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Telugu
TheoriginsoftheTelugualphabetcanbetracedbytotheBrahmialphabetofancientIndia,whichdeveloped
intoanalphabetusedforbothTeluguandKannada,whichinturnsplitintotwoseparatealphabetsbetween
the12thand15thcenturiesAD.
TheearliestknowninscriptionscontainingTeluguwordsappearoncoinsthatdatebackto400BC.Thefirst
inscriptionentirelyinTeluguwasmadein575ADandwasprobablymadebyRenatiCholas,whostarted
writingroyalproclamationsinTeluguinsteadofSanskrit.Telugudevelopedasapoeticalandliterarylanguage
duringthe11thcentury.
Untilthe20thcenturyTeluguwaswritteninanarchaicstyleverydifferentfromtheeverydayspokenlanguage.
Duringthethesecondhalfofthe20thcentury,anewwrittenstandardemergedbasedonthemodernspoken
language.In2008TeluguwasdesignatedasaclassicallanguagebytheIndiangovernment.
Notablefeatures
Typeofwritingsystem:syllabicalphabetinwhichallconsonantshaveaninherentvowel.Diacritics,whichcan
appearabove,below,beforeoraftertheconsonanttheybelongto,areusedtochangetheinherentvowel.
Whentheyappearthethebeginningofasyllable,vowelsarewrittenasindependentletters.
Whencertainconsonantsoccurtogether,specialconjunctsymbolsareusedwhichcombinetheessentialparts
ofeachletter.
Directionofwriting:lefttorightinhorizontallines
Usedtowrite:
Telugu(),aDravidianlanguagespokenbyabout75millionpeoplemainlyinthesouthernIndianstate
ofAndhraPradesh,whereitistheofficiallanguage.ItisalsospokeninsuchneighbouringstatesasKarnataka,
TamilNadu,Orissa,MaharashtraandChattisgarh,andisoneofthe22scheduledlanguagesofIndia.
TherearealsoquiteafewTeluguspeakersinCanada,theUSA,Malaysia,Mauritius,MyanmarandRunion.
Source:http://www.ethnologue.com
Telugualphabet
Vowels
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/telugu.htm 1/5
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Consonants
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/telugu.htm 2/5
9/16/2016 Telugualphabet,pronunciationandlanguage
Conjunctconsonants
Othersymbols
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/telugu.htm 3/5
9/16/2016 Telugualphabet,pronunciationandlanguage
Numeralsandfractions
SampletextinTelugu
Transliteration
Pratipattisvatvamulavisyamunamnavulellarunujanmatasvatatrulunusamnulununaguduru.Vru
vivdantakaraasapannulaguacaparasparamubhrtbhvamutvartipavalayunu.
Translation
Allhumanbeingsarebornfreeandequalindignityandrights.Theyareendowedwithreasonandconscience
andshouldacttowardsoneanotherinaspiritofbrotherhood.
(Article1oftheUniversalDeclarationofHumanRights)
InformationaboutTelugu|UsefulphrasesinTelugu|NumbersinTelugu|TowerofBabelinTelugu
Links
InformationabouttheTelugulanguageandscript
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu_language
http://www.teluguworld.org/Telugu/telugu_history.html
http://www.engr.mun.ca/~adluri/telugu/
http://www.teluguworld.org/Telugu/telugu_history.html
http://www.teluguwebsite.com
http://www.engr.mun.ca/~adluri/telugu/language/script/script1d.html
https://sites.google.com/site/sarvabhashin/en/te
OnlineTelugulessons
http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Telugu.html
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/telugu.htm 4/5
9/16/2016 Telugualphabet,pronunciationandlanguage
http://scriptsource.org/scr/Telu
OnlineTeluguphrases
http://wikitravel.org/en/Telugu_phrasebook
http://www.travelmasti.com/domestic/andhrapradesh/languagetips.htm
OnlineTelugudictionary
http://www.shabdkosh.com/te/
http://www.andhrabharati.com/dictionary/
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/gwynn/
http://dictionary.tamilcube.com/telugudictionary.aspx
http://telugudictionary.telugupedia.com/
Telugufonts
http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Telugu.html
http://scriptsource.org/scr/Telu
OnlineTeluguinput/transliteration
http://specials.msn.co.in/ilit/Telugu.aspx
http://www.tamilcube.com/translate/telugu.aspx
OnlineTelugunews
http://www.vaartha.com/home.aspx
http://www.eenadu.net
http://www.andhraprabha.com
http://www.omnamovenkatesaya.com
OnlineTeluguTV
http://www.youtube.com/user/tv9telugu
Dravidianlanguages
Badaga,Brahui,Gondi,Jatapu,Kannada,Kodava,Kolam,Konda,Koya,Kurukh,Malayalam,MukhaDora,
Sankethi,Savara,Sunuwar,Tamil,Telugu,Tulu,Yerukula
Syllabicalphabets/abugidas
Ahom,Badaga,Balinese,Batak,Baybayin(Tagalog),Bengali,Bima,Blackfoot,Brahmi,Buhid,Burmese,
Carrier,Chakma,Cham,Cree,DehongDai,Devanagari,DivesAkuru,Ethiopic,EvlaAkuru,Fraser,Gondi,
Grantha,Gujarati,Gupta,Gurmukhi,Hanuno'o,Inuktitut,Javanese,Jenticha,Kaithi,Kannada,Kawi,Kerinci,
Kharosthi,Khmer,Khojki,Kulitan,Lampung,Lanna,Lao,Lepcha,Limbu,Lontara/Makasar,LotaEnde,
Malayalam,Manpuri,Modi,MongolianHorizontalSquareScript,Mro,NewTaiLue,Ojibwe,Odia,Pahawh
Hmong,Pallava,Phagspa,Ranjana,Redjang,Sasak,SateraJontal,Shan,Sharda,Siddham,Sindhi,Sinhala,
SorangSompeng,Sourashtra,Soyombo,Sundanese,SylotiNagri,Tagbanwa,Takri,Tamil,Telugu,Thai,
Tibetan,Tigalari(Tulu),Tikamuli,Tocharian,TolongSiki,VarangKshiti
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