Telugu script

Telugu
Script type	Abugida
Direction	Left-to-right
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Telu (340), ​Telugu
Unicode
Unicode alias	Telugu

Telugu script, an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write Telugu, a Dravidian Language found in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as well as several other neighboring states.

General Characteristics

File:Brahmi Script.gif

Brahmi Script

Telugu is a syllabic language. Similar to most languages of India, each symbol in Telugu script represents a complete syllable. There is very little scope for confusion and spelling problems In that sense, it is a WYSIWYG script. This form of script is considered to be the most scientific by the linguists. This syllabic script has been achieved by the use of a set of basic symbols, a set of modifier symbols and rules for modification. Officially, there are eighteen vowels, thirty-six consonants, and three dual symbols. Of these, thirteen vowels, thirty five consonants are in common usage There are two alternate symbols, viz., nakāra pollu and valapala gilaka (giraka) for ‘n’ and ‘r’ consonant sounds, respectively. In addition, symbols used in Sanskrit such as the avagraha are also permitted. Although rare in modern Telugu, use of one symbol from Tamil script ('zh') was also allowed. Each basic letter has at least one more symbol of union to be used when it is a subordinate sound to one or more consonants. Telugu uses the same decimal system that is commonly referred to as the Hindu-Arabic system of numerals. It has its own symbols for numerals. Most often however, modern numerals are used in place of traditional numeric symbols.

Telugu script has the capability to represent almost the entire phonetic spectrum of all Indian (and most world) languages. For example, the only sound of the English language not represented fully in Telugu (in a theoretical sense) is the ‘a’ sound as in ‘apple.’ However, the sound is common in some commonly spoken words such as vaccaanu, veLLaanu, etc. Of the sounds indigenous to India, the current Telugu script does not represent the ‘zh’ sound of tamiL (tamizh) properly. Centuries ago, this sound was a regular part of Telugu pronunciation. Even today, it survives in the form of the letter usually called the ‘banDi rA’ (or by the Sanskritized name Śakata Repha). The associated sound however, has degenerated to something close to regular ‘ra.’ Theoretically, it is also the closest sound to the Hindi letter ra/Da as in sarak/saDak. The European/Middle Eastern sound ‘F’ as in ‘father’ is not part of the original Telugu script. But the script has adapted itself to an almost seamless representation of this sound using ‘Pha.’ It must be pointed out that each living linguistic tradition includes several sounds and nuances that are not entirely represented by the rigid written script. However, all the sounds and nuances are familiar to the practitioners of that language and will not cause any problems. The ease with which the sounds and their corresponding character associations can be identified defines the ‘soundness’ of the script. In that sense, Telugu stands as one of the best scripts in the world while maintaining an extensive sound base.

Since all Indic scripts have descended from brāhmī, the similarities between modern devanāgarī and telugu scripts will become apparent upon close observation. For example, the devanāgarī (Hindi) letter ‘ka’ if turned by 90 degrees on the side will resemble ‘ka’ in kannaDa. If the central bar in this symbol is omitted, it becomes telugu ‘ka.’ The top bar in devanāgarī is replaced by short bar with a curl at the end in kannada. It becomes a full-fledged tick mark in telugu. Many such simple comparisons can be made. During this process of assimilating braahmee script, telugu took in all the symbolic representations of prakrit. It also retained its original sounds that are common to Dravidian linguistic family. These include the short forms of vowels ‘e’ and ‘o’ and consonants 'La' and '~ra' (banDi ra) among other things. For completeness sake, Telugu also invented a couple of letters not generally listed in Sanskrit (long forms of vowels ‘R’ and 'alu') although they are not being used commonly at the present time.

Telugu script has a basic tendency towards circular forms. All the letters and their modifiers can be derived by a combination of parts of circles.

Brahmi Script and Telugu

File:Brahmi Chart.jpg

Brahmi Script Chart

The Nanda kings (and Mauryan emperors who succeeded them) at Pataliputra adopted a script inspired by it for all their official communications. From this developed the Brahmi script and eventually the modern day Devanagari. The figures below show the early brahmi script.

The Andhra (Satavahana) dynasty introduced the brahmi to the present day Kannada and Telugu regions. The earliest inscriptions found in the Tamil land belong to more or less the same period. A number of early Satavahana coins and other remains were found in Tamil Nadu. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Satavahanas introduced the script to the Tamil country also. The Satavahanas were, for some time, vassals of the Mauryan Empire. Mauryan Emperor Asoka the great (reign: 269-232 BCE) and the rise of Buddhism played stellar roles in championing this spread of writing. Thus, Telugu and all the other south Indian languages had their scripts descended from the brahmi. There are direct or indirect references to 'lipi', 'likh', 'lekha', 'likhita' etc., in the literature belonging to the periods before this perceived spread of brahmi.

Evolution of Character Graphs

Prakrit was the official language of communication used by the Satavahana Kings who were also referred to as the Saatakarnis and Andhras (Andhra BhRtya) in the Puranas. There is some evidence that the kings used a mother tongue that is different from the official language. It is highly likely that this tongue was a mixture of the precursor to modern Telugu and derivatives from other languages such as prakrit. The official Prakrit dialect was based on Sanskrit. But several pure Telugu words had crept into it. In fact, many Prakrit texts such as 'gaathaa sapta Sati', 'vajjaa laggam' etc., had many Telugu words. This Prakrit was originally written in the northern Brahmi.

This script was quickly subjected to change to accommodate the writing practices and additional sounds of south Indian languages. The evolution of the alphabet in the Telugu land over the centuries is given in the two figures below:

File:Telugu Script Chart a.jpg

Fig.T1:Telugu Script Chart a

File:Telugu Script Chart b.jpg

Fig T2: Telugu Script Chart b

The first row in each figure represents current Telugu alphabets. (Modern Telugu has 56 primary alphabets). The second row gives the Mauryan Brahmi from 3rd Century BCE. This is the script used to proclaim the imperial edicts about Buddhist principles of compassion and empathy.

Row 3 (Fig. T1) is the 3rd Century BCE script found on the urn containing a portion of Buddha's mortal remains. The urn was the central object at the great monastery in Bhattiprolu in central Andhra Pradesh. There were other such famous sacred containers housing Buddha's teeth or bones at Amaravati, Nagarjuna Konda, Danta Puram and other Stupas. Some of these Stupas were constructed by the Naga kings of Andhra even before the Mauryan and Satavahana rule.

Row 4 (Fig. T1) describes the 1st Century CE script used by Paisaci, Maharashtri Prakrit, and other southern dialects under the Satavahana dynasty. This dynasty ruled modern day Andhra Pradesh and parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra from the 4th Century BCE till the third Century CE. Several kings of this dynasty had Maharashtrian wives among others. In the example below notice the reference to Kshatrapa king Nahapana. Kshatrapa (Kshatrava) was the title of Saka kings. This particular Saka king was defeated by Gautamiputra Satakarni (reign:78-102 CE). Kings of this dynasty performed several acts of religious merit. Among those was the creation of cave dwellings for Buddhist monks. Several such caves are found in Andhra Pradesh (e.g., undavalli, mogalrājapuram-Vijayawada) and Maharashtra (e.g., Nasik and Kanheri-Bombay).

Telugu Inscriptions

Asokan Brahmi Insciprtion

File:Asokan Brahmi inscription.jpg

Fig.S1: Asokan Brahmi inscription (3rd Cent. BCE)

Fig. S1 is an example of Asokan inscriptions from rumminde. The reference to devānapiyena piyadasina indicates ashoka (devānāmpriya, priyadarśi) and sakyamuni refers to Buddha. Similar inscriptions have been found in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh.

Satavahana cave inscription

File:Satavahana cave inscription.jpg

Fig.S2: Satavahana cave inscription of the first century CE from Nasik in Maharashtra

After 218 CE the Satavahana dynasty was succeeded by its vassals, the Ikshvakus, whose script is shown in row 5 of Fig. T1. Although only three kings ruled in this dynasty, they commanded the love and affection of the people. Even today, anything very old is referred by Telugu people as 'that from the time of Ikshvakus.'

Ikshvaku inscription

File:Ikshvaku inscription.jpg

Fig.S3: Ikshvaku inscription of the 3rd century CE

The sixth row of Fig. T1 shows the north Indian Brahmi used by the Gupta empire in the 4th Century CE. Although the northern and southern scripts are still very similar, we can notice the divergence from this point onwards.

Salankayana Nandivarma inscription

The Salankayana script of the 5th Century is given in the 7th row of Fig. T1. Salankayanas and Vishnukundinas were two of the many dynasties that succeeded the Ikshvakus. From their time, the script for Telugu and Kannada languages began clearly separating from that of the other south Indian and north Indian dialects. The following is an example of Salankayana inscription from 4th Century CE. They ruled between 300 CE and 420 CE with vengi as the capital. Both Salankayanas and Vishnukundinas were vassals under pallava kings who ruled from southern Telugu and northern Tamil lands. Notice the change over from Prakrit to Sanskrit during this time.

File:Salankayana Nandivarma inscription.jpg

Fig. S4 Salankayana Nandivarma inscription of the 4th century CE

Salankayanas were succeeded by Vishnukundinas kings from vinukonda. In fact, Vishnukundinas is a Sanskritized name for vinukonda. They ruled three or four central coastal districts between 420 and 611 CE from vinukonda, vengi and vijayawada. They seem to have patronized the great Kumarila Bhatta (c.686?-c.745?) who propounded Purva mimamsa' philosophy and his disciple Prabhakara Pandita. An inscription from their time is given below. Notice the reference to Lord Parvata Swami (of kOTappa konDa) and eleven Asvamedha yajnas. These kings followed the lead of Ikshvaku kings in performing the Horse sacrifices. The Pallavas also followed the same lead.

Vishnukundina inscription

File:Vishnukundina inscription.jpg

Fig. S5 Vishnukundina inscription of the 6th century CE

Around the time of Vishnukundinas, a development of great significance in the history of Telugu language took place in the modern day rayalaseema. All the royal inscriptions till that day used either Prakrit or Sanskrit. This was in spite of the fact that there was a well developed local language in the Telugu land. Beginning with the Ikshvaku dynasty, the Royal courts started to increasingly replace Prakrit for its predecessor, the Sanskrit. By the time of vishnukundina dynasty, Sanskrit had gained a pre-eminent status. This powerful trend towards increasing Sanskritization was reversed by the Chola kings who ruled from renaadu. This corresponds roughly to the modern day Cuddapah, Eastern Chittoor, Southern Nellore and surrounding areas). They were vassals under the southern Pallava kings. They broke with the prevailing fashion and introduced the tradition of writing Royal proclamations in the local (Telugu) language. The earliest available inscription containing Telugu sentences comes from these Chola kings and is dated to 573-576 CE. These Telugu Chola kings had eventually gained prominence and filled the vacuum left by the end of Pallava dynasty. During the next fifty years, Telugu inscriptions appeared in the neighboring Ananthapuram and all the surrounding regions. Their act of patronizing Telugu over Sanskrit had caught on and other kings in the Telugu land had begun to follow their lead. 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.

Vowels

Telugu uses 14 vowels, each of which has both a singular form and a diacritic form used with consonants to create syllables. It is important to note that this language does make a distinction between short and long vowels.

Vowel (singular form)	అ	ఆ	ఇ	ఈ	ఉ	ఊ	ఋ	ౠ	ఎ	ఏ	ఐ	ఒ	ఓ	ఔ
Vowel (diacritic form)		ా	ి	ీ	ు	ూ	ృ	ౄ	ె	ే	ై	ొ	ో	ౌ
Pronunciation (IPA)	[a]	[aː]	[i]	[iː]	[u]	[uː]	[ri/ru]	[riː/ruː]	[e]	[eː]	[aj]	[o]	[oː]	[aw]

The singular form is used when the vowel occurs at the beginning of a word or syllable, or is a complete syllable in itself (example: a, u, o). The diacritic form is added to consonants (represented by the dotted circle) to form a consonant-vowel syllable (example: ka, kru, mo). It should be noted that అ does not have a diacritic form, because this vowel is already inherent in all of the consonants. The other diacritic vowels are added to consonants to change their pronunciation to that of the vowel.

Examples:

ఖ + ఈ (ీ) → ఖీ

[kʰa] + [iː] → [kʰiː]

జ + ఉ (ు) → జు

[dʒa] + [u] → [dʒu]

There are also several other diacritics used in the Telugu script. ్ mutes the vowel of a consonant, so that only the consonant is pronounced. ం and ఁ nasalize the vowels or syllables to which they are attached. ః adds a voiceless breath after the vowel or syllable it is attached to.

Examples:

క + ్ → క్

[ka] + [Ø] → [k]

క + ఁ → కఁ

[ka] + [n] → [kan]

క + ం → కం

[ka] + [m] → [kam]

క + ః → కః

[ka] + [h] → [kah]

Telugu in Unicode

The Unicode range for Telugu is U+0C00 ... U+0C7F.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

C00

ఀ

ఁ

ం

ః

ఄ

అ

ఆ

ఇ

ఈ

ఉ

ఊ

ఋ

ఌ

఍

ఎ

ఏ

C10

ఐ

఑

ఒ

ఓ

ఔ

క

ఖ

గ

ఘ

ఙ

చ

ఛ

జ

ఝ

ఞ

ట

C20

ఠ

డ

ఢ

ణ

త

థ

ద

ధ

న

఩

ప

ఫ

బ

భ

మ

య

C30

ర

ఱ

ల

ళ

ఴ

వ

శ

ష

స

హ

఺

఻

఼

ఽ

ా

ి

C40

ీ

ు

ూ

ృ

ౄ

౅

ె

ే

ై

౉

ొ

ో

ౌ

్

౎

౏

C50

౐

౑

౒

౓

౔

ౕ

ౖ

౗

ౘ

ౙ

ౚ

౛

౜

ౝ

౞

౟

C60

ౠ

ౡ

ౢ

ౣ

౤

౥

౦

౧

౨

౩

౪

౫

౬

౭

౮

౯

C70

౰

౱

౲

౳

౴

౵

౶

౷

౸

౹

౺

౻

౼

౽

౾

౿

External links

• Telugu Association Inc. Sydney Australia. Celebration of Telugu Culture in Sydney
• Omniglot - Telugu script
• PROEL - Telugu script compared with other Dravidian scripts
• Vignanam - Learn Something Today