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4.5 Telugu Code Chart

Contents Page 84

4.5.1 Telugu Code Chart Details

Code Character DescriptionPointVarious signs0C01 i#· TELUGU SIGN

CANDRABINDU0C02 #M TELUGU SIGN

ANUSVARA0C03 #M TELUGU SIGN VISARGA

Independent vowels0C05 @ TELUGU LETTER A0C06 A TELUGU LETTER AA0C07 B TELUGU LETTER I0C08 C TELUGU LETTER II0C09 D TELUGU LETTER U0C0A E TELUGU LETTER UU0C0B ÊÁVV TELUGU LETTER

VOCALIC R0C0C � TELUGU LETTER

VOCALIC L0C0D Reserved0C0E Fs TELUGU LETTER E0C0F G TELUGU LETTER EE0C10 H TELUGU LETTER AI0C11 Reserved0C12 I TELUGU LETTER O0C13 J TELUGU LETTER OO0C14 K TELUGU LETTER AU

Consonants0C15 NRP TELUGU LETTER KA0C16 ÅÁ TELUGU LETTER KHA0C17 gRi TELUGU LETTER GA0C18 xmnsV TELUGU LETTER GHA0C19 ÃÁ TELUGU LETTER NGA0C1A ¿RÁ TELUGU LETTER CA0C1B ¿³RÁ TELUGU LETTER CHA0C1C ÇÁ TELUGU LETTER JA0C1D LRi&V TELUGU LETTER JHA0C1E ÄÁ TELUGU LETTER NYA0C1F ÈÁ TELUGU LETTER TTA0C20 hRi TELUGU LETTER TTHA0C21 ²R¶¶ TELUGU LETTER DDA

0C22 ²³R¶ TELUGU LETTER DDHA0C23 ßá TELUGU LETTER NNA0C24 »R½ TELUGU LETTER TA0C25 ´R¶ TELUGU LETTER THA0C26 µR¶ TELUGU LETTER DA0C27 µ³R¶ TELUGU LETTER DHA0C28 ©«s TELUGU LETTER NA0C29 <reserved>0C2A xms TELUGU LETTER PA0C2B xmns TELUGU LETTER PHA0C2C ÊÁ TELUGU LETTER BA0C2D ˳ÏÁ TELUGU LETTER BHA0C2E ª«sV TELUGU LETTER MA0C2F R¶V TELUGU LETTER YA0C30 LRi TELUGU LETTER RA0C31 àá TELUGU LETTER RRA0C32 ÌÁ TELUGU LETTER LA0C33 ÎÏÁ TELUGU LETTER LLA0C34 Reserved0C35 ª«s TELUGU LETTER VA0C36 aRP TELUGU LETTER SHA0C37 xtsQ TELUGU LETTER SSA0C38 xqs TELUGU LETTER SA0C39 x¤¦¦¦ TELUGU LETTER HA0C3A # TELUGU INVISIBLE LETTER

0C3C0# TELUGU SIGN NUKTA

• Placed at the bottom leftcorner of the letter

0C3D % TELUGU SIGN AVAGRAHA

Dependent vowel signs0C3E %S TELUGU VOWEL SIGN AA0C3F %TÁ TELUGU VOWEL SIGN I0C40 %UÁ TELUGU VOWEL SIGN II0C41 %ÁV TELUGU VOWEL SIGN U0C42 %ÁW TELUGU VOWEL SIGN UU0C43 %ÁX TELUGU VOWEL SIGN

VOCALIC R0C44 � TELUGU VOWEL SIGN

VOCALIC RR0C45 <reserved>0C46 Z%Á TELUGU VOWEL SIGN E0C47 } TELUGU VOWEL SIGN EE

Contents Page 85

4.5.2 Telugu Script Details

Introduction

The Telugu language: Historically the Telugulanguage is also known by the names, ¡ÆdhraÆ,

tenu(Æ)gu, and Gentoo.

Demographic information: Telugu is one of themajor Scheduled languages of India. It has thesecond largest number of speakers mainlyconcentrated in South India. It is the official languageof Andhra Pradesh and second widely spokenlanguage in Tamilnadu, Karnataka. Considerablenumber of Telugu speaking minorities live inMaharashtra, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and WestBengal. Considerable number of Telugu languagespeakers have migrated to Mauritius, South Africa,and recently to USA, UK, and Australia.

Genetic affiliation and History: Telugu belongs tothe South-Central branch of the Dravidian familyof languages. It is most widely spoken Dravidianlanguage. It is the only literary language outside theSouth-Dravidian Branch. Its literature goes back to11th century A.D. Its ancient forms were attestedthrough inscriptions dating back to 200 A.D.

In the early days of 20th century there was acontroversy over the use of a particular variety ofTelugu as a medium of instruction. There were twovarieties, one the literary or gr¡nthika style, and theother the spoken or colloquial style popularly knownas vy¡vah¡rika style. Finally the controversy endedin favour of the colloquial standard and thegovernment of Andhra Pradesh has issued a G.O. touse only the colloquial standard as medium ofeducation at all levels.

The domains of use: The Telugu language isformally taught in Schools, Colleges and Universities.It is the popular medium of instruction at primary,Secondary and Higher-Secondary and earlyUniversity education. The Telugu Academy onbehalf of the Government of Andhra Pradeshregularly publishes text books in Telugu medium invarious subjects for use at Intermediate and graduatelevels. It is not used as medium of education in

0C48 \Z%Á TELUGU VOWEL SIGN AI= 0C46 Z%Á 0C56 \#

0C49 <reserved>0C4A %] TELUGU VOWEL SIGN O0C4B %][ TELUGU VOWEL SIGN OO0C4C %_ TELUGU VOWEL SIGN AU

Various signs0C4D %`Á TELUGU SIGN HALANT

To take out hidden vowelsound of consonant.

0C4E <reserved>0C4F <reserved>0C50 <reserved>0C51 � TELUGU STRESS SIGN

UDATTA0C52 � TELUGU STRESS SIGN

ANUDATTA0C53 � TELUGU GRAVE ACCENT0C54 � TELUGU ACUTE ACCENT0C55 � TELUGU LENGTH MARK0C56 # \# TELUGU AI LENGTH

MARK

Generic additions0C60 ÊÁVW TELUGU LETTER

VOCALIC RR0C61 � TELUGU LETTER

VOCALIC LL0C64 * TELUGU SIGN PURN

VIRAMA0C65 ** TELUGU SIGN DEERGH

VIRAMA

Digits0C66 � TELUGU DIGIT ZERO0C67 � TELUGU DIGIT ONE0C68 � TELUGU DIGIT TWO0C69 � TELUGU DIGIT THREE0C6A � TELUGU DIGIT FOUR0C6B � TELUGU DIGIT FIVE0C6C � TELUGU DIGIT SIX0C6D � TELUGU DIGIT SEVEN0C6E � TELUGU DIGIT EIGHT0C6F � TELUGU DIGIT NINE

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60 symbols, of which 16 are vowels, 3 vowelmodifiers, and 41 consonants.

Vowels@ A B C D E ÊÁVV Fs G H I J Ka ¡ i ¢ u £ ¤ e ® ai o ° au

Vowel Modifiers@· @Li @MaÄ aÆ aÅ

ConsonantsNRP ÅÁ gRi xmnsV ÃÁka kha ga gha ´a¿RÁ ¿³RÁ ÇÁ LRi&V ÄÁ

ca cha ja jha µa ÈÁ hRi ²R¶ ²³R¶ ßá ¶a ¶ha ·a ·ha ¸a »R½ ´R¶ µR¶ µ³R¶ ©«s ta tha da dha na xms xmns ÊÁ ˳ÏÁ ª«sV pa pha ba bha ma R¶V LRi ÌÁ ÎÏÁ ª«s ya ra la ½a va aRP xtsQ xqs x¤¦¦¦ ¿a Àa sa ha

Special/obsolete graphemes

obsolete:ÊÁVW � � µ àá ½

¥ lÕ ÌÕ ¼a Z adeprecated :

ORPQò¿RP Ç

ò` `

kÀa Ca Ja ºa ¼a

Chart-1: The Telugu alphabet- overall pattern

Technical Characteristics-Vowels

Primaries: There are thirteen vowel signs whichoccur as stand alone characters viz. [a ¡ i ¢ u £ ¤ e ® aio ° au] /@ A B C D E ÊÁVV Fs G H I J K/ in thecommon core. Each of these is assigned a Hexadecimal code point in ISCII Standard (BIS 1993),from A4 164 to B1 177 (except for AD 173 and B0176) or 0C05-0C14 and 0C0A-0C0F inUNICODE Standard 3.0. An additional vocalic/� /occurs in the UNICODE Standard with a code point0C0C. These vowels are also referred to as primariesor independent vowel signs.

Technical and Professional courses. In lower levelsof administration it is popularly used but in higherlevels of administration it is sparingly used. It is thecommon language in the transactions of the assemblyof Andhra Pradesh. As a medium of journalese, itflourishes in Telugu language newspapers, radio-broadcasts, and TV-telecasts. It is also one of thepopular medium of feature films produced in theSouth India.

The Telugu Script

Origin & Development: Telugu is written in Teluguscript which is derived from Ashokan Brahmi usedin the South India cerca 2nd A.D. The SouthernBrahmi also known as dr¡vi·i-br¡hmi of 2nd c. A.D.gave rise to v®´gi-c¡lukyan script also known asTelugu-Kannada script. By the end of 13th CenturyA.D., the Telugu and Kannada scripts got separated.In the early combined Telugu-Kannada script, noorthographic distinction was made between the shortmid [e, o] /Fs, I/ and long mid [®, °] /G, J/. However,distinct signs were employed to denote the specialconsonants viz. the trill [¼a] /àá/ the retroflex lateral[½a] /ÎÏÁ/ and the retroflex palatal [Z a] /½/ found onlyin South Indian languages, by 5th c.

Telugu Alphabet: The Primary units of Telugualphabet are syllables, therefore, it should be rightlycalled a syllabary and most appropriately a mixedalphabetic-syllabic script. Unlike in the Romanalphabet used for English, in the Telugu alphabetthe correspondence between the symbols(graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) is more or lessexact. However, there exist some differences betweenthe alphabet and the phonemic inventory of Telugu.Since writing habits change slowly and speechchanges faster, the script has preserved some symbolswhich have become otherwise obsolete now inspeech. Telugu script is written from left to right andconsists of sequences of simple and/or complexcharacters.

Common Core and Overall pattern: The Telugualphabet can be viewed as consisting of morecommonly used inventory, a common core, and anoverall pattern comprising all those symbols that areused in all domains. The overall pattern consists of

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Secondary vowel signs (guNiMtaM gurtulu): Whena vowel occurs immediately after a consonant it isalways represented by a dependent or secondary signi.e. as a corresponding diacritic on the consonant. Inthe case of the vowels /¤, ¥, l

° ,l

° - / the corresponding

secondary vowel signs [%ÁX, %ÁY, ý v ] are placed on theright side of the consonant. Since, the Telugualphabet is a syllabary the primary consonant alwayshas an inherent vowel [a] / R /. The secondary vowelsign is attached to the consonant after removing thevowel /a/. In Telugu, normally (some exceptionsexist) the secondary vowel signs are attached toconsonants in the place where the vowel sign for /a/would occur as / R / (talakattu) in unmodified primaryconsonants. This is unlike in Devanagari where theconsonant does not drop or lose explicitly the vowelsign /a/ (the top bar or lakir ?) but simply get attachedwith a secondary vowel sign. Therefore thephenomenon in Telugu and Kannada allows us tointerpret secondary vowel signs as not justcontextually determined vowel allographs butfunctionally distinct and complex ones from thoseof the primary or stand-alone vowel characters. Thisdistinction between the primary vowel signs andsecondary vowels signs can be expressed in thefollowing illustrations:

ki=k+i — 1 (where [k] is pure consonant /NPP/ and[i] /B/ is primary vowel) or

ki=ka+_i — 2 (where [ka] /NRP/ is consonant plusthe inherent vowel [a] / R /, and

[ _i] /%TÁ/ is secondary vowel)

The right hand part of the equation (2) can berewritten as in (3)

ki=ka+_+i — 3

By combining 3 and 2 we get (4)

ka+_+i=ka+_i — 4

The difference between the two vowel signs can madeexplicit by effecting a transformation of the deletionof the common element /ka/ from the equation (4):

_+i=_i — 5

These transformational relationships between the twovowel signs in the context of consonants indicate that

there is an inherent vowel omission sign in thesecondary vowel. Similar interpretation may be madewith respect to secondary consonantal signs since theyoccur always a pure consonant, in other words, asecondary consonantal sign removes an inherentvowel from the preceding consonant sign.

NRP + Þ à NRPä ka+ka à kka

Vowel Modifiers: Though, phonetically they sharethe properties of both Vowels and consonants areknown as ambivalents (ubhay¡kÀaras). Since theyfollow always a vowel in their usage, traditionallythey are treated as part of Vowel inventory. They arethree in number. Unlike in Devanagari, where theseVowel modifiers always occur as diacritics ordependent character signs, in Telugu they occurlinearly as independent signs facilitating their useindependent of vowels or vowel signs. p£r¸¡nusv¡ra[Æ] /iLi/, the only archiphoneme in the language hasone of the highest frequencies in usage. Theardh¡nusv¡ra [Ä] /i·/ as a character does not representa phoneme but has a phonetic function in thelanguage. It is often used to transcribe certainnasalized expressions, as in a delayed yes, exclamation,o.k. etc. Though, tradition proscribes these fromwriting in word initial positions they can be usedindependent of vowel signs as in the case of wordinitial pre-consonantal nasal, ex. Mkhrumo /iLiúÅÁV®ªsW/`Mr. Nkhrumo, a leader of an African country’, /Mpala/ ‘Impala, a brand name of a car, but a Swahiliword, originally pronounced as /Æp¡l¡/’. Thecharacter sign visarga /iM/ is used only to transcribeSanskrit words, and it is the least frequently usedcharacter representing an array of allophanes ofvarious phonemes. Unlike vowels and consonantsthey are invariants i.e. they do not have contextuallydependent character realization.

Consonants: There are 41 consonants in thecommon core inventory (excluding (kÀa)/ORPQ/, (a) /¿««

¢ /,

(a) /Ñ ¢

/, (º) / ¦ /, [ §] / Î / and including [Z a] /½.Currently they occupy in ISCII Hexa Decimalcoding the points beginning with B3 179 and endingD8 216, where as in Unicode Standard 3.0 they beginwith 0C15 to 0C39 and 0C1A to 0C2F. The

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character set for consonants in Telugu and Kannadais more complex and peculiar in their function. Theircharacter signs have often three or more than threedistinct shapes depending on whether they are usedas stand alone characters called Primaries or Baseconsonants, or when used with a vowel other thanthe inherent vowel /a/ functioning as a hanger or apure consonant, or when used as a constituent of aconjunct called as secondary or dependent consonantcharacters called as ottulu (I»R½VòÌÁV).

The basic character set for consonants are called asprimaries or stand alone characters as they occur inthe alphabet. Each of which has an inherent vowel /a/ which often is explicitly indicated by sign / R /.This graphic sign indicating the vowel /a/ is normallydeleted and replaced with another explicit mark fora different vowel except in the case of /u/ and /£/and /¤/ /¥/ and /l

º / which however are attached at

the right side lower corner of the consonant.

Anchors and pure consonants: Anchors are pureconsonantal characters carrying explicit secondaryvowel signs and differ in their shape in threeimportant ways often without the diacritic for theimplict vowel /a/ as in i., with out any modification inthe basic character shape as in the case of group ii. andthe iii. consists of a set of consonant with special bases.

i. N g mn V ¿ ¿n L &V h ²¶ ²³ »½ ´ µ µ³ © m mns ˳ ª V ¸ V L Î ª a t sQq ¤¦¦¦ k g gh c ch jh ¶h · ·h t th d dh n p ph bh m y r ½ v ¿ À s h

ii. Æ Ã Ç Ä É ß Ë àã Í kh ´ j µ ¶ ¸ b ¼ l

iii. ð ðã ¬ û p ph À s

Pure consonants are consonant characters obtainedby replacing the explict vowel sign /a/ by a halantasign as in group (i) or in case where an explicit vowel/a/ sign is absent as in group (ii) then the halantasign is placed on the right hand tip of the character.

(i) N£ ÆÞ gi£ £mnsV ¿Á£ ¿³Á£ £Li&V £hi £²¶ £²³¶ »½± ¶± µ¶± µ³¶± ©±s £ms £mns Ë³Þ ª±sV k kh g gh c ch jh ¶h · ·h t th d dh n p ph bh m y r ½ v ¿ À s h

(ii) ÃÞ ÇÞ ÄÞ ÉÞ ßãÞ àãÞ ÍÞ

´ j µ ¶ ¸ ¼ l

Secondary or dependent consonant characters:They are rightly called as consonant modifiers orconjunct formatives. Unlike in Devanagari Telugudoes not use half consonants but uses consonantcharacter allographs which function as constituentsof conjuncts. In a majority of the consonants theallographs which are used as secondary consonantsare derived historically from the correspondingconsonant characters after dropping the explicit signfor the vowel /a/ (talakattu) and placed below or atthe right lower corner of the preceding consonantcharacter.

i. Þ à á â âã å è é éê ì í î îê ï ð ðã ñã ò ó õ ÷ ø ù ú û ÿ

k g gh c ch jh ¶h · ·h t th d dh n p ph bh m y r ½ v ¿ À s h

ii. . ß Ê ä æ ç ë ñ ó ì

kh ´ j µ ¶ ¸ b ¼ l

Consonant Conjuncts : Among the scripts of Brahmiorigin we can see that there are two distinct ways offorming the conjuncts: i) Consonants are conjoinedlinearly from left to right; and ii) arranged as a cascadeof consonants in top down manner. Though bothtypes occur in all scripts but only one of the twotypes are represented predominantly by any script.The former type was predominantly represented byDevanagari where as the latter is represented byTelugu and Kannada. Oriya and Malayalam belongsto the Telugu-Kannada group, while Assamese-Bengali, Gujarati form part of the Devanagari group.In a cluster of consonants either the rightmost onein the case of type (i) or logically the bottom mostone as in type (ii) should carry the vowel sign.However, contrary to this in Telugu and Kannada,the top or the left most consonant is idiosyncraticallymarked for the vowel.

C1C2C3...CnV = C1’C2’C3'...CnV (type i.)ex. Hi. ºjÉÒ

ex. C1C2C3...CnV = C1VC2’C3'...Cn’ (type ii.)ex. Te. {qsòQû

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Special/ancient Characters: Out of the 16 symbolsfor vowels, the vowel signs for long vocalic /¥/ [ÊÁVW]and short and long vocalic /l, l/ [lV,LV] are almostobsolete or occur rarely in Sanskrit writings in Teluguscript. Of the 41 consonants the post-dental africates[Ca] /

^ ¿« /, [Ea] /Ç ^ and the trill /¼a/ [àá] do not occur

in Modern Standard Telugu and the palatal retroflexlateral [Z a] /½/ have become obsolete long ago. Inother words, these are characters no longer in currentuse, but which have been used historically. Their useis dependent on domain. For the purpose of inter-transliterability across Indian languages, some of thesemay be assigned code points. The signs /kÀa/, /ca/and /j a/ are distinct from other characters, in thenomenclature of UNICODE they may be termedas deprecated i.e. coded characters whose use isstrongly discouraged. Such characters are retainedin the standard, but should not be used. The signfor /kÀa/ was inherited as part of the inventory as adefault allographic representation which isphonologically equivalent to the composite symbol/ka+Àa/. The signs for [ca] and [ja] are allographsof /ca/ and /ja/ when followed by back vowels henceneed not have character encoding as in the case ofother consonants. The most essential signs that occurin common core alphabet are 51.

Number signs: Telugu has inherited number signsas part of the Brahmi script. As in the case ofcharacters, Telugu and Kannada share maximumnumber of similarities and have derived from thesame common branch. Unlike in Devanagari usinglanguages where compound numbers from 11 to 19and the components involving them in highernumbers are written from left to right but theirnumber names are counted or read from right toleft, of course as in other Indo European languages.However, in Telugu as in other Dravidian languages,number signs are arranged in the same order as theircorresponding number names, ex. paxihedu‘seventeen’ lit. ‘ten and seven’. Numbers [0-9] weregiven code points beginning from F1 241 to FA 250in ISCII coding, and 0C66 to 0C6F in Unicodestandards 3.0. Number signs are not very commonlyused in Modern Telugu except for regularly in TeluguCalendar, astronomical guides and in non-secular

literature. Recently the Road Transport Corporationof Andhra Pradesh has started using Telugu numberssigns on the number plates of their vehicles.

� � � � � � � � � � 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Punctuation marks: Modern Telugu usespunctuation marks which are borrowed fromEnglish. However, in the domain of religious textsTelugu may use single and double vertical bars toindicate a comma and a fullstop. Any Telugu fonttoday must make available symbols for variouspunctuation marks as part of the Telugu font onlyand not leave them to be obtained from roman sincethese punctuation symbols must conform to theTelugu font style.

Hyphenation: As mentioned in section 2.2.0, Teluguuses syllabary whose constituents are primitive unitslike vowels, consonants with inherent vowels, andvowel or consonant modifiers, used in the formationof larger units of text. In English, hyphenation issensitive to graphemic syllables constituted byindependent alphabetic-characters. Since, in Telugu,graphemic syllables do not always constituteindependent characters there is the differencebetween English and Telugu graphic syllableconstituency. In Telugu hyphens when need to beinserted they are inserted only at the end of agraphemic syllable. A graphemic syllable is the onewhich ends in a vowel optionally followed by a vowelmodifier and may be preceded optionally by one ormore consonants as in C0-3V(M). In a sequence ofgraphemic syllables hyphens are inserted as in#C*V(M)-C*V(M)-C*V(M)# where a C* indicatesnull to any number of consonants.

For example the word ¿¡str¢yata /aS{qsòQû R¶V»R½/ can behyphenated as shown below:

i. ¿¡c not ¿¡sc#str¢yata. tr¢yata.

orii. ¿¡str¢c not ¿¡stc

#yata. r¢yata.oriii. ¿¡str¢yac not ¿¡str¢yc

#ta. ata.

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However, when one or more of the consonant groupinvolves consonant characters with an explicit halanta,then a hyphen can be inserted after such a consonantas in #C*V(M)C’*-C*V(M)C’*-CV(M)C’*#.

ex. ek_s¶r¡ à ek_-s¶r¡ [FsNP± -ríyû] ex. en_r¡n_ à en_-r¡n_ [Fs©±s_-LS©±s]

Character set considerations

Collation sequence: The collation of units of textualinformation unambiguously has always been thesource of contention. Generally, the sort order orthe alphabetic sorting is the order of the position ofcharacters in the alphabet. It is usually specific to aparticular language. Though Indian languages agreein having structural similarity in the organization ofcharacters in the alphabet they do differ in certainminor ways forcing different sort orders. Telugufollows the standard sort order as shown below:

@ A B C D E ÊÁVV ÊÁVW � � µ Fs G H I J K i· Li iM _a ¡ i ¢ u £ ¤ ¥ lÕ ÌÕ e ® ai o ° au Ä Æ Å _

NRP ÅÁ gRi xmnsV ÃÁ¿RÁ ¿³RÁ ÇÁ LRi&V ÄÁÈÁ hRi ²R¶ ²³R¶ ßá»R½ ´R¶ µR¶ µ³R¶ ©«sxms xmns ÊÁ ˳ÏÁ ª«sVR¶V LRi àá ÌÁ ÎÏÁ ½ ª«saRP xtsQ xqs x¤¦¦¦ka kha ga gha ´aca cha ja jha µa¶a ¶ha ·a ·ha ¸ata tha da dha napa pha ba bha maya ra ¼a la ½a z.a va¿a Àa sa ha

The allographic variations do not call for anyattention here.

Alternate Collation sequences: The above order isconsidered as standard since it is the order that isfollowed in compiling lexica, dictionaries, thesauriand glossaries by most of the academic institutionsand other agencies. The major dictionaries such ass£ryar¡ya ¡Ædhra nigha¸¶uvu ((SAN) 6 vols., Ist issued1936, 3rd reprint 1988, Telugu Univ.), telugu vyutpatti

padak°¿aÆ; Telugu Etymological Dictionary (TED),8 vols. 1981-95, Andhra Univ.) and the recentlypublished telugu-telugu nigha¸¶uvu (TTN) (2001,Telugu Academy, Hyderabad) all conform to theabove order. The order specified here as the standardorder of characters in the Telugu alphabet differs fromother non-standard orders. In elementary educationwhen children are introduced to primary readingmaterial in Telugu, the number and order of thecharacters in the alphabet deviate in a specific mannerwhere the characters / ½a/ [ÎÏÁ] and /kÀa/ [ORPQ] andsometimes /¼a/ [àá] occur at the end of the alphabet.With in the standard sort order mentioned abovethere is a minor variation with regard to the orderingof /Æ/ [iLi]. There are at least three sort orders invogue with respect to the sorting of /Æ/ as exemplifiedby the four words in the following three orders asrepresented by the dictionaries mentioned above:

i.) (SAN) NRPLiNRP, NRPLixqs, NRPNRP, NRPxqska´ka, kaÆsa, kaka, kasa

ii.) (TTN) NRPNRP, NRPLiNRP, NRPLixqs, NRPxqska´ka, kaÆsa, kaka, kasa

iii.) (TED) NRPLixqs, NRPNRP, NRPLiNRP, NRPxqskaÆsa, kaka, ka´ka, kasa

The order in i.) as in s£rya r¡ya ¡Ædhra nigha¸¶uvu(SAN) is rather the standard one and conformsstrictly with the alphabetical order of the character /Æ/[iLi]. The order in ii.) is based on the interpretationthat the symbol /Æ/[iLi] is a cover symbol for thephonemes /n/ with its allophones {[´,µ] : [ÃÞ], [ÄÞ]},/m/ with its allophones {[m], [W] and /¸/ [with itsallophone [¸]}. Here the sequence is interpreted as acluster of the phonemes /ms/ phonetically [WS]. Inthe case of iii.) the order is a mixture of interpretationsof the character /Æ/[iLi] as a vowel modifier, and asan archiphoneme covering preconsonantalhomorganic nasal sounds. The latter two sort ordersmix up the order of graphemes in the syllabary, andphonemes of the Telugu inventory. A pure alphabeticsort order represented by i.) as in SAN is to be thepreferred order.

Statistical Properties of Telugu Characters: Thefollowing are frequencies of characters in Telugu texts.A corpus of 3 million words of running texts covering

Contents Page 91

a wide range of genre viz. modern fiction, shortstories, novels, science writing, childrens stories, andjournalese in Telugu forms the basis for the analysisof character frequencies. Word frequencies aredropped in order to avoid their skewing effect onthe results of character frequencies. There are a littleover 5 lakh disticnt wordforms involved. Informationregarding Phonemic frequencies are relevantparticularly in keyboard layout, in designing romannotation, and even making decisions in assigningcode points to certain characters (similar andcomparable studies on Phonemes and Characterfrequencies of Telugu may be found in Kostic, Mitter,and Krishnamurti, 1977; Narasimham, et al 1981).

cumulative character frequencypercentage coverage

16.19 a 16.1923.57 u 07.3830.37 i 06.8036.57 ¡ 06.2742.32 n 06.2546.95 r 04.6351.49 l 04.5455.54 k 04.0559.32 Æ 03.7862.38 v 03.0665.42 t 03.0468.37 m 02.9571.31 p 02.9473.69 d 02.3875.93 s 02.2478.09 y 02.1680.14 c 02.0582.18 ® 02.0484.26 ¶ 01.9886.13 g 01.9788.07 · 01.9489.96 ° 01.8991.13 e 01.1792.13 ¢ 01.0092.95 £ 00.8293.72 b 00.7794.37 j 00.6595.01 ¿ 00.6495.62 o 00.6196.17 ai 00.5596.70 À 00.53

97.19 dh 00.4997.64 ¸ 00.4598.06 h 00.4298.49 bh 00.4398.86 ½ 00.3799.09 th 00.2399.27 ¤ 00.1899.43 Z 00.1699.55 ph 00.1399.68 kh 00.1399.76 au 00.0899.81 gh 00.0599.85 ¶h 00.0499.89 µ 00.0499.92 ¼ 00.0399.95 ch 00.0399.97 Å 00.0299.99 ·h 00.02

100.00 Ä 00.01100.00 jh 00.00100.00 ´ 00.00100.00 _ 00.00100.00 ¥ 00.00

Coverage of Vowel characters: Vowels alone have acoverage of 43.16% i.e. a considerably higherpercentage when compared to those in otherlanguages.

16.19% a 16.19%23.57% u 07.38%30.37% i 06.80%36.64% ¡ 06.27%38.68% ® 02.04%40.57% ° 01.89%41.74% e 01.17%42.35% o 00.61%42.90% ai 00.55%43.08% ¤ 00.18%43.16% au 00.08%

Vowel modifiers have a coverage of 3.81%. Theaddition of the coverage of vowel modifiers to thetotal coverage of vowels raise the total to 46.97%.

Coverage of consonants based on their frequenciesamount to little more than fifty per cent i.e. 53.07%.The sonorants /n, r, l/ constitute more than 15% of

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the total coverage. The next set of consonants /k,v, t,m, p/ has the coverage of 15%. The remaining 28consonant characters have only a coverage of 23%.The contribution of character signs of aspiratephonemes account only for 1.51%.

Keyboard

Layout: If one looks at the way the existingkeyboard layouts for Telugu are presented, they revealthat they are not ergonomically planned, since thedistribution of characters are not balanced accordingto the well known keyboard layoutrecommendations. Government of Andhra Pradeshhas approved (vide. G.O. 391, GA.OL-2, 1987) aStandard keyboard for Telugu/English for use inElectronic typewriters, wordprocessors, Teleprinters,Phototype setters, and in computers. Though, thedesigners of the keyboard claim to combine phoneticorder and frequency of use of characters, the actualrecommended keying-in operation sequence itself isnot in phonetic order instead follows the idiosyncraticconvention practiced in writing Telugu orthography.

Ministry of Information Technology (then DoE),Government of India has brought out a keyboardstandard for keying in of Indian characters known asInscript keyboard (report of the Committee,SKLISBC, DOE 1986) Later it was revized in 1988for the consideration of proper sorting of ‘nukta’characters and certain special set of front and backmid vowels. It allows the funtioning of an Inscriptoverlay on any Querty keyboard by pressing caps-lock key. The inscript overlay combines to a certainextent the logical order of Indian alphabets and thefrequency of use of these characters.

Besides these a considerable number of keyboardlayouts for Telugu are in use in the market, many ofthem are adopted from “typewriter” keyboard-layouts (Ramington, Facit etc.) and they do notmatch one another. One such keyboard developedunder the joint project of CMC, Secunderabad andRIND, Madras (Narasimham, Ramakrishna Rao,1981) for Telugu is claimed to be based purely onfrequency of occurrence of characters in written textswithout regard to their logical order. However ithas never become popular.

Recently, a sub-committee, appointed by TheGovernment of Andhra Pradesh has recommendedInscript Keyboard layout for Telugu as it is popularlyused in most Indian languages, since it alsoincorporates both the logical order of the Indiancharacters plus certain amount of optimization withrespect to frequency of use of the characters, and thephonetic order of keying. It also envisages that theuse of Telugu keying-in method will evolve and settlein favour of inscript keyboard layout with minimummodifications, since the users are expected to use thesame for multilingual purposes.

Transliteration: Wide spread bilingualism amongIndian language mother tongue speakers, andEnglish being the most popular among the literates,justifies the demand that Indian languages are oftentranscribed in roman. A roman transliteration hasalso evolved one representing the South and theother the North. Examples can be drawn from oneof the major industry the film production whichtransliterates the titles from the respective languagesinto roman for the benefit of other Indian languagespeakers. Particularly for the creation of corpora,where a particular Indian language fonts are notavailable, having a recognized standard romantransliteration is of great help. There are already acouple of roman transliteration schemes employedby Telugu linguists, Technology Resource Centre forTelugu, and Anusaraka Machine Translation group.The latter group has used a roman transliterationscheme popularly known as WX-notation where in/t, d/ are used to transcribe retroflexes [¶a,·a] and /w,x/ to denote dental stops [t, d]. The other groupfollows a more commonly used notation which usesT and D for voiceles and voiced retroflex stops and tand d for dentals.

WX-notation:

a A i I u U q Q eV e E oV oO z M H@ A B C D E ÊÁVV ÊÁVW Fs G H I J K i· iLi iM

k K g G f c C j J F t T d D N w W x X n p P b B mNP± ÆÞ gi± £mnsV ÃÞ ¿Á± ¿³Á± ÇÞ L±i&V ÄÞ ÉÞ hi± ²¶± ²³¶± ßãÞ »½± ¶± µ¶± µ³¶± ©±s £ms £mns ËÞ Ë³Þ ª±sV

y r rY l lY lYY v S R s h _º¶V Li± àãÞ ÍÞ ÎÞ ÎÞ ª±s aP£ £tsQ qs± £¤¦¦¦ %Á±

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TD-notation:

a aa i ii u uu r’ r” e ee eY o oo oW z M H@ A B C D E ÊÁVV ÊÁVW Fs G H I J K i· iLi iM

k kh g gh ng c ch j jh nY T Th D Dh N t th d dhNP± ÆÞ gi± £mnsV ÃÞ ¿Á± ¿³Á± ÇÞ L±i&V ÄÞ ÉÞ hi± ²¶± ²³¶± ßãÞ »½± ¶± µ¶± µ³¶± ©±sn p ph b bh m£ms £mns ËÞ Ë³Þ ª±s V

y r R l L LY v S Sh s h _º¶V Li± àãÞ ÍÞ ÎÞ ÎÞ ª±s aP± £tsQ £qs £¤¦¦¦ %±

There are added advantages and disadvantages withboth the notations but the WX-notation hasminimum number of successive strokes for the samecharacter, and same letter is never used again torepresent another one even as a component stroke.

Character composition: Telugu text like in any scriptof Brahmi origin, is composed of a series of syllablescomposed of stand alone characters listed in thealphabet and the corresponding secondary symbols.Telugu (like Kannada) and unlike any other Indianscript of Brahmi origin, composes compound graphicsyllables consisting of two or more consonants andfollowed by a vowel modifier in a very idiosyncraticmanner. Compound syllables involving conjunctconsonants of two or more have a vowel modifierwhich is always attached to the first (primary)consonant symbol of the conjunct cluster as shownin the examples here: str¢ /s¢tr/ ( {qsòQû), p¡rku /pAruk/(FyLRiVä), p¡rk /pArk/ (FyLPiä), p¡r¶s /pArts/ (FyLPíiQ=), p¡r¶su/p¡ru¶s/ (FyLíRiV=), k¡rl m¡rks /k¡rl m¡rks/ (NSLPýi ª«sWLPiäQ=),harÀ /harÀ/ (x¤¦¦¦LP<i), kl®¿aÆ /kl®¿aÆ/ (ZNýP[aRPLi), spri´g /spri´g/(zqsöQûLigPi) etc. (the words spelled in roman within theslashes display Telugu character sequence ).

Character values and sequence validation: Syllablecomposition assumes four distinct approaches withrespect to character-key relationship andkeyboarding as following: i) Both primary andsecondary symbols of vowels and consonants haveseparate keys on the keyboard; ii) Primary andsecondary symbols vowels and only the primarysymbols are assigned keys and the secondary symbolsof consonants are obtained contextually; iii) Onlyprimary symbols of vowels and consonants areassigned keys and secondary symbols are obtained

through context; and iv) primary and secondarysymbols of consonants and only primary symbols ofvowels are assigned keys. Besides the above keyassignments, there are certain sequencinggeneralizations that are assumed in actualimplementation scheme: a) Every consonantcharacter has an inherent vowel /a/ and it is retainedonly before a space or a punctuation symbol, inotherwords, it is always deleted before a vowel or aconsonant, which is statable as rule1.

Rule1. a —> 0 /C_ +{V,C}

Alternatively, scheme b. involves the keying in ofconsonant which introduces only pure consonantwith an explicit halanta sign hence does not requirethe operation of rule 1. The following exemplifiesthe implementation in terms of number of keys andthe resulting display.

Scheme a.NRP+B càNTP ka+i à kiNRP+@+B à NRPB ka+a+i à kaiNRP+NRP cà NRPä ka+ka à kkaNRP+@+NRP cà NRPNRP ka+a+ka à kaka

Scheme b.NP+B cà NTP k+i à kiNP+@+B à NRPB k+a+i à kaiNP+NP+@ à NRPä k+k+a à kkaNP+@+NP+@ àNRPNRP K+a+k+a à kaka

Obviously, the implementation of sheme a. has anadvantage over scheme b. in removing theredundancy in keying by 20% utilizing thedistributional generalizations among vowels andconsonants particularly in Telugu and in all Indianlanguages in general. Midway to the schemes a. andb. there is another scheme of implementation whichassumes keying iin of consonant with an inherentvowel /a/ but that is not automatically deleted by afollowing vowel or a consonant, but it has to beremoved by pressing a halant key.

Scheme c.NRP+%Á+B à NTP ka+i à kiNRP+B à NRPB ka+a+i à kaiNRP+%Á+NRP à NRPä ka+ka à kkaNRP+NRP à NRPNRP ka+a+ka à kaka

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Schemed.NRP+ %TÁ à NTP ka+ _i à kiNRP+B à NRPB ka+ I à kaiNRP+%Á+NRP à NRPä ka+_+ka à kkaNRP+NRP à NRPNRP ka+ka à kaka

The schemes are generally implemented incombination with the assumed character values andsequence validation. Scheme a. is currentlyimplemented in ILEAP with phonetic keyboard,scheme d. is implemented in Ileap using inscript kbwhich assumes different keys for primary andsecondary vowels. In the last scheme the number ofkey strokes are same as in scheme a. Scheme c. whichis implemented in a Telugu editor called Telugu-Lekha (a product of BCT Ltd.) is a mirror image ofscheme a. Scheme b. is implemented in an editorcalled Telugu-Lipi (Srinivas, S and Anuradha, K.).Of all the four implementations, the scheme a. (Ileapwith phonetic keying) optimally utilizes the bestpossible features for keyboarding.

Keying in Sequence: There are two orders ofcomposing or keying in the components of thegraphic syllables in Telugu as described below:

Conventional Method: As handed down to us intraditional practice of writing saMyuktAksharas(graphic syllables consisting of conjuncts - type thefirst consonant of the conjunct cluster as a primarysign with the relevant vowel modifier and the rest ofthe consonants in their secondary form, placed oneafter another in sequence to the bottom right of theprimary consonant. In this method one need toconceptualize the correct formation of the syllableand then write it on the paper or compose it or keyin on the machine. Typing frequently occurringsyllables may not require any time but syllables ofless frequently occurring ones may take more than amoment of thinking, compare:

ex. {qsòQû = xqs c {qs c{qsò c {qsòQûstr¢ = sa - s¢ - s¢t - s¢trkeying à display :: phonetic

sequence sequence equivalencexqs à xqs [xqs]sa à sa [sa]

xqs + C à {qs [{qs]

sa +¢ à s¢ [s¢]{qs + »R½ à {qs»½± ' [{qsò]s¢ + ta à s¢t [st¢]{qs»± ’ + LRi à {qs»± ’L±i’ [{qsòQû]s¢t' + ra à s¢t'r' [str¢]

xqsWäQû = xqs c xqsW c xqsWä c xqsWäQûs£kr = sa - s£ - s£k' - s£kr[skr£] = [sa] - [s£] - [sk£] - [skr£]

2.6.5.2 Phonetic Method: The composition ofsaMyuktAksharas follow from linear order ofutterance or pronunciation. Here one need not learnor put a special effort in composing of conjunctclusters. There is naturalness involved here and oneneed only pay attention to one’s pronunciation.

@ex. {qsòQû = xqs c xqsò c xqsòQû c {qsòQû

str¢ = sa - sta - stra - str¢

keying à display = phoneticsequence sequence equivalence

xqs à xqs [xqs]sa à sa [sa]

xqs + »R½ à xqsò [xqsò]sa + ta à sta [sta]

xqsò+ LRi à xqsòQû [xqsòQû] sta+ ra à stra [stra]

xqsòQû + C à {qsòQû [{qsòQû]stra + ¢ à str¢ [str¢]

xqsWäQû = xqs c xqsä c xqsäQû c xqsWäQûskr£ = sa - ska - skra - skr£

Following method 1) results in the reduction ofspeed, since composers/writers have to recall fromtheir memory for a moment. It also results in wrongsorting of words, and create problems for spellchecking and searching operations. Thereforemethod 2) which is based on phonetic order ispreferred.

Glyphs: There have been a number of attempts atreforming Telugu script (Andhra PradeshGovernment, G.O.194:1961), particularly to suit tothe needs of the letter press printing. Telugu scriptcomposers and typists are expected to memorizehundreds of glyphs and scores of their combinationsto form meaningful graphic syllables. The attempts

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to reform the Telugu script were basically aimed atreducing the burden on the part of the composersand typists by reducing the variation in the numberof glyphs and eliminating the combinations whichare considered to be illogical.

Variation in glyph combinations: In Telugu, certaincompound graphic syllables beginning with [ª«sV, R¶V,xmnsV, LRi&V] and modified by a vowel m¡tr¡ [%] or %][] arealternatively written as [ ®ªsVV, ¹¸¶VV, |mnsVV, lLi&VV or as ª«sV~,R¶V~ , xmnsV~ , LRi&V~] and [ ®ªsW, ¹¸¶W , |mnsW, lLi&W or ª«sV¡ ,R¶V¡ , xmnsV¡ LRi&V¡]. This variation shall be resolved by

preferring to write in the second alternate way sinceit involves the same glyph [%] or %][] = secondarysymbols for short /o/ and long /° / used with allother consonants. It has one immediate advantagebesides regularity. The use of first alternatecombination are interpretable glyptographicallyas combinations of [Z%Á+%ÁV] /e+u/ [Z%Á+%ÁW] /e+£/ andmay create problems in sorting and searchingoperations.

Glyphs in Character Composition: The Teluguscript is distinct from the other scripts of Brahmiorigin not only by the rounded shape of the lettersbut also by the sheer number of glyphs used inCharacter formation. To illustrate, the m¡tr¡ for long[A] /A/ i.s. |%S| is represented at least in five distinctways due to the difference in size, shape of theconsonant and its placement as shown below:

Consonant Glyph Glyphclass composition placement

1. [gRi hRi ²R¶ ²³R¶ »R½ R NS Represents a regularµR¶ µ³R¶ ©«s LRi ª«s aRP] substitution of [ R ]

of the anchorconsonant by themAtrA [ S ].

2. [xmnsV LRi&V ª«sV R¶V ] xmnsW The placement of [ Ø] mAtrA does notreplace the [ x ] of theanchor consonant.

3. [ÅÁ ÄÁ ÇÁ ÃÁ ÆØ The [ Ø ] mAtrA isÈÁ ßá ÊÁ ÌÁ à ] placed on the top

right half of theanchor consonant.

4. [¿RÁ ¿³RÁ ˳ÏÁ] Ë³Ø The mAtrA [ Ø ]isplaced on the topright edge of theanchor substituting[x Á].

5. [xms xmns xqs xtsQ] Fy A change in theshape of the anchorconsonant and the[ y ] mAtrA runsacross the consonant.

6. [ x¤¦¦¦] ¥¦¦¦ A change in theshape of the mAtrA[ [] and its placementdoes not substitute[ « ].

More or less such variation in m¡tr¡ size may be foundwith all other vowels (except in case of /a/ ) and theassociated idiosyncracies dependent on the anchorconsonant are a common phenomenon in Telugu(and also in Kannada) but not commonly attested inother Indian scripts. The outcome of thisphenomenon is the glyph chart for Telugu will bemore complex than that of any other Brahmi derivedscript. Traditionally the composers or typists ofTelugu script are expected to memorize these m¡tr¡variants (which roughly range on an average five pereach vowel m¡tr¡ amounting to sixty glyphs) besidesscores of the associated consonant variants and theircombinations. The average number of glyphs for eachconsonant character is not less than 3. The totalnumber of glyphs for all characters would be wellbeyond 150, which is much higher than for any otherIndian language. Because of this reason it is not easyto achieve glyph standard for Telugu. The mechanicalconstraints of the type-writers which lack glyphmatching and composition management facility haveforced us to live with the poor quality of mechanicaltype faces in Telugu.

However, with the advent of Computers and theirappropriate adaption for Telugu Script, thecomposing of Telugu writing and printing havebecome much easier. The entire burden of dealingwith the complexity of glyph selection, matching andcomposition has now shifted from man to machine.

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The entire scenario i.e. the number of glyphs andtheir idiosyncratic combinations that the Telugucomposers/writers had to remember, now hastransformed into keying in the relevant charactersrepresenting the sounds in the phonetic sequence(linear) in a word. The computer (driven by therelevant

print/display rendering routines) puts the relevantglyphs together and renders them into an appropriategraphic display on the screen. This is one of the bestexamples of the application of computer technologyin eliminating the complex problems associated withnonlinear scripts as in the case of Telugu script.

Fonts: Characters are represented visually as glyphsaccopanied by a set of parameters viz. size, posture,thickness etc. One of the major differences betweenroman and Indic alphabets is that the latter has glyphswhose size is highly variable and characters arecompositional. In roman fonts we see often one toone association between a character from the alphabetand the corresponding glyph. Not only it is hard tofind such an association between a character and aglyph but in actual practice, as in Telugu, glyphsare often reduced to fewer number of primitivegeometric shapes from which characters can becomposed. So the size of the glyph inventory ofTelugu from one font to another is so vast that it isoften fruitless to accomplish.

Storage considerations: Among the available systemsthat are in the market for rendering Telugu characterson Computers, only one i.e. ISCII (@BIS 1991, itsearlier version was ISSCII-1983) has been somewhatwidely used both in Unix and MS-DOS world. Allothers are based on commonly available methodsemployed commercially for working with Telugulanguage fonts and DOS based graphics programs.No other Character coding scheme than ISCII isknown to exist. Most of the commercially availableTelugu software program store their own table ofglyph/character pictures or by installing charactersin the computer’s video memory. The lack ofcommon standard in glyph/character coding ofTelugu is a potential source of frustration in Telugucomputing due to mismatch between the glyphs/characters and print handlers when accessed on screen

and printed using other than the one used in thecreating the document.

The theoretical basis for the analysis of Teluguscript: Words in Telugu script are composed of oneor more graphic syllables of either (a) simple or (b)compound type. The graphic syllables are unlikephonetic/phonological syllable may not have a vowelas a compulsory component but will have a secondaryvowel/halant symbol as a necessary component. Thisassumption is necessitated by the occurrence of thegraphic representations of halant¡kÀaras as /¿/ [aPP] in[¡Ædhraprad®¿] /Andhra Pradesh/, /d/ [µP¶] in [pras¡d]‘Prasad’, /rl/ [LPýi] and /rks/ [LPiäQ=] in /k¡rl m¡rks/[NSLPýiª«sWLPiäQ=] ‘Karl Marx’. a.) A simple graphic syllable isalways comprised of one of the signs for primaryvowels /a ¡ i ¢ u £ ¤ ¥ e ® ai o ° au/ [@ A B C D E ÊÁVVÊÁVW Fs G H I J K] or one of the three primary symbols:the p£r¸¡nusv¡ra [iLi], the ardh¡nusv¡ra [i·] and thevisarga [iM] or one of the symbols for primaryconsonants with implicit vowel /a/ [ «Á]. Also recallthat the traditional var¸am¡la groups these three signsalong with vowels. As stated above a graphic syllablehere may be composed of non-vocalic signs butwhich have independent and linear representationin Telugu writing. All other graphic syllablerepresentations are interpreted as compounds. b) Acompound graphic syllable may be interpreted as oneor more consonant signs (there is no upper limit)plus an inherent or covert (implicit) vowel [à ] or anovert (explicit) secondary vowel symbol /¡ i ¢ u £ e ®ai o ° au and _ / [%S %TÁ %UÁ %ÁV %ÁW Z%Á Z%Á[ \Z%Á %] %][ %_ and %PÁ].

Differentiating Script from Language: Script is notcoterminus with language. It is only a means forvisual representation of a spoken language. Since ascript is associated with a given language for over amillennium the grammar of a script is oftenmeasured with the same yardstick as that is used forthe language. It is true that the historicaldevelopment of Telugu language (the writingconventions and the tools used for writing) hasreflections on the Telugu script. However developinglanguages change faster than the script that is beingused for that language. Therefore phonological rulesthat are proper to a language shall not be imposedupon the script.

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The computer technology has rendered all earlierarguments for reforming Telugu script into vaccuousand needless. The standard argument now remainingis the maintenance of strict correspondence betweenthe phonetic order and the keying-in order, thusbreaking the requirement of the correspondencebetween the language(script) dependent displays andthe order of the keying-in. This one particular featurehas a great significance allowing us to view all Indianscripts as mere ‘font’ variants. Far from reducing thelevel of script to a font, it shows the grand unificationamong all Indian scripts. The computer technologyhas also one interesting aspect. Unlike the reformistswho would like to drop certain infrequent andobsolete characters in order to save manual labour,the current technology not only makes allowancesfor such characters but also makes available newrepresentations in the Indian scripts particularly torepresent those special sounds borrowed frequentlyfrom Perso-Arabic and European languages hencethe extended alphabet.

Localization of Data

Calendar : There are standard ways of expressingunits of temporal space. The date is usually expressedin the order of month date, year i.e. month precedesdate, and date precedes years, as in August 15, 1947the Indian Independence day. However, the samewhen stated in the form of numbers the order is dd-mm-yy i.e. 15-08-1947.

Months : The names of months borrowed fromEnglish are commonly employed in Telugu in allpurposes. These names are often abbreviated andprefixed to the date:

janavari ja. Januaryphibravari phi. February

m¡rci m¡. March®pril ®. Aprilm® m®. Mayj£n j£. Junejulai ju. July¡gaÀ¶u ¡. Augustsep¶embaru se. Septemberak¶°baru a. October

navambaru na. November·isembaru ·i. December

ex. ¡. 15 12:15:15 bh¡.k¡. 1947 'August 15th 12:15:15IST.'

Week : Usually week days are abbreviated in dateexpressions and precede the month as in ¡di. ¡gaÀ¶u15, 1947.

¡di. for ¡div¡raÆ 'Sunday's°. for s°mav¡raÆ 'Monday'maÆ. for manga½av¡raÆ 'Tuesday'bu. for budhav¡raÆ 'Wednesday'gu. for guruv¡raÆ 'Thursday'¿u. for ¿ukrav¡raÆ 'Friday'¿a. for ¿aniv¡raÆ 'Saturday'

Time : English expressions AM/PM do not haveequivalent expressions in Telugu. In the expressionsof time, generally, the hours are usually prefixed withabbreviations standing for different time periods ina day. A day of 24 hours is divided into five divisions(pUtalu) as shown below with a roughlycorresponding english equivalent.

udayaÆ: u. Morning 06:00:01-11:59:59madhy¡hnaÆ: ma. Noon 12:00:01- 03:59:59s¡yantraÆ: s¡. Evening 04:00:01- 06:59:59r¡tri: r¡. Night 07:00:01-12:59:59tellav¡ruj¡mu: te. midnight 01:00:01- 05:59:59

The date Sat Nov 17 14:44:05 IST 2001 may beexpressed in Telugu as ¿a. na. 17 14:44:05 bh¡.k¡.(bh¡rata k¡lam¡naÆ) 2001.

Currency : There is no specific currency symbolcurrent in Telugu. However, the word LRiWFyLiVV isprefixed to the amount in an abbreviated form ‘r£.as below:

r£. 5,431.12

Rs. 5,431.12

Appendices

References:

Kostic, D., A. Mitter, Bh. Krishnamurti. 1979. AShort Outline of Telugu Phonetics (particularly pp.202-204 on Phoneme frequencies): Calcutta: ISI.

Contents Page 98

4.5.3 Typical Colloquial Sentencesin Telugu

GREETING

w Hellox¤¦¦¦ÍÜ[½þ±ÉÉähal°

w Good Morning©«sª«sVryäLRiLixɨɺEòÉ®Æúnamask¡raÆ

w Good Afternoon©«sª«sVryäLRiLixɨɺEòÉ®namask¡raÆ

w Good Night©«sª«sV}qsòxɨɺiÉänamast®

w Good Bye©«sª«sV}qsòxɨɺiÉänamast®

w ThanksNRPX»R½ÇìÁ»R½ÌÁVEÞòiÉYÉiɱÉÖk¤tajµatalu

w How are youFsÍØD©yõLRiV?Bà±ÉÉ=zÉɯû?el¡unn¡ru?

w I am fine thank youËØgS®©s[ D©yõ©«sV, NRPX»R½ÇìÁÙßñÓá.¤ÉÉMÉÉxÉä =zÉÉxÉÖ, EÞòiÉYÉÖÎhhÉ.b¡g¡n® unn¡nu, k¤tajµu¸¸i.

w SorryORPQ­sVLi¿RÁLi²T¶IÉ˨ÉSÉÆÊb÷

kÀamiµca¸·i

Krishnamurti, Bh. and J.P.L. Gwynn. 1985. Agrammar of Modern Telugu (particularly Chapter5: The structure of Telugu Orthography: Problemsof Reform). Delhi:OUP.

krishnamurti, Bh. 1997. telugu lipi nirm¡¸aÆl° unnaniyam¡lu. Telugu, 4.1-5. Telugu Akademi.

Narasimham, P.V.H.M.L., G.L. Narasimham, andG. Ramakrishna Rao.1981. Design Information onText Composition in Telugu (a report of a jointproject of Computer Maintenance CorporationLimited (CMC), Secunderabad, and ResearchInstitute for Newspaper Development (RIND),Madras.

Uma Maheshwar Rao, G., Rajeev Sangal, P.V.H.M.L.Narasimham, S. C. Babu, J. Satyanarayana. 2001.Subcommittee report on Standards for theImplementation of Telugu in InformationTechnology. Govt of Andhra Pradesh.

(Courtesy : Prof. K. N. MurthyUniversity of Hyderabad,

Hyderabad-500046Tel. 040-3010500 Extn. 4056

E-mail : [email protected]&

Dr. G. Umamaheshwar RaoReader,

Centre for Applied Linguisticsand Translation Studies

University of Hyderabad.E-mail: [email protected])

Contents Page 99

WEATHER

w It is cold

¿RÁÌýÁgS DLiµj¶Sɱ±ÉMÉÉ =ÆÊnùcallag¡ uÆdi

w It is cool outside

ÊÁ R¶VÈÁ ¿RÁÌýÁgS DLiµj¶.¤ÉªÉ]õ Sɱ±ÉMÉÉ =ÆÊnù.baya¶a callag¡ uÆdi.

w It is hot

Zªs[²T¶gS DLiµj¶.´ÉäÊb÷MÉÉ =ÆÊnù.v®·ig¡ uÆdi.

w It is raining

ª«sL<RiLi NRPVLRiVr¡òLiµj¶.´É¹ÉÈ EÖò¯ûºiÉÉåÊnù.varÀaÆ kurust°ndi.

GENERAL

w What is your name?

­dsV }msLRiV G­sVÉÓÁ?¨ÉÒ {Éä û BʨÉÊ]õ?m¢ p®ru ®mi¶i?

w My name is Ranjan

©y }msLRiV LRiLiÇÁ©±sxÉÉ {Éä û ®ÆúVÉxÉÂn¡ p®ru raµjan

w Where do you live?

­dsVLRiV FsNRPä²R¶ DLiÈÁV©yõLRiV?¨ÉÒ¯û BàCEòb÷ =Æ]ÖõzÉɯû?m¢ru ekka·a uƶunn¡ru?

w I live near Ghantaghar

Zªs[©«sV xmnsVLiÈÁxmnsVLi µR¶gæRiLRi DLiÈÁV©yõ©«sV.xÉäxÉÖ PÉÆ]õPÉ®Âú nùMMÉ®ú =Æ]ÖõzÉÉxÉÖ.n®nu gha¸¶aghar daggara uƶunn¡nu.

w How old are you?

­dsVNRPV Fs¬sõ GÎÏÁ§þ?¨ÉÒEÖò BàÊzÉ B²³Öý?

m¢ku enni ®½½u?

w That building is tall

A NRPÈíÁ²R¶Li Fs»R½Vò.+É Eò]Âõ]õbÆ÷ BàkÉÖ.¡ ka¶¶a·aÆ ettu.

w She is beautiful

A®ªsV @LiµR¶gRi¾»½ò.+ɨÉà +ÆnùMÉkÉà.¡me aÆdagatte.

w I like Bengali sweets

Zªs[©«sV ÛËÁLigSÖÁ ­sVhSLiVVÌÁV BiVVxtísQxms²R¶»y©«sV.xÉäxÉÖ ¤ÉáMÉÉÊ±É Ê¨É`öÉʪɱÉÖ Ê<¹]õ{Éb÷iÉÉxÉÖ.n®nu be´g¡li mi¶h¡yilu iÀ¶apa·at¡nu.

w I love birds

Zªs[©«sV xmsORPVÖÁõ ú}ms­sVryò©«sV.xÉäxÉÖ {ÉIÉÖαxÉ |ÉäʨɺiÉÉxÉÖ.n®nu pakÀulni pr®mist¡nu.

w Where is Railway station?

lLiÛÍÁ[* }qísxtsQ©±s FsNRPä²R¶ DLiµj¶.®èú±´Éä º]äõ¹ÉxÉ BàCEòb÷ =ÆÊnù.railv® s¶®Àan ekka·a uÆdi.

w How far is the Bus Terminal from here?

BNRPä²T¶NTP ÊÁ£qs ríyLi²R¶V FsLi»R½ µR¶WLRiLi?<CEòÊb÷ÊEò ¤ÉºÉ º]õÉÆbÖ÷ BáiÉ nÚù®Æú?ikka·iki bas s¶¡¸·u eÆta d£raÆ?

w How long will it take to reach the Airport?

­sª«sW©yúaRP R¶W¬sNTP ®ªsÎÏÁþ²y¬sNTP FsLi»R½}qsxmso xms²R¶V»R½VLiµj¶?ʴɨÉÉxÉɸɪÉÉÊxÉÊEò ´Éಳýb÷ÉÊxÉÊEò BáiɺÉä{ÉÖ {ÉbÖ÷iÉÖÆÊnù?vim¡n¡¿ray¡niki ve½½a·¡niki eÆtas®pupa·utundi?

w Is Mr. Raghunath there?

$ LRixmnsVV©y´¶¶@NRPä²R¶ D©yõLS?¸ÉÒ ®úPÉÖxÉÉlÉ +CEòb÷ =zÉÉ®úÉ?¿r¢ raghun¡th akka·a unn¡r¡?

w Please tell him to call back as soon as he is free

@»R½©«sV ÆØ×dÁÁ @ª«s*gS®©s[ ©«s©«sVõ zmsÌÁª«sª«sV¬s ¿ÁxmsöV.+iÉxÉÖ JÉɳýÒ +´´ÉMÉÉxÉä xÉzÉÖ Ê{ɱɴɨÉÊxÉ SÉà{{ÉÖ.atanu kh¡½¢ avvag¡n® nannu pilavamani

ceppu.

Contents Page 101

w How much will it cost?Bµj¶ FsLi»R½ µ³R¶LRi DLiÈÁVLiµj¶?<Ênù BáiÉ vÉ®ú =Æ]ÖÆõÊnù?idi eÆta dhara uƶundi?

w Excuse meORPQ­sVLi¿RÁLi²T¶.IÉ˨ÉSÉÆÊb÷.kÀamiµca¸·i.

w From which Platform can I get the train forChandigarh?¿³RÁLi²U¶xmnsVL¶i NRPV G FýyÉÞFnyª±sV ©«sVLi²T¶ úÛÉÁLiVV©±s µ] ¶NRPV»R½VLiµj¶?UÆôb÷ÒPÉ®Âú EÖò B {±ÉÉ]Âõ¡òɨÉ xÉÖÆÊb÷ ]ÅàõʪÉxÉ nùÉà ûEÖòiÉÖÆÊnù?cha¸·¢ghar ku ® pl¡¶ph¡m nu¸·i ¶reyindorukutundi?

w Does this train stop at Aligarh?C úÛÉÁLiVV©±s AÖdÁxmnsVL¶iÍÜ[ AgRiV»R½VLiµy?<Ç ]ÅàõʪÉxÉ +ɱÉÒPÉ®Âú±ÉÉä +ÉMÉÖiÉÖÆnùÉ?¢ ¶reyin ¡l¢gharl° ¡gutund¡?

w How many kids do you have?¬dsNRPV/­dsVNRPV FsLi»R½ª«sVLiµj¶ zmsÌýÁÌÁV?xÉÒEÖò/¨ÉÒEÖò BáiɨÉÆÊnù Ê{ɱ±É±ÉÖ?n¢ku/m¢ku eÆtamandi pillalu?

w This gift is wonderfulC ÊÁx¤¦¦¦§ª«sV¼½ ¿yÍØ ËØgRiVLiµj¶.<Ç ¤É½Öþ¨ÉÊiÉ SÉɱÉÉ ¤ÉÉMÉÖÆÊnù.¢ bahumati c¡l¡ b¡gundi.

w It is really prettyBµj¶ ¬sÇÁLigS @LiµR¶LigS DLiµj¶.<Ênù ÊxÉVÉÆMÉÉ +ÆnÆùMÉÉ =ÆÊnù.idi nija´g¡ aÆda´g¡ uÆdi.

w Food is deliciousA¥¦¦¦LRiLi xmsxqsLiµR¶VgS DLiµj¶.+ɽþÉ®Æú {ɺÉÆnÖùMÉÉ =ÆÊnù.¡h¡raÆ pasandug¡ uÆdi.

w Congratulations@Õ³Á©«sLiµR¶©«sÌÁV.+ʦÉxÉÆnùxɱÉÖ.abhinandanalu.

w You look lovely©«sVª«so* ¿RÁNRPägS D©yõª«so.xÉÖ ´ÉÖ SÉCEòMÉÉ =zÉÉ´ÉÖ.

nuvvu cakkag¡ unn¡vu.

w Wish you happy new year­dsVNRPV ©«sW»R½©«s xqsLiª«s»R½=LRi aRPV˳ØNSLiORPQÌÁV.¨ÉÒEÖò xÉÚiÉxÉ ºÉÆ ÉiºÉ®ú ¶ÉÖ¦ÉÉEòÉÆIɱÉÖ.m¢ku n£tana saÆvatsara ¿ubh¡k¡´kÀalu.

w I wish you all the happiness

­dsVNRPV @Li»y xqsLi»][xtsQLi NRPÌÁgSÌÁ¬s AbPxqsVò©yõ¦¦ .¨ÉÒEÖò +ÆiÉÉ ºÉÆiÉÉä¹ÉÆ Eò±ÉMÉɱÉÊxÉ +ÉʶɺiÉÖzÉÉÆ.m¢ku aÆt¡ sant°ÀaÆ kalag¡lani

¡¿istunn¡nu.

w Congratulations on your marriage­dsVNRPV ­sªyx¤¦¦¦ aRPV˳ØNSLiORPQÌÁV.¨ÉÒEÖò Ê´É´Éɽþ ¶ÉÖ¦ÉÉEÆòIɱÉÖ

m¢ku viv¡ha ¿ubh¡k¡´kÀalu.

w Keep your eyes wide open before marriage andhalf- shut afterwards|ms×ÁþNTP ª«sVVLiµR¶V NRPÎÏÁ§þ ¾»½LRiª«sLi²T¶ A »R½¶ riªy»R½ xqsgRiLiª«sVW R¶VLi²T¶.{Éàβ³ýÊEò ¨ÉÖÆnÖù Eò²³Öý iÉà®ú ÉÆÊb÷ +É iÉ®ú ÉÉiÉ ºÉMÉÆ ¨ÉÚªÉÆÊb÷.pe½½iki mundu ka½½u terava¸·i ¡ tarav¡ta

sagaÆ m£ya¸·i.

(Courtesy : Dr . G. Umamaheshwar RaoReader ,

Centr e for Applied Linguisticsand Translation Studies

University of H yderabad.E-mail: [email protected] net.in)

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