Telugu grammar

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 as the first poet and translator of Telugu in the 11th century A.D. There was no grammatical work in Telugu prior to Nannayya's "Andhra shabda 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.

After Nannayya, Atharvana and Ahobala composed sutras, vartikas and bhashyam. Like Nannayya, they had previously written their works in Sanskrit.

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

Every Telugu grammatical rule is derived from Pāṇinian, Katyayana and Patanjali concepts. However high percentage of Paninian aspects and techniques borrowed in Telugu.

According to Nannayya, language without 'Niyama' or the language which doesn't adhere to Vyākaranam is called Grāmya or Apabhraṃśa and hence it is unfit for literary usage. All the literary texts in Telugu follows Vyākaranam.

Subject–object–verb

The primary word order of Telugu is SOV (subject–object–verb)

Sentence	రాముడు బడికి వెళ్తాడు.
Words	రాముడు	బడికి	వెళ్తాడు.
Transliteration	Rāmuḍu	baḍiki	veḷtāḍu
Gloss	Ram	to school	goes.
Parts	Subject	Object	Verb
Translation	Ram goes to school.

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

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).

Gender

Telugu has three genders:

• masculine (purusha liṃgam),
• feminine (strī liṃgam),
• 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.

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.

Vibhakti or postpositions/prepositions

Telugu language uses postpositions for word in different cases. With the use of postpositions, there are eight possible cases (vibhakti విభక్తి).

	Telugu	English	Significance	Usual Suffixes	Transliteration of Suffixes
(I)	Prathamā Vibhakti (ప్రథమా విభక్తి)	Nominative	Subject of sentence	డు, ము, వు, లు	ḍu, mu, vu, lu
(II)	Dvitīyā Vibhakti (ద్వితీయా విభక్తి)	Accusative	Object of action	నిన్, నున్, లన్, కూర్చి, గురించి	nin, nun, lan, kūrci, guriṃci
(III)	Trutīyā Vibhakti (తృతీయా విభక్తి)	Instrumental, Social	Means by which action is done (Instrumental), Association, or means by which action is done (Social)	చేతన్, చేన్, తోడన్, తోన్	cētan, cēn, tōḍan, tōn
(IV)	Chaturthi Vibhakti (చతుర్థి విభక్తి)	Dative	Object to whom action is performed, Object for whom action is performed	కొఱకున్, కై	korakun, kai
(V)	Panchamī Vibhakti (పంచమీ విభక్తి)	Ablative of motion from	Motion from an animate/inanimate object	వలనన్, కంటెన్, పట్టి	valanan, kaṃṭen, paṭṭi
(VI)	Shashthī Vibhakti (షష్ఠీ విభక్తి)	Genitive	Possessive	కిన్, కున్, యొక్క, లోన్, లోపలన్	kin, kun, yokka, lōn, lōpalan
(VII)	Saptamī Vibhakti (సప్తమీ విభక్తి)	Locative	Place in which, On the person of (animate) in the presence of	అందున్, నన్	aṃdun, nan
(VIII)	Sambodhanā Prathamā Vibhakti (సంబోధనా ప్రథమా విభక్తి)	Vocative	Addressing, calling	ఓ, ఓయీ, ఓరీ, ఓసీ	ō, ōī, ōrī, ōsī

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.

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 shankarabhranamu.

There are many types of sandhi in Telugu. Some of them are mentioned below:

• Savarna Deergha Sandhi.
• Guna Sandhi.
• Vruddhi Sandhi.
• Yanadesha Sandhi.
• Trika Sandhi.
• Akara Sandhi.
• Ukara sandhi.
• Ikara 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
  • Shashthi 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.
• awyaee bhava 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. 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

Main article: Chandas (Telugu)

Metrical poetry in Telugu is called 'Chandassu' or 'Chandas'. ya-maa-taa-raa-ja-bhaa-na-sa-la-gam is called the chandassu chakram. Utpalamala, Champakamala, Mattebham, Sardoola, Kanda, Sragdhara, Bhujangaprayata, etc. are some metrics used in Telugu poetry.

Vachanam or grammatical numbers

Any thing in singular form is singular (Ekavacanam): Any things more than one in number are called plural: (bahuvacanam) 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. In Telugu language some are always plural and some are always singular for e.g. water, {nILlu} is always plural.

God (Bhagavantudu), sun (suryudu), earth (bhoomi), moon (chandrudu) these are always singular form. However, Devullu is a plural form of gods.

Water - Neeru (singular) and NeeLLu (Plural)

Prakruti and Vikruti

Telugu has many Tatsama words. They are called Prakruti, which are equivalent to Sanskrit words. The equivalent colloquial words are called Vikruti, which means distorted. However, Prakruti is only used as a medium of instruction in educational institutions, offices etc.
For example:

Prakruti	Vikruti
అగ్ని Agni (fire)	అగ్గి Aggi
భొజనం Bhojanam (food)	బోనం Bonam
విద్య Vidya (education)	విద్దె Vidde, విద్దియ Viddiya
రాక్షసి Raakshasi (evil)	రక్కసి Rakkasi
శూన్య Shoonya (zero)	సున్న Sunna
దృష్టి Drishti (sight)	దిష్టి Dishti
కనిష్టం Kanishtam (minimum)	కనీసం Kaneesam
అగరవర్తి Agaravarti (inscent, agara+varthi, scent wounded)	అగరవత్తి Agaravatti
విభూథి Vibhoothi (ash)	విభూధి Vibhudhi
చనక Chanaka (chick pea, Chanakya is derived from the same root)	శనగ śanaga
కవచ Kavacha (protective shell)	గవచ Gavacha, గవ్వ Gavva
భిక్షం Bhiksham (alms)	బిచ్చం Bichcham
ద్వితీయ Dvitiya (second)	విదియ Vidiya
తృతీయ Trutiya (third)	తదియ Tadhiya
జాగ్రత Jaagrata (alert)	జాగ్రత్త Jaagratta
వామతి Vamati (vomit)	వాంతి Vanti
స్వంత Swanta (own)	సొంత Sonta
అటవి Atavi (forest)	అడవి Adavi
త్వర Twara (fast)	తొరగా Toraga

kumbam

See also

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