2. The Shapes of Telugu - Vowels and Consonants

2. The  Shapes of Telugu: 

Part 1- Vowels and Consonants 

Telugu uses Telugu script, a script distinctly different from Devanagari script in which Hindi and Sanskrit are written. Telugu script is also distinctly different from Tamil and Malayalam scripts. It does have some resemblance to Kannada script.

Telugu letters are "roundish" in shape and most of the vowels and consonants can be written by taking a circle as a base shape and modifying that shape. The order of the strokes is not uniform across the letters; for some, it is clockwise and for others, it is counter clockwise.

An exhaustive treatment of Telugu script can be found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu_script

1. Vowels

When written left to right, the vowels in Simplified Telugu appear as shown below.

అ  ఆ  ఇ  ఈ  ఉ  ఊ  ఎ  ఏ  ఐ  ఒ  ఓ  ఔ  అం 

Note 1.  
It is possible to minimize the use of ఐ (ai) , and ఔ (ou) by replacing them, wherever possible, by  అయి (a-yi) and అవు (a-vu). The consequence of this action is not catastrophic. However, the secondary (intra-syllabic) forms of these two vowels remain in popular use.

The procedure on how to write Telugu letters is illustrated in the YouTube Videos listed below. In these videos, the full alphabet (not the simplified version) is shown. 

Telugu is written left to right, top-to-bottom, just like  English. It is best to practice writing on a narrow ruled paper. Conceptually, you need three units of depth, created by four horizontal lines on a ruled paper, to write one line. Fit the central part of the character between the middle two lines and use the space above for “superscripts” and the space below for “subscripts.” 

Telugu script is syllabic in the sense that vowels are represented differently in different contexts; the syllabic (primary) context and the intra-syllabic (secondary) context. That is, vowels have one form when they appear in a stand-alone form and in a different form when they appear in conjunction with consonants. In conjunct forms, the consonant symbol dominates and the secondary form of the vowel appears either as a "subscript," "superscript,"  or an "appendage to the right" of the consonant. 

The first two videos listed below (although the sound track is in Telugu) show clearly what the primary and secondary symbols are and how they are conjoined to produce consonant-vowel (C-V) combinations. The third video gives an exhaustive list of all C-V combinations (called "guNiMtamulu" or గుణింతములు in Telugu). The fourth - what appears to be in a draft form -  is an optional reference that goes into an academic discussion of other features of consonant-vowel combinations and consonant-consonant (C-C) combinations.

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-BrhPV40Yc

(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McLsgGFxeeY

(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b86KecEygQ4&t=868s

(4) https://r12a.github.io/scripts/telugu/

2.  Consonants

Traditionally consonants are presented as an array comprised of five rows and five columns, followed my a miscellaneous assortment of additional consonants and semi-vowels. There is a well researched phonetic reason behind this arrangement and it will not be elaborated here.

As consonants cannot be pronounced in their stand-alone state, it is customary to list the consonants in their conjunct form with the vowel a  (అ ) as shown below. The symbols shown below are the primary symbols for consonants. All the other consonant-vowel conjunct forms are listed in the next subsection as well as in the YouTube videos listed in Section 1 above. 

Gutterals        క (ka)     ఖ (kha)    గ (ga)    ఘ(gha)       ఙ (~ma)

(Velars)

Palatals           చ (ca)     ఛ (cha)     జ (ja)    ఝ (jha)      ఞ (~na)

Retroflexes       ట  (Ta)     ఠ  (Tha)   డ  (Da)   ఢ  (Dha)    ణ  (Na)

(Cerebrals).     

Dentals              త (ta)      థ (tha)     ద (da)   ధ (dha)     న (na)

Labials                ప (pa)      ఫ (pha)     బ (ba)    భ (bha)    మ(ma)

Semi-vowels:     య (ya),   ర (ra),    ల (la),  ళ (La),  వ  (va)
Sibilants:             శ (Sa),    ష (sha),  స (sa)
Glottal:                హ  (ha)

Let us study this arrangement, first by rows.  

• A guttural is a speech sound produced in the throat. The five consonants in the first row are guttural consonant; they can be uttered by the open mouth, without any help from the tongue, teeth or lips. 
• A palatal is a speech sound produced when the tongue touches the palate. The palate, which is the roof of the mouth, is divided into two parts. The front part has ridges and is hard (hard palate). The back part is relatively smooth and soft (soft palate). The sounds in the second row can be produced with the help of the tongue touching the palate - with no assistance from the teeth or lips. 
• A retroflex (or cerebral) is a speech sound produced when the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge (that is, the part of the mouth just above the gumline of the upper teeth on the tongue side) and the hard palate. Retroflex consonants are concentrated in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages. 
• A dental is a consonant articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth.  
• A labial is a consonant in which one or both lips are the active articulator. The two common labial articulations are bilabials, articulated using both lips, and labiodentals, articulated with the lower lip against the upper teeth. 

Similarly, the array can be studied by columns. Each of the columns in the above array falls into categories with attributes like voiceless unaspirated plosives, voiceless aspirated plosives, voiced unaspirated, voiced aspirated plosives, and nasals. Discussion of these issues takes us too far afield.

Note 2

There are two more consonants in the second row (not shown) that respectively follow  చ (ca) and జ (ja). These are the dental equivalents of the palatals  చ and జ. These consonants appear in archaic books and in old  dictionaries. When written, they carry a marker over their heads. These markers, introduced by C. P. Brown, are like diacritical marks to indicate pronunciation. There is really no need for them because every native Telugu speaking person knows, from the context, how to pronounce these letters in a word. 

Note 3 

The consonants ఙ (~ma) and ఞ (~na) never occur in isolation. Whenever the  letter ఙ (~ma) occurs in a Sanskritized spelling, it is replaced by the new spelling.  The consonant  ఞ (~na ) occurs only in conjunction with జ (ja) and the conjunct form జ్ఞా ( j~na) appears  in less than a handful of words.  Although some arguments can be made to drop its usage altogether,  current conventions are followed and this symbol is retained for the present. Finally, ఱ (~ra) is dropped,  just as Brown's dictionary did and many others are doing.

3. Writing Pure Consonants

As Telugu is a vowel-ending language, there is rarely a need for words that end in a pure consonant. However, due to the influence of other languages, especially English and to some extent Sanskrit, there is a frequent need to write words that end in a pure consonant. Writing  consonants in their pure form is illustrated below:

క్ (k, k^),   గ్ (g, g^),  చ్ (c, c^),   జ్ (j, j^),   etc.

Notice that the pure consonants are written with a base symbol plus a special marker on the top,  called pollu (literally, husk). These same consonants, when combined with the vowel  అ (a) present themselves as follows:

క  (ka),  గ (ga),  చ  (ca),  జ  (ja), etc.

Notice that the consonants here (and most often) are written with a base symbol plus a special marker called talakaTTu, headband.

4. Writing Telugu Alphabet

Now that you are introduced to the sights and sounds of Telugu, let us arrange the letters of a subset of the alphabet, that we plan to use in this blog, in their standard order.

Vowels. The 12 regular vowels and the one collateral vowel we propose to use in this blog:

అ  ఆ  ఇ  ఈ  ఉ  ఊ  ఎ  ఏ  ఐ  ఒ  ఓ  ఔ  అం 

Consonants. The 32 consonants we propose to use in this blog:

Traditionally consonants are presented in an array comprised of five rows and five columns, followed by a miscellaneous assortment of additional consonants and semi-vowels, in a sixth row. The sequence in which these consonants are presented has a scientific basis, rooted in phonetics.

       క (ka)      ఖ (kha)    గ (ga)     ఘ(gha)       ---

       చ (ca)      ఛ (cha)     జ (ja)     ఝ (jha)      ---

       ట  (Ta)     ఠ  (Tha)   డ  (Da)   ఢ  (Dha)     ణ  (Na)

       త (ta)      థ (tha)     ద (da)     ధ (dha)       న (na)

       ప (pa)      ఫ (pha)    బ (ba)     భ (bha)      మ(ma)

       య (ya),   ర (ra),    ల (la),  ళ (La),  వ  (va),   శ (Sa),  ష (sha),          స (sa),   హ  (ha)

In the above array, consonants are not written in their "pure" form; they are written in the way they would appear if the "pure" form consonants are combined with the first vowel, అ  (a).

Note 4 
Special Symbols: There are two important special symbols in Telugu  alphabet: The special symbol, denoted by “o”,  called full anusvAraM,  produces the “m” sound. It is a popular sound and many words of Telugu end with this sound. The other special symbol is called pollu. This represents the inherent sound of a pure consonant and is very useful while transliterating English words in Telugu script.

5. Similar-looking Alphabetical Characters  

Notice that some of the Telugu characters closely resemble each other. For example ఠ (Tha) and ర (ra) look alike except that the former has a dot in its  “belly.” Similarly థ  (tha) and ధ (dha) look alike, except that the former has a dot in its “belly.”  The letters ప (pa) and వ (va) look alike except for a small gap; in the former, the "headband" indicated by the check mark does not touch the rest of the latter. Similarly with the characters స (sa) and న (na). Finally the letters య (ya) and మ  (ma) look alike except that the "circle" at the left-most part is bigger in the former than in the latter. 

A careful study of the shapes of the aspirated consonants reveal that their shapes are not derived from their unaspirated counterparts in a consistent manner. For instance, study the pairs  (చ, ఛ), (డ, ఢ), (ద, ధ), (ప, ఫ)  and observe how the aspirated form is derived from the unaspirated form. Now compare the pairs: (క, ఖ),  (గ, ఘ),  (జ,  ఝ),  (ట, ఠ),  (త, థ).  Here the shapes of the aspirated forms bear no obvious resemblance to the unaspirated forms. One exception to this pattern is the (బ, భ) pair; here, to produce the aspirated version not only a "spike" was added to the bottom of the symbol but also a "head band" was added. This, obviously, is a logical inconsistency.  Similar consistency deviations will be found when we study consonant-vowel combinations in the next chapter.

6. Vocabulary Session

Read the words in the list aloud. Write them on a ruled paper.  Enter them in the top window of Lekhini and verify in the bottom window.
(a) The following nouns are formed with a V-Ca or Ca-Ca pattern, where V stands for a vowel, C for a consonant and 'a' for the vowel అ. 

అల (a-la) = wavelet
ఈల (I-la) = whistle
కల  (ka-la) = dream
వల (va-la) = net
మర (ma-ra) = machine

(b) The following nouns are formed with a V-Ca-Ca or Ca-Ca-Ca pattern.

ఊయల = swing
పలక = slate
కలప - lumber

7. Exercises

(1) Read aloud the vowels and consonants shown in Section 4. Read them at least 5 times aloud. Seek the help of an associate for correct pronunciation. Can you memorize their sounds after 5 readings? Can you memorize their sequence?

(2) The following letter pairs resemble each other in shape. Make sure you identify each of them correctly. 

(న, స), (వ, ప), (మ, య), (ఘ, ఝ), (అ, ల) 

(3) Say the following nouns aloud and seek the assistance of a native speaker to correct the pronunciation.

అల (a-la) = wave

వల = (va-la) = net

కల (ka-la) = dream

కళ  (ka-La) = art

ఆబ (A-ba) = greed

నవల (na-va-la) = novel

మంట (maM-Ta) = flame

వంట (vaM-Ta) = cuisine

పంట (paM-Ta) = harvest

ఎండ (eM-Da) = sunshine

దండ (daM-Da) = garland

(4) Say the following simple sentences aloud and ask an associate to help correct the pronunciation.

ఏ కలం? (E ka-laM) = which pen?

ఈ  కలం (I ka-laM) = this pen

ఈ కాలం (I kA-laM) = this season, 

ఈ తరం (I ta-raM) = this generation

(5) Transliterate the following words into Telugu script. (The English meanings of the words are given in the parentheses.) Write the transliteration and say it loud. 

అల (wave),  కళ (art), జడ (braided hair) , గడప  (threshold), ఉడత (squirrel),  బయట  (outside), జత  (pair), తల (head)

(6) An on·o·mat·o·poe·ia is a word formed from a sound associated with what is name (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle ).Telugu has numerous such words. Read the following:

కలకల (indicates happy surroundings)
గలగల (indicates sound of flowing stream)
జరజర (indicates sound of snake slithering)
టకటక (indicates sound of boots)
గడగడ (indicates sound of fluent speech)
గణగణ (indicates sound of bell)
తళతళ (indicates bright luster)
పకపక (indicates sound of loud laughter)
బడబడ (indicates sound of blabbing)
మలమల (indicates extreme hunger) 
వలవల (indicates sound of extreme crying)
సలసల  (indicates sound of boiling water)