the influence of literary Sanskrit during the 11th - 14th centuries CE. Today, Telugu is arguably the Dravidian language with the most Indo-Aryan influence.

The vocabulary of Telugu especially in the Telangana region has a trove of Persian-Arabic borrowings, which have been modified to fit Telugu phonology. This was due to centuries of Muslim rule in these regions: the erstwhile kingdoms of Golkonda and Hyderabad. (e.g. కబురు, /kaburu/ for Urdu /xabar/, خبر or జవాబు, /ɟavɑːbu/ for Urdu /ɟawɑːb/, جواب)

Modern Telugu vocabulary can be said to constitute a diglossia, because the formal, standardized version of the language, heavily influenced by Sanskrit, is taught in schools and used by the government and Hindu religious institutions. However, everyday Telugu varies depending upon region and social status. There is a large and growing middle class whose Telugu is interspersed with English. Popular Telugu, especially in urban Hyderabad, spoken by the masses and seen in movies that are directed towards the masses, includes both English and Hindi/Urdu influences.

Writing system

Main article: Telugu script

The Telugu (తెలుగు) script is believed to descend from the old Brahmi script as enshrined in Bhattiprolu inscriptions. Merchants took the script to Southeast Asia where it parented the scripts of Mon, Burmese, Thai, Khmer, C"am, Javanese and Balinese languages. Their similarities to Telugu script can be discerned even today.

Telugu script is written from left to right and consists of sequences of simple and/or complex characters. The script is 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 sixty symbols, of which 16 are vowels, three vowel modifiers, and forty-one consonants. Spaces are used between words as word separators.

The sentence ends with either a single (“purna virama”) or a double bar (“deergha virama”).

There is also a set of symbols for numerals, though Arabic numbers are typically used.

Telugu is assigned Unicode codepoints: 0C00-0C7F (3072-3199).

Vocabulary examples

Telugu	IPA	English
ఒకటి	/okaʈɪ/	one
జింక	/ɟɪŋka/	deer
చింతపండు	/cɪnt̪apaɳɖu/	Tamarind
అమ్మ	/amːa/	mother
ఊయల	/uːjala/	cradle
ఇల్లు	/ɪlːu/	house
మందారం	/mand̪ɑːram/	Hibiscus
వెన్నెల	/venːela/	moonlight
బ్రహ్మాండం	/bramːɑːɳɖam/	excellent

Telugu's prominence in Carnatic music

Though Tamil Nadu has been the cultural center of the Carnatic music tradition, most of the song texts and writings are in Telugu. This is because the existing tradition is to a great extent an outgrowth of the musical life of the principality of Thanjavur in the Kaveri delta. Thanjavur was the heart of the Chola dynasty (from the ninth century to the thirteenth), but in the second quarter of the sixteenth century a Nāyak viceroy was appointed by the emperor at Vijayanagar, thus establishing a court whose language was Telugu. Telugu Nayaka rulers acted as the governors in the present day Tamil Nadu area with headquarters at Tanjavur (1530-1674) and Madurai(1530-1781) during Vijaynagar empire. After the collapse of Vijaynagar, Tanjavur Nayakas became independent ruled for the next 150 years until they were replaced by Maratha kings. This was also a period where several learned Telugu families from the North, fleeing drought and Muslim persecution, came and settled down in Thanjavur. Telugu, a language ending with vowels, giving it a mellifluous quality, was also considered suitable for musical expression. Of the trinity composers, Tyāgarāja's and Śyāma Śāstri's compositions were largely in Telugu, while Muttusvāmi Dīkstar is noted for his Sanskrit texts. Tyāgarāja is remembered both for his devotion and the bhāva of his krithi, a song form consisting of pallavi, (the first section of a song) anupallavi (a rhyming section that follows the pallavi) and charanam (a sung stanza; serves as a refrain for several passages the composition). The texts of his kriti are all, with a few exceptions in Sanskrit, in Telugu (the contemporary language of the court), and this use of a living language, as opposed to Sanskrit, the language of ritual, is in keeping with the bhakti ideal of the immediacy of devotion. Sri Syama Sastri, the oldest of the trinity, was taught Telugu and Sanskrit by his father, who was the pūjāri (Hindu priest) at the Kāmākshi temple in Thanjavur. Śyāma Śāstri's texts were largely composed in Telugu, widening their popular appeal. Some of his most famous compositions include the nine krithi, Navaratnamālikā, in praise of the goddess Meenākshi at Madurai, and his eighteen krithi in praise of Kāmākshi. As well as composing krithi, he is credited with turning the svarajati, originally used for dance, into a purely musical form.

Literature in Telugu

Main article: Telugu literature

Telugu literature is generally divided into six periods, viz.:

pre-1020 CE	pre-Nannayya period
1020-1400	Age of the Puranas
1400-1510	Age of Srinatha
1510-1600	Age of the Prabandhas
1600-1820	Southern period
1820 to date	Modern period

In the earliest period there were only inscriptions from 575 CE onwards. Nannaya's (1022-1063) translation of the Sanskrit Mahabharata into Telugu is the piece of Telugu literature as yet discovered. The diction is so masterly that historians think that there must have been earlier works in Telugu. After the death of Nannaya, there was a kind of social and religious revolution in the Telugu country.

Tikkana (thirteenth century) and Yerrana (fourteenth century) continued the translation of the Mahabharata started by Nannaya. Quite a few poets continued writing in Telugu and we come to the age of Srinatha.

During this period, some Telugu poets translated Sanskrit poems and dramas, while others attempted original narrative poems. The popular Telugu literary form called the Prabandha evolved during this period. Srinatha (1365-1441) was the foremost poet, who popularised this style of composition (a story in verse having a tight metrical scheme). Srinatha's "Sringara Naishadham" is particularly well-known.

The Ramayana poets may also be referred in this context. The earliest Ramayana in Telugu is generally known as the Ranganatha Ramayana, though authorised by the chief Gona Buddha Reddi. Then there were the great religious poets like Potana (1450-1510), Jakkana (second half of the fourteenth century) and Gaurana (first half of the fifteenth century).

The golden period of Telugu literature was the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries AD, Krishnadevaraya's Amuktamalayada is regarded as a Mahakavya. Peddana's Manucharitra is another outstanding Mahakavya. Telugu literature flourished in the south in the Samsthanas like Madurai, Tanjavur etc., and that is why the age itself was called the "Southern Period". We find a comparatively larger number of poets among the rulers, women and non-Brahmins who popularised the desi meters.

With the conquest of the Deccan by the Mughals in 1687, there ensued a period of decadence (1750-1850) in literature. During this period however, down south, Tyagaraja composed some of the best Telugu literary works as thousands of songs. Then emerged a period of transition (1850-1910), following a long period of Renaissance. Europeans like C.P. Brown played an important role in the development of Telugu language and literature. In common with the rest of India, Telugu literature of this period was increasingly influenced by European literary forms like the novel, short story, prose, drama, etc.

The father of modern Telugu literature is Kandukuri Viresalingam Pantulu (1848-1919), who wrote a novel, Rajasekhara Charitamu, inspired by the Vicar of Wakefield. He was the first person in modern times to use literature to eradicate social evils. He was followed by Rayaprolu Subba Rao, Gurazada Appa Rao, Viswanatha Satyanarayana, Katuri Venkateswara Rao, Jashuva, Devulapalli Venkata Krishna Sastry, Sri Sri, Puttaparty Narayana Charyulu and others in the sphere of poetry. Viswanatha Satyanarayana had won the coveted Jnanpith Award. Kanyasulkam (Bride-Money), the first social play in Telugu by Gurazada Appa Rao was a thumping success. We also find the progressive movement, free verse movement and Digambara style finding expression in Telugu verse. The well-known modern Telugu novelists were Unnava Lakshminarayana (of Malapalli fame), Viswanatha Satyanarayana (Veyi Padagalu), Kutumba Rao and Buchchi Babu. Telugu is specially known for its daring experiments in the field of poetry and drama.

Jnanpith award winners for Telugu

• 1970 Viswanatha Satyanarayana
• 1988 Dr. C. Narayana Reddy

The Telugu Wikipedia was the First South Asian language to cross the 20,000 articles mark, and presently has the largest number of articles among all South Asian languages.

See also

• Telugu cinema
• List of Telugu films
• List of Telugu language television channels
• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• Telugu Cholas Instrumental in the flowering of the language
• Andhra Pradesh

External links

• Telugu Literature Literature at TeluguPeople.com
• Online Telugu Type Pad Easy Telugu Typing with English Keyboard.
• Telugu Literature, Telugu Kids Stories, Telugu Culture,and Telugu Traditions
• Telugu Language & Literature
• eemaaTa - Telugu Literary Webzine
• - Learn Telugu
• Vignanam - Learn Something Today
• Wordanywhere.com Hindi/Telugu/English translator
• TELUGU...a language sweeter than honey
• Telugus Abroad
• సిఫీ తెలుగు
• Telugu News
• Ethnologue report for Telugu
• On-line English-Telugu Dictionaries (C. P. Brown's and V. Rao Vemuri's)
• Brown, Charles Philip. A Telugu-English Dictionary. New ed., thoroughly rev. and brought up to date ... 2nd ed. Madras: Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1903.
• Gwynn, J. P. L. (John Peter Lucius). A Telugu-English Dictionary. Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
• Telugu Language resources
• Useful Telugu phrases in English and other Indian languages.
• Telugu organizations in the USA.
• Romanised to Unicode Telugu transliterator
• Telugu Women Writers of the last millennium
• Padma - Mozilla extension for automatic transform to Unicode for Telugu web sites using dynamic fonts like Eenadu, Tikkana, Vaartha, Hemalatha, Andhra Jyothy, Andhra Prabha, Telugu Lipi etc.
• Padma - Unicode Transformer for Telugu Text in RTS, fonts like Eenadu, Tikkana, Vaartha, Hemalatha, Andhra Jyothy, Andhra Prabha etc.
• Telmun language Telugu : the Untold Legacy
• Useful Andhra / Telugu website links

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