Telugu | |
---|---|
తెలుగు | |
Native to | India |
Region | Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Yanam (Puducherry) |
Ethnicity | Telugu people |
Native speakers
|
85 million (2001) L1: 74 million L2 & L3: 11 million |
Dravidian
|
|
Telugu alphabet Telugu Braille |
|
Official status | |
Official language in
|
India in the following states and union territories: |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | te |
ISO 639-2 |
|
ISO 639-3 |
|
Glottolog |
telu1262 (Telugu)oldt1249 (Old Telugu)
|
Linguasphere | 49-DBA-aa |
India in the following states and union territories:
Telugu (English pronunciation: /ˈtɛlᵿɡuː/;తెలుగు telugu, IPA: [t̪el̪uɡu]) is a Dravidian language native to India. It stands alongside Hindi, English, and Bengali as one of the few languages with official status in more than one Indian state; it is the primary language in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and in the town of Yanam, Puducherry. It is also spoken by significant minorities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and by the Sri Lankan Gypsy people. It is one of six languages designated a classical language of India by the Government of India. Telugu ranks third by the number of native speakers in India (74 million, 2001 census), fifteenth in the Ethnologue list of most-spoken languages worldwide and is the most widely spoken Dravidian language. It is one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India.