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The main languages that are spoken by people
of Andhra Pradesh are Telugu, Hindi,
Banjara, Urdu and English. Telugu is the official language of Andhra
Pradesh. It has been has been influenced by Sanskrit. It was also referred
to as `Tenugu' in the past. `Andhra' is the name given to it since the
medieval times. C.P. Brown describes it as the " Italian of the East ".
A Dravidian Family Language
Andhra society is one of the ancient societies of India. One can
encounter several tales about Andhras in epics like 'Mahabharat' and
'Ramayan', in great puranas, and Budhdhist 'Jataka' Tales. Telugu belongs
to the family of Dravidian languages, which consists of 24 languages
spanning the entire South-Asia, from Baluchistan to Sri Lanka.
In terms of population, Telugu ranks second to Hindi among the Indian
languages. The most popular explanation that is given to the word Telugu
is that it comes from the word "Trilinga", i.e. from the three
temples at 'Srisailam', 'Drakasharamam', and 'Kaleshwaram'. Telugu has a
close resemblance with Tamil, Kannada, and Tulu.
The Telugu alphabet is called "Onamaalu". Its vocabulary is
very much influenced by Sanskrit. In the course of time, some Sanskrit
expressions used in Telugu got so naturalised that people regarded them as
pure Telugu words. Some Kannada and Tamil words were also taken into
Telugu. The prominent poets of Telugu include Nannaya, Tikkana, Sri
Krishna Devarayulu and a host of others.
With the advent of the Muslim rule, several Persian and Arabic words
entered into the Telugu language. Urdu is another language that came to
the Deccan, late in the 15th century. It flourished during the reign of
the Qutubshahi Dynasty. The 17th century was the golden age of Urdu, with
poets like Mohammed Quli, Mulla Wajhi, and Sheikh Ahmed contributing their
literary pieces. This confirms the ancient nature of Andhra society.