The Telugu language is one of the oldest languages in India. In 2008, the Government of India has honored Telugu (also Sanskrit, Tamil, and Kannada) as "Ancient Language" of India. It is one of the official languages in the country mainly official language in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states. Apart from these states, Telugu is also spoken in some parts of other states like Yanam, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Chattisgarh. It is fact that after Hindi and Bengali, Telugu is the most widely spoken language in India.
Telugu is one of the languages in the Dravidian language family. Apart from Telugu other widely spoken Dravidian languages are Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Tullu and Gondi, etc. whcih are 85 languages. As all major words are spelled same in Telugu and Sanskrit, some linguists believe that the Telugu language has derived from Sanskrit but Sanskrit, Hindi, and Bengali belong to Indo-Aryan language, and Telugu belongs to Dravidian languages family.
Image Source - Ancient Amaravathi City -Thai Edition
Telugu ranks third by the number of native speakers in India (74 million, 2001 census), fifteenth in the Ethnologue list of most-spoken languages worldwide. It is one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India. Approximately 10,000 pre-colonial inscriptions exist in the Telugu language and totally there are 15,000 inscriptions in Telugu language. Source
As per linguists, there are different stories behind the “Telugu name”. As per one story in Tamil and Gondi languages, “telu/tele” means Sweet/Honey and white/elegance and “ogun” means the plural reference. As of today, some people in parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala call Telugu people as “Telungu”.
According to linguists, at least 2400 years ago the Telugu language was distinguished from the original Dravidian language. As per the records, the oldest Telugu words were seen in 1st Century BC in Marathi poem Gadasapathati in Satthavahana era. The earliest inscription in Telugu was found in 17th century.
Prakrit Inscriptions with some Telugu words dating back to 400 BC to 100 BC have been discovered in Bhattiprolu in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. The English translation of one inscription reads, "gift of the slab by venerable Midikilayakha". Source
The Telugu script derives from the ancient Brahmi script. The Satavahas, who were loyal to Ashoka's Maurya Empire, brought Brahmi script to southern India. The South Indian languages originated from the Dravidian language but their scripts originated from Brahmi. Characters similar to those of Maurya Brahmi Script were found in some Buddhist sects in the Bhattiprools which is Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. All of the south India languages have evolved from the Bhattiprools script, Telugu and Kannada script has developed in 5th Century AD because of the region today we call as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were ruled by Andhra Satavahanas, Chalukyas, Rashtriya Koodiyattams.
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