Typological Features Template for Telugu
by Sree Ganesh
| Feature | Description | ||||||||||||
| Phonological Features | In the following fields I describe the phonological inventory of Telugu | ||||||||||||
| Vowel inventory | Telugu has twelve oral vowels: `a aa i ii u uu e ee ai o oo au`. The symbols `ai` and `au` represents diphthongs (combination of two vowels pronounced as single syllables).
| ||||||||||||
| Vowel harmony | Telugu words have vowels in inflectional suffixes harmonised with the vowels of the preceding syllable. There are many rules to describe the vowel harmony (Balavyakaranam). Sequences of two vowels occur in the orthography but are always reduced to one in speech.
eg. rAmudu awadu → rAmudawadu | ||||||||||||
| Consonant inventory | Telugu has 33 consonant symbols. According to traditional practice each of the consonants pronounced and written with an inherent vowel. That means క `ka` refers to the pure consonant `k` and not to the sequence `k` plus `a`.
Table `ca` has two varieties of pronunciation, `ca` and `ts` depending on what vowel follows. If it follows i, ii, e, ee, ai (front vowels) it is pronounced as `ca` like the english `ch` in `chair`. When it follows back vowels a, aa, u, uu, o, oo its pronunciation is as `ts`. eg. cinna (small) - `ca` pronunciation caduvu (study) - `ts` pronunciation `ja` also has two pronunciations. When follows front vowels the pronunciation is `j` and `dz` before back vowels. eg. jila (itch) - `j` pronunciation jaagu (delay) - `dz` pronunciation Many people pronounce `j` like `z` between vowels when the following vowel is `u or uu` eg. rooju (day) - `z` pronunciation Retroflex `L` and `N` never occurs at the beginning of Telugu word. `M` anusvaara is a covered symbol for n, N and m in different positions with the following phonetic values: 1.Before `k` and `g` it is pronounced as English `ng` in `sing` or the `n` in `sink` eg. jiMka/jinka (deer), saMgati/sangati (matter) 2.Before `c` and `j`with a following front vowel, it is pronounced like english `n` in `punch` eg. maMci/manci (good) 3.Before `c` and `j` with following back vowel it is like `n` as in `pant` pronunciation. 4.Before `T` and `D` it is pronounced like `N` eg. paMTa/paNTa (crop) 5.Before p, b it is pronounced like `m`at the beginning of a word eg. pampu (send) 6.At the end of word and also before w, S, s and h it is pronounced like `m` occurring between vowels eg. simham/siwhaw (lion) | ||||||||||||
| Syllable Structure | Syllable structure is
represented as C*VC* in most of Indian languages like Telugu, The syllables in Telugu language can exist as vowel alone or as CV, VC, CVC. CCVC.
samzskrit (language) will be a part of syllable containing `sa`.
`yaa` - `tra`. | ||||||||||||
| Morpho-syntactic Features | In the following fields I describe some of the basic morpho-syntactic parameters of Telugu. | ||||||||||||
| morphological classification (1) | Telugu is an agglutinative SOV language. Telugu nouns can be divided into 3 classes. Proper- and common nouns, pronouns and a special group of nouns such as adverbial nouns, verbal nouns etc.. There is no definite or indefinite article in Telugu, Common nouns can be divided into count and non-count nouns. Count nouns can be singular or plural. Non-count nouns can be either singular or plural but not both. In contrast to English mass nouns are plural in Telugu. All nominal root forms can function as nominative singular. `lu` is the plural suffix which can be instantiated as `LLu, ru, Ø` (zero affix) reflecting morpho-phonemic changes.
Here an example: All stems ending in `di, du, ru` and for stems of more than two syllables ending in `li` and `ri`, the final syllable becomes `L` before `Lu`. Example: baDi – baLLu school(s) paMdiri – paMdiLLu | ||||||||||||
| morphological classification (2) | Telugu has two genders, masculine and non-masculine. There is no feminine gender as such. Nouns denoting female persons and neuter things are treated as non-masculine in singular, but in plural they are treated as masculine. Consequently, demonstrative pronouns have two forms in the singular, one for a male person (eg. VADu – he) one for female person person and for things (ex. Adi – she/it) and two forms in the plural, one for male and female persons (eg. VALLu – they/those) and one for things (eg. Avi – they/those). In addition suffixes are used to denote the difference between the male and female.
Example: snEhituDu – male friend snEhiturAlu – female friend Case: Telugu has seven cases, these are: nominative, accusative, instrumental, ablative, genitive, dative and locative. At morpho-syntactic level the accusative is part of the genitive. Table | ||||||||||||
| Nominal Phrases | In the following fields we aim for a description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of nominal constituents | ||||||||||||
| general description | Text here | ||||||||||||
| nominal modification and specification | In this field you indicate the basic types of nominal modifiers (adjectives, relative clauses, adpositions...)
as well as the use of demonstratives (deixis), numerals, quantifiers. | ||||||||||||
| possession | In Telugu possession is expressed based on the root endings. If root ends with '-a' possession marker is `ø`. else where `i` is the possession marker. If possessor is plural then it takes `-a` prefix to indicate the possession. | ||||||||||||
| pronominal system | In this field you indicate if [your language] has free pronoun forms? Are pronouns marked for their grammatical function (object versus subject pronouns)? Does your language have bound pronouns (affixes) or pronoun doubling? Are reflexives expressed by pronouns? | ||||||||||||
| Verbal Phrases | In the following fields serve for the description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of verbal constituents | ||||||||||||
| word order | Telugu is SOV language | ||||||||||||
| TAM | Every Telugu verb has a finite and non-finite form. In Telugu a finite form can stand as the main verb of a sentence and occur before a final pause. Finite verb carry gender-number-person suffixes.
eg. unnAnu (is 1st person singular) can be analyzed in to: verb root (un) + tense suffix (nA) + personal suffix (nu) In Telugu there are eight suffixes for different persons and numbers: Singular Plural 1st person -nu -mu 2nd person -vu -ru 3rd person(m.) -Du -ru 3rd person(f.n) -di -yi In colloquaial speech the final syllable `nu` is sometimes omitted in the 1st person singular of the verb and in the pronoun `neenu (I)` eg. rUpAyi istA rupee will give (I will give a rupee) In Telugu there are six inflectional types of finite verb which involve tense-mode distinctions are constructed in this way: Affirmative: past, future habitual, imperative, hortative Negative: future-habitual, imperative Past tense and feature-habitual formation principles: 1.A stem final short vowel is lost before a vowel which begins a word or suffix. eg. Ammu (stem) + A (past tense) +Du (agr.) = ammADu 2.A short vowel `u` occuring in basic stem of the form (c)vcvc(v) becomes `i` when followed by a front vowel in the next syllable eg. aDugu (stem) + A (past tense) + Du (agr.) = aDug + Du (by rule 1) and aDigADu (by rule 2) 3.A short vowel is lost between `n` and one of the consonants `d, r, D`. That short vowel may be followed or preceded by a morpheme boundary eg. amm (stem) + ina (past tense) + di (agr.) = ammindi (She sold) Negation: Special feature of Telugu is the formation of a verb paradigm in the negative tense rather than use of a separate word. Bellow are the principles for negative tense formation: 1.Negative tense is formed by adding to the basic stem the negative suffix `a` followed by the personal suffix. eg. ammu (sell-root) + a (neg.suffix) + nu(per.su) = ammanu (I don't sell/I will not sell) 2.middle `u` of basic stem having two or three syllables of the shape (c)vc-u-c(u) change to `a` when followed by the negative suffix `a` in the next syllable. 3.A large number of basic stems ending in `c` and `s` replace these consonants by `v/y`in the negative eg. pilcu (call-root) + a (neg.s) + Du (per.su) = pilvaDu (he don't call/ he will not call) Imperative: The imperative forms are used when a speaker in the 1st person address a hearer in the second person. Therefore they carry two suffixes: 2nd person singular and 2nd person plural. In the negative imperative 2nd person suffixes are to the negative stem consisting of a verb stem + `ak` (neg.) 2nd person 2nd person singular plural Affirmative u/i aMDi Negative aku akaMDi Hortative: Hortative is conveyed in Telugu by a finite verb which is formed by adding to the verb stem the hortative suffix `dA` followed by the 1st person plural suffim `mu/M`. Hortative forms in Telugu also have a future meaning involving two participant subjects. Hortative formation principle is: Root + dA+ personal suffix `mu/M` eg. ammu (sell-root) + dA + mu = ammudAmu/M (let us sell) Durative: As in English Telugu doesn't formally distinguish the present, past and perfect continuous. This distinction is brought out by the use of an adverb of time or by the context of discourse. In Telugu in the absence of any time specifying clues a durative verb carries the present continuous meaning. Every durative verb is technically a compound verb. Durative formation principle is: Root + t/T (durative suffix) + person eg. un (be-root) + t/T(durative suffix) + nu (person) = unTAnu (to be) | ||||||||||||
| infinitival forms | In this field you indicate if [your language] makes use of an infinitive marker? How many infinitival forms does your language have? | ||||||||||||
| verbal constructions | In this field you indicate if [your language] has ditransitive constructions, serial verb constructions or complex verb forms composed of several verbs. Does your language have so called light verbs, perhaps only used to indicate a certain tense or aspect? | ||||||||||||
| Adpositions | In this field you indicate if [your language[ makes use of prepositions or postpositions. Does your language have spatial nouns? Does your language use adpositions or particles to indicate grammatical relations between the verb and a nominal argument? | ||||||||||||
| Complementation | In this field you describe complementation strategies. Does [your language] make use of complementizers? | ||||||||||||
| Special Properties of [your language] | In this field you should mention properties of [your language] which did not fit into any of the other categories mentioned in this template | ||||||||||||
| Short Bibliography |