Telugu

Teluguis the language spoken by the people of Andhra Pradesh state in India.

It is the Principal and Official language of the State.

Being a mellifluous language, it is called, by its admirers as the Italian of the East.

A member of the central group of proto-dravidian languages , Telugu is spoken by atleast

73 million people worldwide including Andhra Pradesh, South Maharashtra & North Karnataka,

Malaysia, Fiji, Singapore, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, USA.

The language consists of 16 vowels and 36 consonants. Its vocabulary is very much influenced by

Sanskrit. Although culturally Telugu is close to its southern neighbours -- Tamil and Kannada --

genetically, it is closer to its northern neighbours -- Gondi, Konda, Kui, Kuvi, Pengo and

Manda.

There is evidence to show that these languages were freely borrowed from Telugu even

from the prehistoric period whereas borrowing between Telugu and Tamil and Kannada has been

mostly during the historic period, i.e., post-5th century B.C.

It was also referred to as Tenugu in the past. Andhra is the name given to it since

the medieval times. Some argued that Telugu was a corruption of Trilinga

(Sanskrit meaning three `lingas'). A general description of the land of the Telugus was made in

the medieval times as `the land marked by three lingas of the three famous shrines of

Draksharamam (East Godavari district), Kaleswaram (Karimnagar) and Srisailam (Kurnool)

Telugu is the most widely spoken language of the Dravidian family which consists of 24

languages spanning the entire South-Asia, from Baluchistan to Sri Lanka. In terms of

population, Telugu ranks second to Hindi among the Indian languages.

With the advent of the Muslim rule, several Persian and Arabic words entered into the Telugu

language. But they were confined to the spoken language and to the language of the judiciary

and the executive. The influence of Persian and Arabic is discernible to a considerable extent

in the languages spoken in Telangana due to its long association with the Muslim rule.

There is also a great element of English words in the vocabulary of Coastal Andhra and

Rayalaseema because these regions were directly under the British rule for nearly a

century and a half.