Telugu

Last Updated: 2019-1-10

Background

Language Family: Dravidian / South-Central / Telugu

• Telugu is one of the most popular languages in India, particularly in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Telugu is one of the official classical languages of India, and has significant influence from Sanskrit and Prakrit, as well as Perso-Arabic and English (Bhaskararao and Ray 2016, 231).

Phonology

Consonants

• Bhaskararao and Ray (2016) claim the existence of affricates /ts/ and /dz/ (p. 232), but other sources do not include them (Jagganath 1981, 4; Krishnamurti and Gwynn 1985, xviii). I have opted not to included them as well.
• Consonants contrast for gemination (excluding /f/, /ʂ/, /ʃ/, /h/, and /ɳ/) (Bhaskararao and Ray 2016, 234).

	Place of Articulation
Manner of Articulation	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops (plain)	p b	t̪ d̪		ʈ ɖ			k ɡ
Stops (aspirated)	pʰ bʱ	t̪ʰ d̪ʱ		ʈʰ ɖʱ			kʰ ɡʱ
Affricates (plain)					tʃ dʒ
Affricates (aspirated)					tʃʰ dʒʱ
Fricatives			s	ʂ	ʃ			h
Nasals	m		n	ɳ
Trills			r
Approximants	w		l	ɭ		j
Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are voiced.

Vowels

• All Telugu vowel phonemes contrast in length (Jagganath 1981, 4).
• Bhaskararao and Ray (2016) claim that /ɛ/ and /æ ː/ are phonemes because they contrast in English loanwords (pp. 235-236). Older works on Telugu phonology do not include /ɛ/ and /æ ː/ as vowel phonemes (Jagganath 1981, 4; Krishnamurti and Gwynn 1985, xviii). I’ve also chosen not to include /ɛ/ and /æ ː/.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Alphabet

• Like other Dravidian languages that have an abugida alphabet, Telugu consonants have a following inherent vowel (Daniels and Bright 1996, 416).
• The candrabindu (ఁ; ఀ) generally indicates vowel nasalization (Proposal for a Telugu Script Root Zone Label Generation Ruleset (Lgr) 2019, 6); however, because vowel length is not phonemic and given that (present day) speakers don’t use it, I have opted not to account for it.

Consonant Grapheme	Phoneme	Comment
క	/ka/
చ	/tʃa/
ట	/ʈa/
త	/t̪a/
ప	/pa/
య	/ja/
శ	/ʃa/
ఖ	/kʰa/
ఛ	/tʃʰa/
ఠ	/ʈʰa/
థ	/t̪ʰa/
మ	/ma/
ఙ; న; ఞ	/na/
ణ	/ɳ/
ఫ	/pʰa/
ర	/ra/
ష	/ʂa/
గ	/ɡa/
జ	/dʒa/
డ	/ɖa/
ద	/d̪a/
బ	/ba/
ల	/la/
ళ	/ɭa/
స	/sa/
ఘ	/ɡʱa/
ఝ	/dʒʱa/
ఢ	/ɖʱa/
ధ	/d̪ʱa/
భ	/bʱa/
వ	/wa/
హ	/ha/
Independent Vowel
అ	/a/
ఇ	/i/
ఉ	/u/
ఋ	/ru
ఌ	/lu/
ఎ	/e/
ఐ	/aj/
ఓ	/oː/
ఆ	/aː/
ఈ	/iː/
ఊ	/uː
ౠ	/ruː/
ౡ	/luː/
ఏ	/eː/
ఒ	/o/
ఔ	/aw/
Diacritic
ా	/aː/
ి	/i/
ీ	/iː/
ు	/u/
ూ	/uː/
ృ	/ru/
ౄ	/ruː/
ౢ	/lu/
ౣ	/luː/
ె	/e/
ే	/eː/
ై	/aj/
ొ	/o/
ో	/oː/
ౌ	/aw/
ం	/m/	called an anusvara, this diacritic represents a homorganic nasal with the following consonant, but /m/ is used underlyingly (Daniels and Bright 1996, 415)
ః	/h/	called the visarga, this diacritic occurs predominantly in Sanskrit loanwords, but also in Telugu (which is why I kept it in transcription) (ibid.)
్		called the virama, this diacritic cancels the inherent vowel (Daniels and Bright 1996, 416)

Lenition Rules

• /r/ is a flap [ɾ] intervocalically (Bhaskararao and Ray 2016, 235).

References

Bhaskararao, Peri, and Arpita Ray. 2016. “Telugu.” Illustrations of the IPA 47 (2).

Daniels, Peter T., and William Bright. 1996. The World’s Writing Systems. Oxford University Press.

Jagganath. 1981. “Telugu Loanword Phonology.” PhD thesis, The University of Arizona.

Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju, and John Peter Lucius Gwynn. 1985. A Grammar of Modern Telugu. Oxford University Press.

Proposal for a Telugu Script Root Zone Label Generation Ruleset (Lgr). 2019. Neo-Brahmi Generation Panel.