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Telugu grammar

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Telugu grammar is called Vyākaranam (Telugu: వ్యాకరణం).

The first treatise on Telugu grammar, the "Andhra Shabda Chintamani" was written in Sanskrit by Nannayya, who was considered first poet and translator of Telugu in the 11th century A.D. There was no grammatical work in telugu prior to Nannayya's "Andhra sabda chintamani". This grammar followed the patterns which existed in grammatical treatises like Aṣṭādhyāyī and Vālmīkivyākaranam but unlike Pāṇini, Nannayya divided his work into five chapters, covering samjnā, sandhi, ajanta, halanta and kriya.[1]

After Nannayya, Atharvana and Ahobala composed sutras, vartikas and bashyam. Like Nannayya, they had previously written their works in Sanskrit. [1]

In the 19th century, Chinnaya Suri wrote a simplified work on Telugu grammar called "Bāla Vyākaranam", borrowing concepts and ideas from Nannayya's Andhra Sabda Chintamani, and wrote his literary work in Telugu.[1]

Every telugu grammatical rule is derived from Pāṇinian, Katyayana and Patanjali concepts. However high percentage of Paninian aspects and technics borrowed in Telugu.[1]

According to Nannayya, language without 'Niyama' or the language which doesnt adhere to Vyākaranam is called 'Grāmya' or apabhramsa and hence it is unfit for literary usage. All the literary texts in Telugu follows Vyākaranam.[1]


Subject-Object-Verb

The primary word order of telugu is SOV (Subject-Object-Verb)

Sentence రాముడు బడికి వెళ్తాడు.
Words రాముడు బడికి వెళ్తాడు.
Transliteration Ramudu badiki veLthaadu
Gloss Ramu to school goes.
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation Ramu goes to school.

This sentence can also be interpreted as 'Ramu will go to school' depending on the context. But it does not affect the SOV order. [1]

Inflection

Telugu is more inflected than the other literary Dravidian languages. Telugu nouns are inflected for number (singular, plural), gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and case (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, vocative, instrumental, and locative). [2]

Gender

Telugu has three genders:

  • masculine (purusha liṃgam),
  • feminine (strī liṃgam), and
  • neuter (napuṃsaka liṃgam).

In Telugu the suffix - (–Du ) is almost always indicative of masculine gender. For example:

  • ta-mmu-Du (younger brother),
  • mu-khyu-Du (important man),
  • Ramu-Du (Ramu),
  • nA-ya-ku-Du (leader).

However, there are more masculine nouns that do not end in (-Du). For example:

  • a-nna (elder brother),
  • mA-ma (uncle).

Some masculine nouns ending in (Du) can be converted to feminine nouns by deleting the (–Du) suffix and adding a suffix (-I).

Masculine Feminine
na-rta-ku-Du (dancer) na-rta-ki (dancer)
vA-cha-ku-Du (narrator) vA-cha-ki (narrator)
pre-mi-ku-Du (lover) pre-ya-si (lover)

Some Masculine names ending in (Du) can be converted to Feminine names by deleting the (Du) and adding the suffix, (rAlu).

Masculine Feminine
na-rta-ku-Du (dancer) na-rta-ku-rA-lu (dancer)
pri-yu-Du (lover) pri-yu-rA-lu (lover)
bha-ktu-Du (male devote) bha-ktu-rA-lu (female devotee)

In Telugu the suffix - (–Mu ) or (-Am) or (-u) is almost always indicative of the neuter gender. For example:

  • Chitra Pata-mu or Chitra Pat-am (Photo Frame),
  • Chitra-mu or Chitr-am (Picture/Photo)
  • Akash-am or Akasha-mu (sky),
  • Neer-u (Water),
  • Parikar-am or Parikara-mu (Tool).

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

Pronouns

Telugu pronouns include

  • Personal pronouns and Demonstrative pronouns(The persons speaking, the persons spoken to, or the persons or things spoken about).
  • Reflexive pronouns (in which the object of a verb is being acted on by verb's subject).
  • Interrogative Pronoun.
  • Indefinite pronoun.
  • Demonstrative adjective and Interrogative adjective Pronouns.
  • Possessive adjective Pronouns.
  • Pronouns referring to numbers.
  • Distributive Pronouns.

[4]

Punctuation

Telugu uses single and double vertical bars to indicate a comma and a fullstop. However modern Telugu uses punctuation marks which are borrowed from English. [5]

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 uses morphological processes to join words together, forming complex words. These processes are traditionally referred to as sandhi Example, Shankara + Abharanam gives the word Shankaraabharanam.

There are many types of Sandhis in telugu. Some of them are mentioned below:

  • Savarna Dheerga Sandhi.
  • Guna Sandhi.
  • Vriddhi Sandhi.
  • Yanadesa Sandhi.
  • Trika Sandhi.
  • Akara Sandhi.
  • Ukara sandhi.
  • Ikara Sandhi.
  • Dugagama Sandhi.
  • Saraladesha Sandhi
  • Gasadadavadesha Sandhi.
  • Rugagama Sandhi.
  • Yadagama Sandhi.
  • Pradhametara Vibhakti 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:

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.[6]

Chandassu or Telugu Prosody

Metrical poetry in Telugu is called 'Chandassu'. Utpalamala, Champakamala, Mattebham, Sardoola, Sragdhara, Bhujangaprayata etc.. are some meters used in Telugu poetry.

Vachanam or Grammatical numbers

In Telugu, Singular is Called Eka-Vachanam (Ex: Nuvvu - you) and Plural is called Bahu-Vachanam (Ex: Manam - we).

In Telugu plural is also used address elders with respect.

Prakriti and Vikriti

Telugu has many Tatsama words. They are called Prakriti which are equivalent to Sanskrit words. The equivalent colloquial words are called Vikrutis. Vikruti means distorted. However Prakriti is only used as medium of instruction in educational institutions, offices etc..
For example:
Bhojanam is Prakriti (the noun form of food) and Bonam for Vikruti.
Vidya (Education) is Prakriti and Vidde is Viriti
Rakshasi (Evil) is Prakriti and Rakkasi is Virkiti.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Gopavaram, Padmapriya (2011). A Comparative Study Of Andhrasabdachintamani And Balavyakaranam. Hyderabad: University of Hyderabad. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |Chapter= ignored (|chapter= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Charles Philip Brown (1857). A grammar of the Telugu language (2 ed.). Christian Knowledge Society's Press.
  3. ^ Charles Philip Brown (1857). A grammar of the Telugu language (2 ed.). Christian Knowledge Society's Press. p. 39.
  4. ^ A progressive Grammar of Telugu Language with copius examples and exercises. Christian Knowledge Society's Press. 1905.
  5. ^ A Short Outline of Telugu Phonetics.
  6. ^ Gopavaram, Padmapriya (2011). A Comparative Study Of Andhrasabdachintamani And Balavyakaranam. Hyderabad: University of Hyderabad. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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