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Language Lineage

South-Central Dravidian

Apical displacement: an initial vowel was lost and a following r, l or ḍ moved to the front of the word, so Proto-Dravidian *iraṇṭu 'two' is Telugu reṇḍu, against Tamil iraṇṭu.

c. 1st millennium BCE – presentAndhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the Gond and Kui–Kuvi areas of central and eastern India
On this page
  1. Origins
  2. Telugu
  3. In its own words
  4. Where it's spoken
  5. Turning points

01

Origins

South-Central Dravidian includes Telugu, with more than 80 million speakers the largest Dravidian language, and a string of tribal languages across central India: Gondi, Konda, Kui, Kuvi and Pengo. Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, himself a Telugu speaker, defined the branch by a sound change he called apical displacement. In words like *iraṇṭu 'two', the initial vowel disappeared and the tongue-tip consonant moved forward: Telugu reṇḍu, against Tamil iraṇṭu.

02

Telugu

Telugu words appear in Prakrit inscriptions from the last centuries BCE, and the first inscription wholly in Telugu dates to the 6th century CE. Its literature begins with Nannaya's Telugu rendering of the Mahābhārata in the 11th century, written in a highly Sanskritised style. Telugu script developed, like Kannada script, from a southern form of Brahmi, and the two scripts remain closely related. In 2008 India declared Telugu a 'classical language', together with Kannada.

A sample

In its own words

Telugu

దేశ భాషలందు తెలుగు లెస్స
dēśa
country
bhāṣalandu
languages-among
telugu
Telugu
lessa
finest
‘Among the languages of the land, Telugu is the finest.’
Sources (1)
  • Krishnadevaraya. Āmuktamālyada (early 16th century).

On the map

Where it’s spoken

Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. Indiac. 87 million

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Sound lawProto-South-Central Dravidian periodContested

    Apical displacement

    V C(apical) … → C(apical) V … (*iraṇṭu → reṇḍu 'two')

    Word-initial vowels drop and a following apical consonant moves to the start of the word: *iraṇṭu 'two' → Telugu reṇḍu. Krishnamurti's identification of this change was a landmark in Dravidian comparative phonology. Its date is uncertain.

    Compare with other loss across families →

    Sources (1)
    • Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju. 2003. The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  2. Writing6th century CE

    Telugu inscriptions

    After centuries of Telugu words appearing in Prakrit and Sanskrit inscriptions, the first inscriptions wholly in Telugu appear, in a script derived from southern Brahmi.

    Sources (1)
    • Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju. 2003. The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  3. Contact11th century CE

    Nannaya and Sanskrit

    Nannaya's Telugu Mahābhārata begins Telugu literature in a style full of Sanskrit vocabulary. The gap between this literary register and everyday speech lasts until 20th-century reformers push for a written language closer to speech.

    Figures · Nannaya (11th century)

    Sources (1)
    • Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju. 2003. The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  4. Revitalization2008

    Classical language status

    The Government of India declares Telugu a classical language, recognising its antiquity and literary tradition and funding its study. Meanwhile, the tribal South-Central languages such as Gondi and Kui are losing speakers to regional languages.

    Sources (1)
    • Steever, Sanford B., ed. 2020. The Dravidian Languages, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.