ABSTRACT
This South-East Dravidian language is the language of the A ndhra people. Since 1966 it has been the official language of the state of A ndhra Pradesh, which was form ed from the Telugu-speaking districts of the form er Presidency of Madras along with the nine Telangana regions of the Nizam’s Dominions. In terms of num bers, Telugu is certainly the largest Dravidian language, being now spoken by about 55 million people, 8-10 per cent of whom live in neighbouring territories, such as K arnataka and Tamilnadu. There are four main dialects, in all of which there is a m arked distinction between colloquial forms and the literary language. The latter is itself divided between the older and heavily Sanskritized literary model, and the em ergent M odern Standard Telugu.
