Telugu grammar

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The first treatise on Telugu grammar (Telugu: వ్యాకరణం vyākaraṇam), the Andhra Sabda Chintamani (Telugu: ఆంధ్ర శబ్ద చింతామణి Āndhra śabda cintāmaṇi) was written in Sanskrit by Nannayya, who is considered the first poet (ādikavi) and grammarian of the Telugu language, in the 11th century CE.

In the 19th century, Paravastu Chinnaya Suri wrote a simplified work on Telugu grammar called Bāla Vyākaraṇam (lit. Children's grammar), borrowing concepts and ideas from Nannayya, in Telugu.^[1]

According to

Nouns

Telugu is more

Gender

Telugu has three genders:

• masculine
  ( puliṅgamu),
• feminine (strī liṅgamu),
• neuter (napunsaka liṅgamu).

In Telugu the occurrence of the suffix (–ḍu) almost always encodes masculine gender. For example:

• tammuḍu (younger brother),
• mukhyuḍu (important man),
• Rāmuḍu (Rāma),
• nāyakuḍu (leader).

However, there are nouns that do not end in (-ḍu) that belong to the masculine class.For example:

• annayya (elder brother),
• māmayya (uncle).

Most of the words ending in -ḍu are borrowings from Sanskrit words ending in -a, and therefore the feminine forms of these words are equivalent to the Sanskrit words.

Masculine	Sanskrit original	Feminine
nartakuḍu	nartaka	nartaki
vācakuḍu	vācaka	vācaki
premikuḍu	premika	preyasi

Sometimes, a word ending in -ḍu is feminized by adding the suffix -ālu to the root. The -a ending of the root becomes -ur. This phenomenon is known as the rugāgama sandhi.

Masculine	Sanskrit original	Feminine
nartakuḍu	nartaka	nartakurālu
priyuḍu	priya	priyurālu
bhaktuḍu	bhakta	bhakturālu

Neuter-gendered words usually contain the suffix -amu. This suffix descends from the Old Telugu suffix -ambu and is increasingly losing the final -u to become -aṁ. These neuter words are often borrowed from Sanskrit words ending in -a or -u. The final -a usually becomes -amu, and the final -u becomes -uvu.

Sanskrit original	Telugu
ākāśam	ākāśamu
madhu	madhuvu

However, Telugu sometimes uses the same forms for singular feminine and neuter genders – the third person pronoun (అది /ad̪i/) is used to refer to animals and objects.^[3]

Number (vachanam)

Anything with quantity one is singular (ekavachanam). Anything more than one in number is called plural (bahuvachanam), as in English. Formation of the plural stem, however, is relatively complicated, although the ending is centered on variants -lu or -ḷu.

In Telugu the plural is also used to as an honorific. Some nouns are always plural and some are always singular. For example, water (neellu) is always plural.

God (bhagavantudu), sun (suryudu), earth (bhūmi), and moon (chandrudu) are always singular form.

Plural formation

Rules^[4]

Rule	Telugu		English	Notes	Exceptions
	Singular	Plural
0	āvu	āvulu	cow	No modification of the stem, and variant -lu is used.	cellelu → celleṇḍḷu, celleḷḷu "younger sister" cēnu → cēlu "field with a crop" kūturu → kūtuṇḍḷu, kūtuḷḷu "daughter" eddu → eddulu, eḍḷu "bullock" pēnu → pēlu "louse"
1	cōṭu	cōṭḷu	crore	Vowels in -ṭ[i/u], -ṇṭ[i/u], or -ṇḍ[i/u] in the singular is deleted, and variant -ḷu is used. Forms in -ṇḍḷu varies with -ḷḷu, used in western and eastern dialects, respectively.
	paṇḍu	paṇḍḷu paḷḷu	fruit
2	kālu	kāḷḷu	leg	-ḍ[i/u], -l[i/u], or -r[i/u] (-li or -ri are limited to nouns with at least 3 syllables) in the singular are replaced by -ḷḷu. Some instances of -ḷḷu have alternative form -rlu.	alluḍu → alluṇḍḷu, alluḷḷu "son-in-law" ēḍu → ēṇḍḷu, ēḷḷu "year" jītagāḍu → jītagāṇḍḷu, jītagāḷḷu "servant" kāḍi → kāṇḍḷu, kāḷḷu "yoke" kumāruḍu → kumārulu, kumāruḷḷu "son" manamarālu → manamarāṇḍḷu, manamarāḷḷu "granddaughter"
	pēru	pēḷḷu pērlu	name		koḍavali → koḍavanḍḷu, koḍavaḷḷu "sickle" -gāri → -gārlu "a honorific suffix" -sāri → -sārlu "time"
3	guḍḍu	guḍḷu	egg	-ṭṭ[i/u] and -ḍḍ[i/u] in the singular change into -ṭ- and -ḍ- before variant -ḷu.
4	illu	iṇḍḷu iḷḷu	house	-llu and -nnu in the singular are replaced by -ṇḍḷu or -ḷḷu.	junnu → junnulu "kind of cheese" pannu → pannulu "tax" ponnu → ponnulu "iron ring" tannu → tannulu "beating" ṭannu → ṭannulu "tonne" vennu → vennulu "back, ear of corn"
5	pustakam	pustakālu	book	-[a/ā]m and -em in the singular are replaced by -ā- and -ē- before variant -lu.
6	abbāy(i)	abbāy(i)lu	son, boy	The vowel in -yi- is sometimes deleted, and variant -lu is used.
7	cēyi ceyyi	cētulu	hand	-(y)yi in the singular is replaced by -tulu, and the vowel preceding -yyi becomes long after pluralization (ceyyi → cētulu).	poyyi → poyyilu, poyilu "hearth" rāyi → rāḷḷu "hand" veyyi → vēlu "thousand"
8	pilli	pillulu	cat	The vowel -i- is replaced by -u-, and the variant -lu is used. In native nouns with more than three syllables, all instances of -i- is ablauted to -u-.	peṇḍḷi, peḷḷi → peṇḍḷinḍḷu, peḷḷiḷḷu "marriage" rātri → rātriḷḷu "night" vari → vaḍlu "paddy"
	maniṣi	manuṣulu	person

Case (విభక్తి vibhakti)

A Grammar of Modern Telugu by Krishnamurti and Gwynn (1985), which focuses on a grammatical description of modern spoken Telugu rather than classical literary Telugu, presents a simple analysis of grammatical case:

Only the nominative, genitive, accusative, and dative cases are regularly used, and the locative case is formed using the suffixes -lō, -lōpala which were originally placed in the Genitive case by traditional grammarians to fit into the Sanskrit case scheme. The instrumental case suffix is -tō; the colloquial suffixes for ablative case are -valla and -kaṇṭe/-kannā. The dative suffixes in classical are completely replaced by -kōsam.

The accusative case suffix is -ni/-nu, with the former always used after final syllables containing -i-, and the latter elsewhere but freely varies with -ni. The intervening vowel is sometimes deleted between -ḍ-, -l-, -n-, -ṇ-, -r- and the suffix, e.g. mimmala "you (plural) + -ni → mimmalni, vāḍi "him" + -ni → vāṇṇi (*-ḍni → -ṇṇi).

In neuter nouns, the nominative singular ending -am changes before the accusative and dative case suffixes, such that the combined forms of these endings are neuter accusative singular -ānni (← *-ānini) and neuter dative singular -āniki.^[5]

Case	Suffix	Example
Dative	-ki/ku	అతను బడికి వెళ్తాడు Atanu baḍiki veḷtāḍu He goes to school
Accusative	-ni/nu	అతను అబ్బాయిని చూస్తాడు Atanu abbāyini cūstāḍu He sees the boy
Locative	-lō	అతను గదిలో ఉన్నాడు Atanu gadilō unnāḍu He is in the room
Instrumental	-tō	అతను కుక్కతో ఆడుకుంటాడు Atanu kukkatō āḍukuṇṭāḍu He plays with the dog

Oblique stem formation

Formation of the oblique stem, also usually but not always the same as the genitive (by default homophonous unless noted), is relatively complicated just like pluralization. The plural oblique stem, however, is either -la or -ḷa.

Classes^[6]

Class	Telugu		English	Notes
	Nominative	Oblique
A	ceṭṭu	ceṭṭu-	tree	No change.
B	kālu	kāli-	leg	Human nouns ending in -ḍu, -lu, -nu, or -ru (including a few non-human nouns ending in -lu or -ru) replace -u with -i.
C	gūḍu	gūṭi-	tree	Non-human nouns ending in -ḍ[i/u], -l[i/u], -r[i/u] replace the endings with -ṭi.
D	illu	iṇṭi-	house	Only limited to nouns cannu "breast", illu "house", kannu "eye", oḷḷu "body", pannu "teeth", and villu "bow".
	kannu	kaṇṭi-	eye
E	cēyi ceyyi	cēti-	hand	Only limited to nouns cēyi "hand", gōyi "pit", nēyi "ghee", nūyi "well", rāyi "stone", gorru "hearth", and Parru, all of them except the last three show variation between -V̄yi vs. -Vyyi.
	gorru	gorti	hearth
F	kalam	kalāni-	pen	All nouns ending in -am replace the ending with -āni, although the genitive is homophonous with nominative instead of the oblique stem.

Sentence Structure

Telugu word order tends to be

. It is head-final - the head follows its complements. Since Telugu is a pro-drop language, the subject can be omitted as the verb already marks person and number.

Sandhi or joining

Sandhi is the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words.

Telugu sandhis can be divided into native ones and those derived from Sanskrit ones.

Sanskrit Sandhis

These sandhis usually take place when the two words undergoing Sandhi are words borrowed from Sanskrit.

Savarṇadīrghasandhi (Vowel lengthening)

The savarṇadīrgha sandhi, from Sanskrit savarṇa 'same sound' and dīrgha 'long', this sandhi takes place when the first word ends in the same vowel that the second word starts with. The two vowels join to form one long vowel.

Examples of the savarṇadīrgha sandhi

Initial word	Final word	Result
deva	ālayamu	dēvālayamu
pārvati	īśvaruḍu	pārvatīśvaruḍu
aṇu	utpatti	aṇūtpatti

Guṇasandhi (Vowel raising)

The guṇasandhi takes place when a word final -a is followed by either -i, -u or -r̥. The sandhi yields -ē, -ō and -ar respectively. -ē, -ō and -ar are collectively called the guṇas, hence the name.

Examples of the guṇasandhi

Initial word	Final word	Result
mahā	indra	mahēndra
dhana	utpatti	dhanōtpatti
dēva	r̥ṣi	dēvarṣi

Vr̥ddhisandhi (Diphthongization)

The vr̥ddhisandhi, from Sanskrit vr̥ddhi-, 'growth', takes place when a word final -a is followed by -ē or -ai, -ō or -au, and -ar or -ār, and yields -ai, -au and -ār respectively. -ai, -au and -ār are collectively called the vr̥ddhis, hence the name.

Examples of the vr̥ddhisandhi

Initial word	Final word	Result
vasudha	ēka	vasudhaika
mahā	aikyata	mahaikyata
vīra	ōjassu	vīraujassu
divya	auṣadhamu	divyauṣadhamu

Yaṇādēśasandhi (Glide insertion)

The yaṇādēśasandhi takes place when word final -i, -u or -r̥ is followed by a non-similar vowel. The sandhi yields either -y-, -v- or -r- respectively. These are known as the yaṇās.

Examples of the yaṇādēśasandhi

Initial word	Final word	Result
ati	āśa	atyāśa
su	āgatamu	svāgatamu
pitr̥	ājña	pitrājña

Native sandhis

These sandhis usually occur when one or both of the words is a native Telugu word, or is a Sanskrit borrowing that is treated as such (ex. iṣṭamu).

Akārasandhi (Elision of a)

This sandhi occurs when a word final -a is followed by any vowel. The word final -a is removed, and the following vowel takes its place.

Examples of akārasandhi

Initial word	Final word	Result
iṅkā	ēṇṭi	iṅkēṇṭi
puṭṭina	illu	puṭṭinillu
amma	aṇṭē	ammaṇṭē
teliyaka	uṇḍenu	teliyakuṇḍenu

Ikārasandhi

This sandhi occurs when a word final -i is followed by any vowel. The word final -i is removed, and the following vowel takes its place.

Examples of ikārasandhi

Initial word	Final word	Result
mari	eppuḍu	mareppuḍu
vāḍi	illu	vāḍillu
ēmi	aṇṭivi	ēmaṇṭivi
ēmi	a(y)inadi	ēma(y)inadi
ēmi	undi	ēmundi

Ukārasandhi

This sandhi occurs when a word final -u is followed by any vowel. The word final -u is removed, and the following vowel takes its place.

Example of ukārasandhi

Initial word	Final word	Result
ceppu	iṅkā	ceppiṅkā
vāḍu	evaḍu	vāḍevaḍu
nīḷlu	unnāyā	nīḷlunnāyā
vāḍu	annāḍu	vāḍannāḍu

Trikasandhi

One of the most complicated of the sandhis, the trikasandhi is of two forms:

1. When a final -ā -ī or -ē is followed by a non-clustered consonant, the vowel is shortened, and the unclustered consonant is geminated.
2. When the word mūḍu (three) is followed by a consonant, the word-final -ḍu is eliminated. This triggers the first rule of the trikasandhi, and the now-word-final -ū is shortened, and the following consonant is geminated. When the consonant is l-, sometimes it is geminated to -ḷḷ- instead.

Examples of the trikasandhi

Initial word	Final word	Result
ī	kālamu	ikkālamu
ē	cōṭu	eccōṭu
ā	bhaṅgi	abbaṅgi
mūḍu	lōkamulu	mullōkamulu
mūḍu	kōṭi	mukkōṭi

Āmrēḍitasandhi

This sandhi deals with repeated words, i.e., pairs of same words. This sandhi forms some of the most used irregular-looking words in the language. It has three rules:

1. When a vowel-initial word is repeated, the final vowel of the first word is eliminated.
2. Word final forms of ka (ka, ki, ku, ke, etc.) of the first word are eliminated and the first rule is applied.
3. The andādi words (anduku, iggulu, tumuru, tuniyalu, etc.) when compounded lead to irregular forms.

Examples of the āmrēḍitasandhi

Word	Result
aura	auraura
endun	endendun
appaṭiki	appaṭappaṭiki
ūran	ūrūran
ceduru	cellāceduru
iggulu	iṟṟiggulu

Dviruktaṭakārasandhi

Sometimes regarded as a form of the āmrēḍitasandhi, the dviruktaṭakārasandhi occurs when kaḍādi (kaḍa, naḍuma, madhyāhnamu, bayalu, etc.) words are compounded. A dviruktaṭakāra, a geminated -ṭṭ- forms from this sandhi, hence the name.

Examples of the dviruktaṭakārasandhi

Initial word	Final word	Result
madhyāhnamu	madhyāhnamu	miṭṭamadhyāhnamu
pagalu	pagalu	paṭṭapagalu
naḍuma	iṇṭlō	naṭṭiṇṭlō

Gasaḍadavādēśasandhi

• Trika Sandhi.
• Dugagama Sandhi.
• Saraladesha Sandhi
• Gasadadavadesha Sandhi.
• Rugagama Sandhi.
• Yadagama Sandhi.
• Prathametara Vibhakti Sandhi.
• Uchadadi sandhi.

Samasam or nominal compounds

Samasam or samasa occurs with various structures, but morphologically speaking they are essentially the same: each noun (or adjective) is in its (weak) stem form, with only the final element receiving case inflection.

Some of the Telugu samasams are:

• Tatpuruṣa
  Samasam.
  • Prathama tatpurusha samasam
  • Dvitiya tatpurusha samasam
  • Trutiya tatpurusha samasam
  • Chaturthi tatpurusha samasam
  • Panchami tatpurusha samasam
  • Shashti tatpurusha samasam
  • Saptami tatpurusha samasam
  • Nai tatpurusha samasam
• Karmadhāraya
  Samasam.
  • Viśeshana purwapada karmadharaya samasam
  • Viśeshana uttarapada karmadharaya samasam
  • Viśeshana ubhayapada karmadharaya samasam
  • Upamana purvapada karmadharaya samasam
  • Upamana uttarapada karmadharaya samasam
  • Avadharana purvapada karmadharaya samasam
  • Sambhavana purvapada karmadharaya samasam
• Dvigu
  Samasam.
• Dvandva Samasam.
• Bahuvrīhi
  Samasam.
• Amredita
  Samasam.
• Avyayībhāva Samasam

Alankaram or ornamentation

Telugu Alankaram is a figure of speech which means ornaments or embellishments which are used to enhance the beauty of the poems. There are two types of Alankarams, 'Shabdalankaram' which primarily focuses on Sound and 'Arthalamkaram' which focuses on meaning. These two alankarams are further broken down in to different categories.^[7] shabdalankaras are 6 types where as there are nearly 30 to 40 types in ardhalankaras.

• Shabdalankaram
  • Vruttyanuprasa
  • Chekanuprasa
  • Latanuprasa
  • antyanuprasa
  • Yamakam
  • Mukta pada grastam
• Arthalamkaram
  • Upamanaalankaram
  • Utprekshaalankaram
  • Rupakaalankaram
  • Shleshalankaram
  • Arthantaranyaasam
  • Atishayokti
  • Drushtantam
  • Swabhavokti
  • vyajastu
  • virodhi
  • vishamamu
  • parikaramu
  • branti madala
  • kramalam

Chandassu or Telugu prosody

. ya-maa-taa-raa-ja-bhaa-na-sa-la-gam is called the chandassu chakram. Utpalamala, Champakamala, Mattebha vikreeditham, Sardoola Vikreeditham, Kanda, Aata veladi, Theta geethi, Sragdhara, Bhujangaprayata, etc. are some metrics used in Telugu poetry.

Verbs

Although the morphological (grammatical) structure of Telugu verbs is quite evidently complex and complicated, the basic conjugation of subject person and number endings in modern spoken Telugu is in fact rather straightforward:

Past tense

	Past tense	Past tense negative
1st person singular నేను nēnu	వెళ్ళాను veḷḷānu I went	వెళ్ళలేదు veḷḷalēdu I didn't go
2nd person singular నువ్వు nuvvu	వెళ్ళావు veḷḷāvu You went	వెళ్ళలేదు veḷḷalēdu You didn't go
3rd person singular masculine అతను atanu	వెళ్ళాడు veḷḷāḍu He went	వెళ్ళలేదు veḷḷalēdu He didn't go
3rd person singular feminine/neuter ఆమె āme	వెళ్ళింది veḷḷindi She went	వెళ్ళలేదు veḷḷalēdu She didn't go
1st person plural మేము mēmu	వెళ్ళాము veḷḷāmu We went	వెళ్ళలేదు veḷḷalēdu We didn't go
2nd person plural మీరు mīru	వెళ్ళారు veḷḷāru You (plural) went	వెళ్ళలేదు veḷḷalēdu You (plural) didn't go
3rd person plural masculine/feminine వారు vāru	వెళ్ళారు veḷḷāru They (masc./fem.) went	వెళ్ళలేదు veḷḷalēdu They (masc./fem.) didn't go
3rd person plural neuter అవి avi	వెళ్లాయి veḷlāyi They (neuter) went	వెళ్ళలేదు veḷḷalēdu They (neuter) didn't go

The vowel -ā- is pronounced as /æː/, except in some verbs. In the verbs an- "to say", kan- "to buy", kon- "to bring forth", kūrcun- "to be seated", nilcun- "to stand", tin- " to eat", un- "to be", and vin- " to hear", -nā (with /aː/) is used instead.

Present tense

	Present tense	Present tense negative
1st person singular నేను nēnu	వెళ్తున్నాను veḷtunnānu I am going	వెళ్లట్లేదు veḷlaṭlēdu I am not going
2nd person singular నువ్వు nuvvu	వెళ్తున్నావు veḷtunnāvu You are going	వెళ్లట్లేదు veḷlaṭlēdu You aren't going
3rd person singular masculine అతను atanu	వెళ్ళుతున్నాడు veḷḷutunnāḍu He is going	వెళ్లట్లేదు veḷlaṭlēdu He isn't going
3rd person singular feminine/neuter ఆమె āme	వెళ్తోంది veḷtōndi She is going	వెళ్లట్లేదు veḷlaṭlēdu She isn't going
1st person plural మేము mēmu	వెళ్తున్నాము veḷtunnāmu We are going	వెళ్లట్లేదు veḷlaṭlēdu We aren't going
2nd person plural మీరు mīru	వెళ్తున్నారు veḷtunnāru You (plural) are going	వెళ్లట్లేదు veḷlaṭlēdu You (plural) aren't going
3rd person plural masculine/feminine వారు vāru	వెళ్తున్నారు veḷtunnāru They (masc./fem.) are going	వెళ్లట్లేదు veḷlaṭlēdu They (masc./fem.) aren't going
3rd person plural neuter అవి avi	వెళ్తున్నాయి veḷtunnāyi They (neuter) are going	వెళ్లట్లేదు veḷlaṭlēdu They (neuter) aren't going

Future tense

	Future tense	Future tense negative
1st person singular నేను nēnu	వెళ్తాను veḷtānu I will go	వెళ్ళను veḷḷanu I won't go
2nd person singular నువ్వు nuvvu	వెళ్తావు veḷtāvu You will go	వెళ్లవు veḷlavu You won't go
3rd person singular masculine అతను atanu	వెళ్తాడు veḷtāḍu He will go	వెళ్ళడు veḷḷaḍu He won't go
3rd person singular feminine/neuter ఆమె āme	వెళ్తుంది veḷtundi She will go	వెళ్ళదు veḷḷadu She won't go
1st person plural మేము mēmu	వెళ్తాము veḷtāmu We will go	వెళ్ళము veḷḷamu We won't go
2nd person plural మీరు mīru	వెళ్తారు veḷtāru You (plural) will go	వెళ్ళరు veḷḷaru You (plural) won't go
3rd person plural masculine/feminine వారు vāru	వెళ్తారు veḷtāru They (masc./fem.) will go	వెళ్ళరు veḷḷaru They (masc./fem.) won't go
3rd person plural neuter అవి avi	వెళ్తాయి veḷtāyi They (neuter) will go	వెళ్ళదు veḷḷadu They (neuter) won't go

^[8]

Imperative

Informal	Formal	Informal negative	Formal negative
వెళ్ళు veḷḷu Go	వెళ్ళండి veḷḷaṇḍi Go (formal)	వెళ్ళకు veḷḷaku Don't go	వెళ్ళకండి veḷḷakaṇḍi Don't go (formal)

^[6]

See also

• Telugu language
• Telugu literature
• Telugu people
• Telugu development
• Satavahana Dynasty
• Sanskrit grammar
• Sanskrit pronouns and determiners

References