ABSTRACT
This South-Central Dravidian language is the language of the Andhra people. Since 1966 it has been the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, which was formed from the Telugu-speaking districts of the former Presidency of Madras along with the nine Telangana regions of the Nizam’s Dominions. In terms of numbers, Telugu is certainly the largest Dravidian language, being now spoken by at least 72 million people, 8–10 per cent of whom live in neighbouring territories, such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. There are four main dialects, which diverge to differing degrees from the literary language. The latter is itself divided between the older and heavily Sanskritized literary model, and the emergent Modern Standard Telugu.
