Editing Telugu language (section)

== Grammar ==
{{Main|Telugu grammar}}

The traditional study of Telugu Grammar is known as ''vyākaraṇam'' (వ్యాకరణం). The first treatise on Telugu grammar, the ''Āndhra Śabda Cintāmaṇi'', was written in Sanskrit by [[Nannayya]], considered the first Telugu poet and translator, in the 12th century CE. This grammar followed patterns described in grammatical treatises such as ''[[Aṣṭādhyāyī]]'' and [[Pāṇini|''Vālmīkivyākaranam'']], but unlike [[Pāṇini]], Nannayya divided his work into five chapters, covering ''samjnā'', ''[[sandhi]]'', ''ajanta'', ''[[halanta]]'' and ''kriya''.

In the 19th century, Chinnaya Suri wrote a condensed work on Telugu grammar called ''Bāla Vyākaraṇam'', borrowing concepts and ideas from Nannayya's grammar.

=== Morphosyntax ===
Relations between participants in an event are coded in Telugu words through [[suffix]]ation; there are no prefixes or infixes in the language.<ref name=":0" /> There are six word classes in Telugu: nominals (proper nouns, pronouns), verbs (actions or events), modifiers (adjectives, quantifiers, numerals), adverbs (modify the way in which actions or events unfold), and clitics.

Telugu nouns are [[Morpheme|inflected]] for [[Grammatical number|number]] (singular, plural), [[noun class]] (three classes traditionally termed ''masculine, feminine'', and ''neuter'') and [[Grammatical case|case]] ([[Nominative case|nominative]], [[Accusative case|accusative]], [[Genitive case|genitive]], [[Dative case|dative]], [[Vocative case|vocative]], [[Instrumental case|instrumental]], and [[Locative case|locative]]).<ref>{{cite book| year=1857 |title= A grammar of the Telugu language |author1=Charles Philip Brown |edition=2 |publisher=Christian Knowledge Society's Press}}</ref>

==== Word order ====
The [[Word order|basic word order]] in Telugu is subject-object-verb (SOV).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Elçi |first1=Atilla |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YRjBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA148 |title=Smart Computing Paradigms: New Progresses and Challenges: Proceedings of ICACNI 2018 |volume=1 |last2=Sa |first2=Pankaj Kumar |last3=Modi |first3=Chirag N. |last4=Olague |first4=Gustavo |last5=Sahoo |first5=Manmath N. |last6=Bakshi |first6=Sambit |date=30 November 2019 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-981-13-9683-0 |page=148 |language=en}}</ref>

==== Noun classes (gender) ====
As with other Dravidian languages, gender in Telugu follows a semantic system,<ref name=":2">{{cite book|title=Gender|last=Corbett, Greville G.|date=1991|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-32939-6|location=Cambridge [England]|pages=151–154|oclc=21227561}}</ref> in the sense that it is mostly the meaning of the word which defines the noun class to which it belongs. There are three noun classes: masculine (human males, ''he-''gender), feminine (human females, ''she''-gender), and neuter (all non-humans, ''it-gender''). The gender of most nouns is encoded through agreement/indexation in pronominal suffixes rather than overtly on the noun.<ref name=":0" />

{{interlinear
| lang = tel
| indent = 3|anna vaccā'''ḍu'''|older.brother come-past-'''MASC'''|The older brother came
}}

{{interlinear
| lang = tel
| indent = 3|amma vacc-in'''di'''|mother come-past-'''FEM'''|Mother came
}}

In terms of the verbal agreement system, genders in marking on the Telugu verb only occur in the third person.<ref name=":0" />

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Third person
!Singular
!Plural
|-
!Masculine
|{{interlinear
| lang = tel|tericā-'''ḍu'''|He opened
}}
|{{interlinear
| lang = tel|tericā-'''ru'''|They opened
}}
|-
!Feminine
|{{interlinear
| lang = tel|tericin-'''di'''|She opened
}}
|{{interlinear
| lang = tel|tericā-'''ru'''|They opened
}}
|-
!Neuter
|{{interlinear
| lang = tel|tericin-'''di'''|It opened
}}
|{{interlinear
| lang = tel|tericā-'''yi'''/tericina-'''vi'''|They (non-human) opened
}}
|}

The Telugu gender system differs from other Dravidian languages such as [[Tamil language|Tamil]] in that the Telugu feminine shares indexation morphemes with the masculine plural (''-ru'') and with the neuter singular (''-di''). What characterises the three-gender system is then the individual behaviour of the singular-plural ''pairs'' of suffixes.<ref name=":2" />

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Gender
|Verbal suffixes<br/>(singular : plural)
|-
!''Masculine''
| -ḍu : -ru
|-
!''Feminine''
| -di : -ru
|-
!''Neuter''
| -di : -yi/-vi
|}

=== Pronouns ===
Telugu pronouns include personal pronouns (the persons speaking, the persons spoken to, or the persons or things spoken about); indefinite pronouns; relative pronouns (connecting parts of sentences); and reciprocal or reflexive pronouns (in which the object of a verb is acted on by the verb's subject).

==== Personal pronouns ====
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Telugu pronouns
|-
|I
|{{langx|te|label=none|నేను|nēnu}}
|-
|we (inclusive)
|{{langx|te|label=none|మనం|manaṃ}}
{{langx|te|label=none|మనము|manamu}}
|-
|we (exclusive)
|{{langx|te|label=none|మేము|mēmu}}
|-
|you (singular)
|{{langx|te|label=none|నీవు|nīvu}}
{{langx|te|label=none|నువ్వు|nuvvu}}
|- 
|you (plural)
|{{langx|te|label=none|మీరు|mīru}}
|-
|she
|{{langx|te|label=none|ఆమె|āme}}
|-
|he
|{{langx|te|label=none|అతను|atanu}}
|-
|they (humans)
| {{langx|te|label=none|వాళ్ళు|vāḷḷu}}
|-
|it
|{{langx|te|label=none|అది|adi}}
|-
| they (non-humans)
| {{langx|te|label=none|అవి|avi}}
{{langx|te|label=none|అయి|ayi}}
|}
In informal Telugu, personal pronouns distinguish masculine from non-masculine.<ref>{{cite book| year=1873 |title= A progressive grammar of the Telugu language |author1=Albert Henry Arden |publisher=Society for promoting Christian knowledge |page=57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tW8IAAAAQAAJ&q=neuter+feminine&pg=PA57 |access-date=3 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |year=1857 |title=A grammar of the Telugu language |author=Charles Philip Brown |edition=2 |publisher=Christian Knowledge Society's Press |page=39 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pnAIAAAAQAAJ&q=feminine&pg=PA39 |access-date=3 August 2014 |archive-date=13 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013132000/https://books.google.com/books?id=pnAIAAAAQAAJ&q=feminine&pg=PA39 |url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Demonstratives ====
There is a wide variety of [[Demonstrative|demonstrative pronouns]] in Telugu, whose forms depend on both proximity to the speaker and the level of formality. The formal demonstratives may also be used as formal personal pronoun, that is, the polite forms for ''this woman'' or ''this man'' and ''that woman'' or ''that man'' can also simply mean ''she'' and ''he'' in more formal contexts''.''

In the singular, there are four levels of formality when speaking about males and females, although the most formal/polite form is the same for both human genders. In both singular and plural, Telugu distinguishes two levels of distance from speaker (like in English), basically ''this and that'', and ''these and those''.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="6" |Singular
|-
! colspan="3" |Proximal
(''close to speaker,'' "this")
! colspan="3" |Distal

(''far from speaker'', "that")
|-
|'''Gender/Formality'''
|'''''Feminine'''''
|'''''Masculine'''''
|'''''Neuter'''''
|'''''Feminine'''''
|'''''Masculine'''''
|'''''Neuter'''''
|-
|'''''very informal'''''
|idi
|vīḍu
| rowspan="4" |idi
|adi
|vāḍu
| rowspan="4" |adi
|-
|'''''informal'''''
|īme
|itanu
|āme
|atanu
|-
|'''''formal'''''
|īviḍa
|īyana
|āviḍa
|āyana
|-
|'''''very formal'''''
| colspan="2" |vīru
| colspan="2" |vāru
|}
In the plural, there are no distinctions between formality levels, but once again masculine and feminine forms are the same, while the neuter demonstratives are different.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! colspan="6" |Plural
|-
! colspan="3" |Proximal
(''close to speaker, "these"'')
! colspan="3" |Distal

(''far from speaker'', "those")
|-
|'''''Feminine'''''
|'''''Masculine'''''
|'''''Neuter'''''
|'''''Feminine'''''
|'''''Masculine'''''
|'''''Neuter'''''
|-
| colspan="2" |vīỊỊu/vīru
|ivi
| colspan="2" |vāỊỊu/vāru
|avi
|}

=== Case system ===
The nominative case (''karta''), the object of a verb (''karma''), and the verb are somewhat in a sequence in Telugu sentence construction. "''Vibhakti''" (case of a noun) and "''pratyāyamulu''" (an affix to roots and words forming derivatives and inflections) depict the ancient nature and progression of the language. The "''Vibhaktis''" of Telugu language " డు [ɖu], ము [mu], వు [vu], లు [lu]", etc., are different from those in Sanskrit and have been in use for a long time.