Telugu

“ There are two principal dialects in Telugu, one an archaic and artificial literary dialect and the other, the living polite dialect. The facts of the two dialects differ considerably and since grammar is a statement of facts, each dialect has a grammar of its own which takes account of its facts. The literary dialect acquired grammatical fixity centuries back. In other words it did not keep pace with the changes undergone by living speech. It is, therefore, a dead language and its facts are found in books. The facts of polite speech are in the mouths of the best society. ”

“ I have given a short account of the Telugu literature, comprizing the names of the more celebrated poems. Probably many of these favourite volumes will be as unavailable to a foreigner as Shakspeare or Milton would be to a bramin, for no one can read the higher Telugu poems with pleasure, unless he possesses a familiar acquaintance with Sanscrit literature, and with the braminical mythology. It therefore becomes necessary (see page 246–7) to substitute a different course of study; less aspiring but more profitable ”

“ The reason why the term became thus specifically applied to the Telugu people is probably because, when the Portuguese arrived, the Telugu monarchy of Vijayanagara, or Bijanagar (see BISNAGAR, NARSINGA) was dominant over great part of the Peninsula. The officials were chiefly of Telugu race, and thus the people of this race, as the most important section of the Hindūs, were par excellence the Gentiles, and their language the Gentile language. ”

“ Admirers of classical Telugu evidently believe that in the twelfth century when Nannaya translated the Sanskrit Mahabharata into Telugu, the vernacular language had reached the acme of perfection and then formed a sort of crystallized linguistic machine with all its parts elaborated and finished; and that succeeding writers have been merely setting it in motion in order to produce their literary works. We know that such beliefs however eminent the persons who hold them may be, are founded on erroneous notions regarding the nature and growth of language. ”

“ Mala.—A low Telugu caste of labourers and cotton-weavers. They numbered nearly 14,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, belonging mainly to the Chānda, Nāgpur, Jubbulpore, and Yeotmāl Districts, and the Bastar State. The Marāthas commonly call them Telugu Dhers, but they themselves prefer to be known as ‘Telangi Sadar Bhoi,’ which sounds a more respectable designation. They are also known as Mannepuwār and Netkāni. They are the Pariahs of the Telugu country, and are regarded as impure and degraded. ”

“ A study of Modern Telugu will prove the best training for a proper study of the language of the poets. A scientific study of Telugu can begin only with the spoken vernacular, and without such a study, a study of the poetic dialect would continue to be irrational and blind. ”

“ The remarkable uniformity of Standard Telugu is due to physical, social and historical conditions. The Northern districts are isolated on one side by mountain ranges inhabited by uncivilised tribes, and on the other by the sea. The Brahmans who were repositories of culture and the creators of polite speech were constantly at requisition at the courts of kings and chiefs, and everywhere at ceremonials where sumptuous feeding and largess could be had. The proverb went, that a king was respected only in his kingdom, but a scholar everywhere. ”

“ Having been employed by Government for several years the Telugu countries I soon perceived the necessity of studying the language: then, with a view to acquire the vernacular idiom, I was encouraged to read and translate Vemana, and a few others of the less learned but more popular authors. Experience daily proved to me that the grammar is best studied in metrical compositions. This we know to be the case in Greek, Sanscrit and French; and it is equally true as regards the modern languages of India wherein we are constantly obliged to transact business. ”

“ The literary dialect is very difficult to master. That is the reason why Telugus who have received the best Western culture are unable to cultivate composition in Telugu. They are afraid or committing blunders, and give up the attempt in despair. Spontaneous writing is out of the question, when one has to write a language which he has to learn from books and is in mortal dread of violating grammar or usage at every step. ”

“ The letter (Telugu characters) is used in writing; but in printing it is more convenient to use the more ancient form (Telugu characters) which we may observe in some ancient inscriptions on temples.
The letter that stands on the line is first pronounced, then the one, or two, under it. Then the vowel above. Thus ప్ర​ is pra: and స్త్రీ strī, a women, also written (Telugu characters) that is sitr
Sometimes a consonant is marked as “silent” as no vowel is attached to it. The silent mark is (Telugu characters) or ్ added to the top of the letter instead of a vowel. ”

“ Of the three meanings given by the grammarians to the word gramya only one, the first, applies to that portion of polite spoken Telugu which was not utilised by the early poets. The very term ‘polite’ excludes slang and vulgar. Slang is evanescent and disreputable, Polite Telugu is not. The vulgar of English rhetoricians generally corresponds to the second meaning of the word gramya and canies low class associations with it. Let us honestly call Polite spoken Telugu by its correct name ”

“ The Kavya dialect was no doubt the dialect of the earliest and the best of the poets, and the dialect with which the grammarians busied themselves, but the employment of the term grammatical dialect has led some persons to believe, or make others believe, that the spoken dialects are ungrammatical.
The term classical Telugu may lead a foreigner to associate with Telugu poetical literature those qualities which distinguish the great literatures of ancient Greece and Rome. The modern school employs polite speech. ”

“ J. Ramayya Pantulu and his school. It is credited with a desire to “abolish by a single stroke of the pen the current literary language which is the result of the growth of centuries and to install in its place numerous colloquial dialects” (page 10 of the Defence) . Nothing can be farther from truth. The modern school advocates the teaching of polite spoken Telugu in schools, especially elementary schools, and its employment for literary purposes, especially for the creation of a Modern Prose. We take the Telugu of the Godavary and Krishna Districts as the standard. ”

“ In the English words art, part, short, hard, curl, girl, pearl we do not pronounce the R because followed by another consonant. But in the languages of India the R in such places must be distinctly enunciated, (in the Scoth manner) or natives will not understand what we say. Example:— కర్త​ carta, lord కర్మం carmam deed, (Telugu characters) purn'a full సర్పం sarpam a serpent (Telugu characters) archacudu a priest.
Some ancient Telugu grammarians wish to exclude the sign (Telugu characters) for R, or desire to confine it to Sanscrit words alone. ”

“ This rule must hold good equally in Telugu. Prakrit grammars end with a sutra lo Traditional Telugu grammar considers itself a kind of Prakrit grammar (Vide Appa Kavee yam 1st Aswasam) and therefore Telugu grammarians have generally borrowed supplemental rules from Sanskrit and Prakrit grammars.
“Thus the rule says that except in the above three cases, the laws of sandhi may be left to be optional so far as prose-writing is concerned. This option has proved to be of considerable value in the development of modern Telugu prose. ”

“ The mark of accent is rarely used in rough writing: thus the short forms (ఎ and ె) are used in most places instead of the long form. In writing Sanscrit the sounds of e and o are invariably long, but the accent is not used. Telugu alone requires that distinction as it uses both forms. ”

“ But at least we can focus the efforts of many who are striving to make the living Telugu a live and potent force, for the expression of the ferment of ideas which are abroad. We Telugus, we flatter overselves, are more receptive of thoughts of progress than the other peoples of Southern India. In matters of Social reform and of Education we are at any rate not backward; our educated men are in the forefront in all public discussions; we have the courage to attempt what we believe to be good; we do not merely talk about Social reform, we put into practice. ”

“ We should, therefore, welcome ídiomatic renderings in real Telugu of good English, French or other originals and original experiments in living prose, tales of current life handled freely and with an imagination untrammelled by stereotyped Lakshana, recondite allusions and stale conventional figures and images.
We desire discussion on the art of writing; thus, How may the living tongue be made an artistic medium? What devices in harmony with the genius of the language can we adopt and adapt from English or other writers, whereby variety, emphasis, lucidity, and strength may be attained? ”

“ This certainly tries the eye-sight; but the first type founders have imitated this old mode and accordingly all the printed letters are formed of hair strokes. This certainly ought to be remedied, and then Telugu type will no more strain the eyes than English printing does.
It is not the custom to separate the words. ”

“ Let us try to realize what exactly is this spoken language with which the majority of the Sub-Committee have shown a solicitude to harmonize the literary dialect-this spoken language which is used in the Telugu Country as a whole and is not the speech either confined to any particular area or to particular clan or tribe. Here Mr. Lakshmana Row’s memorandum must again come to our help. It says, “the contention that all the gramya (nongrammatical, dialectal and slang) forms are to be found current in every part of the country seems to be a gross exaggeration. ”

“ In his grammar of Telugu (1817) Mr. William Brown says, “The Gentoos spoken by the higher classes in the Northern Circars, particularly the better educated of the Rajah caste in the Vizagapatam province (a race of men distinguished for the elegance of their manners and a high sense of honour) may be considered the most refined and perhaps, the most perfect Gentoos spoken at the present day.” (preface page ii) He advised European students of Telugu to select a tutor from “some district north of the river Krishna.” ”

“ Uniformity is no virtue unless it is accompanied by ease in acquisition. Sanskrit is uniform in the whole of India, but like literary Telugu it has to be acquired with great effort. The vernacular on the other hand, is acquired naturally.
214. Mr. J. Ramayya Pantulu opines that if Modern Telugu is cultivated, it will acquire fixity and deviate from speech. He quotes Lounsbury to show that the changes in English during the last five hundred years were ‘insignificant’. Why should then the language of a conversative oriental people like the Telugus change more? ”

“ The references to various Telugu Poems are explained at the end of volume. The other contractions are such as grammatical phrases require. Thus P‖, denoting participle, pret. preterite. v. n. verb neuter. Lit. literally; n. noun, &c. &c. The persons of the verb are denoted numerically, according to the European mode. But the native method denominates the third person as uttama purusha and the second person as madhyama purusha.
ERRATA. ”

“ Space prevents reference to the whole of them, and most of them, indeed, are common to the whole of the Telugu country and their ways do not differ in this district from those of their caste-fellows elsewhere. The six most numerous communities (taking them in the order of their strength) are the Kápus, the landowning class; the Málas, outcaste agricultural labourers; the Ídigas, who draw toddy; the Mádigas, outcaste workers in leather; the Kammas, who are closely connected with the Kápus and resemble them in their social customs; and the Telugu speaking Bráhmans. ”

“ Intelligibility — Intelligibility which the old school claim as the saving merit of the Neo-Kavya school is best secured by the employment of Modern Telugu in literature. Local variations are slight; and even if they were considerable, they could not prove a bar to intelligibility, as the countless variations from standard speech which the poetic dialect presents. In his Defence, Mr. J. Ramayya Pantulu mentions that Chinnaya Sun gives no less than 16 forms of g (one man) and no less than 29 forms of its plural! “We have no less than sixteen forms of this single word 5? ”

“ They are a Telugu-speaking people, and the caste is organised on the same lines as many other Telugu castes. In each locality where they are settled, there is a headman called Kulampedda, who, with the assistance of the caste elders, settles disputes and affairs affecting the community. The caste is, like other Telugu castes, divided up into numerous intipērus or exogamous septs. The custom of mēnarikam, according to which a man marries his maternal uncle’s daughter, is the rule. ”

“ The letter య Y is in Telugu and Sanscrit a consonant, and our using it as a vowel in English sometimes misleads us in spelling. It is exemplified in these Telugu words.
చేయుట chē-yu-ta to do. కోయుట​ co-yu-ta to cut, పొయ్యె poyyĕ he went అయ్యా ayyā Sir. In Sanscrit words it has the same sound, as శయ్య​ sayya a couch యోగ్యం y​ōgyam (that is, yōg-yam) fitting; త్యాగం tyāgam (that is tya-gam, a dissyllable) separation మర్యద​ manner జ్యోతిష​ jyo-ti-sha astrological. ”