- B H Krishna Murty

          Telugu is the mostly widely spoken language of the Dravidian family which consists of 24 languages spanning the entire South – Asia, from Baluchistan to Sri Lanka. In terms of population, Telugu ranks second to Hindi among the Indian languages. According to the 1971 census, Telugu is spoken by 43.5 millions in Andhra Pradesh. Taking into account the Telugu speakers residing in the other states within India and also in the other parts of the world, we can easily say that Telugu is the first language of at least 60 million people.

           The evolution of Telugu can be traced through centuries in terms of its form as well as its function. The formal evolution of Telugu should show how modern Telugu can be traced to its earliest beginnings through several stages of change. The functional evolution should deal with the varying roles in which the language has been used through centuries.

The Evolution Of Telugu:

A Formal view Pre-Telugu

           The reconstructed parent of all the modern Dravidian languages, called Proto-Dravidian, split up into three sub-families some 5,000 years ago, viz., South Dravidian, Central Dravidian, and North Dravidian. The Southern sub-family split up into two branches around 2000 to 1500 B.C. One of these branches known as South Dravidian 1 developed into the modern Southern languages- Kannada, Toda, Kota , Kodagu, Irula, Tamil and Malayalam. The other branch known as South Dravidian 11 developed into Telugu, Gondi, Konda, (or Kubi), Kul, Kuvi, Pengo and Manda. There is evidence to show that even by the 5th or 6th century B.C. Telugu emerged as an independent language –no longer mutually intelligible with its sister languages. Although culturally Telugu is closer to its Southern neighbors – Tamil and Kannada—genetically it is closer to its northern neighbours, Gondi, Konda, kui, Kuvi, Pengo and Manda. There is evidence to show that these languages freely borrowed vocabulary from Telugu even from the prehistoric period, i.e., post-5th century B.C. The main cleavage between the two southern branches can be seen when we compare Telugu (SDr 11) words *like waanRu 'he, reNDu two' leedu 'no, mraanu 'tree' praanta 'old' with Tamil (SDr1) cognates avan, iraNTu. Illatu, moran, paZa, etc., Telugu and SDr 11 languages have personal pronouns like naa-'my', maa-'our' whereas Tamil and SDr 1 languages have en-nam,-, correspondingly.

           It is possible to identify broadly four stages in the history of the Telugu language : (1_) 200 B.C.-500 A.D (2) 500-1100 A.D (3) 1100-1400 A.D (4) 1400-1500 A.D., During the first phase we only come across Telugu place names and personal names in the prakrit and Sanskrit inscriptions found in the Telugu country. From this we know that the people's language was Telugu although the language of the rulers was different. The first Telugu inscription belongs to the Renati Cholas, found in eRRaguDipaaDu, Kamalaapuram Taluk, KaDapa District about 575 A.D. It appears that literature also existed in Telugu about the same time, because one fine literary style in the inscriptions some three centuries even before Nannaya's(1020 A.D.) Mahabharata. By the time of Nannaya the popular language had considerably diverged from the literary language as can be inferred from such forms as istimi 'we gave' eembhay 'fifty', Tombhay 'ninety' as opposed to the corresponding forms of Nannaya, viz., iccitimi, embadi, tombadi. Telugu was exposed to the influence of Sanskrit and Prakrit languages and literature as early as 3rd century B C.

500-1100 AD

           The literary language confined to the poetic works flourished in the courts of kings and among the scholars. Sound changes which occurred in the popular language are reflected in the literary language, although the two streams remind a part in grammar and vocabulary. Most of the sound changes which took place between 7th and the 9th centuries got settled by the 11th and 12th centuries. Early Telugu L,N(}) became l, n () eeLan>eelan, KoNi> koniZ, ( ) developed into r and D in different positions in a word pZoolu >proolu, eeZu > eeDu. The masculine singular suffix nRu (# ) became NDu (#) waanRu—waaNDu. The use of anuswaaram (0) in the place of n n_ N n m (V, &, }, #,=) was on the increase. After a long Vowel \, full nasal (0) tended to became obscure nasalizing the vowel, waaNdu >waanDu >mbu was being pronounced as mu, paambu >paamu. The Plural suffix – Lu ( ) became –lu ( ) In the case of noun and verb inflection there was not much difference between the literary language and the spoken language.

1100-1400 A D

           The literary language got stylized and rigid shutting itself off the influence of the contemporary spoken language. Keetana(13th century A.D.), a disciple of Thikkana prohibited the use of spoken words and quoted some spoken forms, teccutaaDu 'he will bring', wiiTii 'these also', mammuu 'us also', pancaakumu 'don't divide', toopancaakumu 'don't cause to push', etc. These examples provide valuable evidence on the form of the spoken language of that period as well as on the high – brow attitude of the literati even on the educated speech.

           Many changes, phonetic and grammatical continued to effect the spoken language as evidenced from the inscriptional language. Z which split up into smaller and D was slowly on its way out in the written form. R ( ) which started merging with r (~ ). Earlier created confusion among the poets as to how to maintain the distinction in writing. Word initial D became d – daggara, doggara, Daagu>daagu etc. iya> i, e. g. y- kanniya> kunne kaLLiyamu> kaLLemu etc. The use of anuswaara (m) extensively replaced the nasal consonants before other consonants, (i.e., V ). Plurals of these forms lose m and lengthen the proceeding vowel, example karaNamulu> karanaalu, kunkamulu> kunkaalu. Literary forms like deewuniki have variants as deewuDiai in the inscriptions, archaic case suffixes like poNTe 'for', andu, nan'in', meyin 'with', ceesi 'because of', were getting lost; walla < waina 'because of', n-uNDi from the (place time), kaNTe 'then than', loopala 'inside' were gaining greater currency.

           The honorific suffix 'gaaru' was extensively used in the educated speech although it failed to get into the poetic language.

           okaTi 'one' replaced okaDu and aydu 'five' replace earlier eenu, progressively. The numerals 20, 30. 40, 50, 90 were represented in the inscriptions as iravay, they are pronounced today , -vuru became –guru, resulting in forms like muuguru/mugguru 'five persons', etc. Predicative verbal nouns like iccinawaaDu 'the one who gave' of the earlier age became ikccinaaDu. This change is reflected in Tikkana's Mahaabhaarata usage already. Habitual-present forms like naDace Dunu 'he (will) behave' became naDaceenu, nDaceemu, etc. Verbs in –inan like ceesinan 'if /though one did', split into two forms paralleling its different meanings, ceesteenu / ceestee 'if one did', ceesinaan(nu) 'even if one did'. The –tee 9(n) forms surfaced from the popular language as there is nothing corresponding to it in the poetic language. In ordinals awa>oo, e. g, muuNDoo naDupu (1186 A. D.) 'the thjird act', etc. Habitual verbs has ee instead of eDu, e. g, anee for earlier aneDu. Loan words of Arabic and Persian origin like traasu Doolu abound owing to contact between Telugu and those languages which served as the official languages of the Muslim rulers.

1400-1900 A.D.

           During this period many changes culminating in today's form of Telugu took place: kr-, ir-, pr-, etc. totally became k, t-, p-, by losing r, e, g, krotta> kotta> krinda> kinda, etc. iiyaka> iyyaka 'without giving, ceeyaka>ceyyaka 'without doing', etc. naayaNDu became neeNDu, / niiNDu. Forms like raayaNNi, braamhaNNi resulted from internal sandhi from older raayaDi+ni, braamhaDi+ni. When waaru became a polite singular, waaNDlu came into vogue as the regular plural of waaDu as it is today. Forms like istimi 'we gave' ceestimi 'we did' samarpinstimi 'we offered, increased. Predicative verbal nouns like waccinaa (N) Du became finite verbs replacing with waccenu, etc.

           Forms in –tuu make their appearance in the inscriptional language, e. g, paalistuu 'ruling' ceestuu 'doing', In the sense of 'must' in the 2nd person, forms like etteedi '(one) must raise' became popular in the place of the poetic ettunadi etc. In the place of older waccinan-, ceesinan, one finds by the 16th and 17th centuries only forms like waccinaa, ceesinaa etc. as they are in present-day Telugu.

           Future-habitual forms like pondutaaru 'they 9will0 get' wastaaru 'they 9will0 come' which remained in popular usage for over 6 centuries made their first appearance in the 16th century inscriptions. From Keetana's (13th cent. A.D.) strictures against spoken language, we notice that such forms were in vogue even by his time. Feflexive –koni became –ka, anubhavincu-ka 'having enjoyued oneself' (1691 A. D.). A new negative of the past tense came into existence e. g. ceeya leedu (one) did not do'. The continuity of an action was signaled by –tu or ta, e.g. ceestu (1600 A. D.), bhaksista (1636 A. D.). These two forms as they are now represented in coastal and Rayalaseema dialect occurred in written form as early as the 13th century. Initial wa- sounded like o and vice- versa as in wadda/odda 'at', wappaginci/oppaginci 'having given'. A new sound EE as in 'bank' was in use written by a pre-vocalic 'y' myeera (nEEra) 'boundary' (1688 A. D.). Nasal vowels were lost but the scribes followed a new device to indicate this, the following consonant is written doule where the nasal was fully articulated, it is written single when the nasal was not pronounced saagimcci e.g. (=saaginci), toomTalu (=tootalu). Numerals were exactly as they are pronounced throughout the state today. The use of complex verbs was on the increase as it todfay, e.g. weLLadarunu 'to chase', kanukkonu 'find out', toosiveeyu 'reject', naDipincukonu 'to have (things) go as one wished',. There is reduction in the sue of past tense verbs with their progressive replacement by verbal predicates, which became finite verbs –ceesemu> ceesinaadu>, 'he did' soogincenu> soogincinaaDu 'he conducted' etc. The case suffix –nuci 'from' came into existence beside –nuNDi. Modern forms like cuutaam 'let us see', wedakudaamu 'let us search', caalaa 'much', aalaagu 'that manner', iilaagu 'this manner', etc., abound in usage even in the poetic writings.

           The prose language of the 19th century as can be seen from 'kaifiyats' shows the educated speechas base with occasional influence of the literary language. We also notice the influence of the urdu language on Telugu before the Englishj education spread.

           From the foregoing overview of the history of the Telugu language, one can see that what we now use as modern standard Telugu had its origins in the spoken variety right from the 10th century. The language was progressively enriched by contact with Sanskrit, Prakrit, Urdu and English from the beginning of its history.

Evolution Of Telugu :

A Function View

           Until the advent of the printing press and the school system of education, Telugu was broadly used in four areas : (1) poetry, (2) inscriptions, (3) folk literature, (4) common speech (social and perhaps official). The language of the inscriptions has always been based on the contemporary speech of the educated with occasional admixture of literary and rustic expressions. Folk literature-in the form of songs-drew mainly on the speech of the common people among whom it circulated-basically rural in its base. Both in its appeal and its form, the poetic language was confined to royal courts and the interested elite and care was taken to keep it insulated from the speech of even the scholars and poets who used it in other areas of communication. Because of this restriction on the medium, prose never emerged as a form of classical literature in Telugu. Even the sparse scientific writing on prosody, arithmetic, medicine, and grammar was cast either in Telugu verse or in Sanskrit slokas. The emergence of popular literary forms like the sataka, devotional songs, and the yaksagaana necessitated extensive reliance on contemporary spoken language to extend their appeal and expressiveness. Early commentaries, historical accounts (like Raayavaacakam), and the few prose works that were writeen for instructional purposes in the first half of the 19th century were all written in educated speech which was distinct from the language of the literary dialect. In 1853 Cinnayasuuri, a Telugu Pundit in the Presidency College, first experimented with a prose variety based on the classical poetic language in his booknmiiticandrika. In 1855 he published BaalavyaakaaraNamu, an excellent grammar of the poetic language-but was intended for school study and as guide to 'correct writing'. These works had, to some extent, given support to traditional Pundits who upheld the kaavybhaaSa as primary and the spoken language as its degenerate variety. The influence of Cinnayasuuri temporarily arrested the growth of creative prose by famous writers until Gurazada appeared on the scene and first produced his social play Kanyaasulkam in 1897 in a nearmodern language. The controversy that raged between the two schools, classical and modern subsided in 1919 with a victory for the classicistis to perpetuate the use of the so-called graanthika (or the poetic dialect) as the text-book language and as the examination medium. However, teaching has all along been done only in the spoken variety of the teacher.

           For about 90 years (1850-1940) Telugu prose had a stunted development, although scholars like Kandukuri Viireesalingam and PaanuganTi use a 'liberalized poetic variety' in their writings which was neither fully classical nor fully modern. But for Cinnayasuuri and the subsequent controversy, perhaps better novels in Telugu would have come at about the same as in Bengali or even earlier.

           Since the forties, Telugu prose style got out of the clutches of the traditional Pundit. The emergence of the mass media of communication-like the radio, the cinema, the language newpapers and new forms of writing under the impact of Nationalist movement reinforced the importance of the spoken word and various literary forms blossomed in modern language. By and large, the prosperous Krishna-Godavari belt became the breeding ground of many writers and scholars and their spoken variety entered various prose forms and slowly spread to the other areas assimilating other dialects. The language used in all modern forms of literatures and newspapers now has a great degree of uniformity and acceptability which lends it the statrus of a standard language. Now the nationalized text-books and those prescribed for Telugu language degree by universities are the only 'sanctuaries' of the poetic dialect.

           In April 1964, a Seminar sponsored by the State Government was held on the campus of Sri Venkateswara University under the Chairmanship of late Sri Pingali Lakshmikantham to resolve the style controversy in school books. It was resolved at this seminar that only the modern language should be used for all subject (non-1st language) books written in Telugu and ain all the 2nd language books. This resolution has been implemented in the case of subject text-books produced by the Telugu Adademi, although a few odd forms like cuuDawale (instead of cuuDaali) '(one) must see, pustakamu (instead of pustakam) occur in the name of standardization of the language. The Andhra University Academic Council resolved in 1973 that modern Telugu should be allowed as the examination medium and modern literature should also be prescribed for study at the university level. In 1971 the Sri Venkateswara University permitted the use of modern Telugu became the Sri Venkateswara University permitted the use of modern Telgugu for Ph.D. theses in Telugu. In 1966 Telugu became the official language of the State and it was decided in 1974 that correspondence at the Taluk level would only be in Telugu. In 1969 Telugu as the medium of instruction was introduced on a large scale in higher education.

           The following suggestions may be considered to speed up the development of the language as a vehicle of modern knowledge:

• Technical terms should be borrowed freely and translated in Telugu. Translated technical terms could be used only if they had already gained currency or if they are coined thoughtfully to suit the 'genius' of the language.
• Encouraging a mixed style in which English terms and phrases which cannot be readily translated can be freely embedded in Telugu sentences.
• Original writing in different branches of science and technology to be promoted in preference to translations.
• Bringing out research jouirnals in different branches of knowledge.
• Promoting bilingual style (as defined in 2 above) for correspondence in all branches of administration and for argumentation in courts.
• Translating, where needed, reference works from English and other world languages.
• Establishing units for translator's training in universities.
• Bringing out grammars and dictionaries for modern standard Telugu.

          It must be noted that no language can ever be spoiled. However, wrong planning g and rigidity may slow down the process of its growth. Correct language planning involves mainly creating conditions under which the inherent processes of language change and growth or allowed free play to speed up the development of the language.