About Telugu

Most people have heard of English, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic, but not Telugu. It might be expected that Telugu is, therefore, an obscure language, but it is actually spoken by over 80 million souls and is the fastest growing language in the United States. The CEOs of Microsoft, Adobe and IBM are all Telugu. The Telugu film industry is incredibly popular within the Telugu homeland in India and it is the most-spoken language in its language family.

Telugu is what is known as a Dravidian language. This is a family of languages mainly spoken in the southernmost region of India, all of which have a common ancestor, similar vocabulary and grammar, and similar scripts. Nearly all scripts in India are not alphabets, but abugidas. This means that Telugu, and most Indian languages for that matter, have letters in their script that are modified by vowels and consonants. For example, the letter క "ka" can have a consonant added in the same syllable as in క్ర "kru", or have the vowel changed as in కు "ku". Both can be done at the same time too, as in క్రు "kru". It is written from left to right.

Left: Telugu Talli (Mother Telugu), a personification of the Telugu language and people.
Bottom: (right) The Telugu Alphabet, (center) Telugu vowel modifications, (right) Telugu consonant modifications, (far bottom) consonants.