Editing Telugu language (section)

=== Pre-historic Telugu (c. 600 BCE – 200 BCE) ===
Pre-historic Telugu is identified with the period around 600 BCE or even earlier.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite journal |last=Mari |first=Will |date=3 July 2021 |title=Editor & Publisher, 1901–2015, Internet Archive |journal=American Journalism |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=381–383 |doi=10.1080/08821127.2021.1949564 |issn=0882-1127 |s2cid=237538061}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |pages=v, 4 |title=Historical Grammar of Telugu |author=Korada Mahadeva Sastri |date=1969 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.153565/page/n8/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref> Pre-historic Telugu is considered one of the most conservative languages of the Dravidian family based on its linguistic features.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sjoberg |first1=Andree F. |last2=Krishnamurti |first2=Bhadriraju |date=December 1966 |title=Telugu Verbal Bases: A Comparative and Descriptive Study |journal=Language |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=838–846 |doi=10.2307/411840 |jstor=411840 |issn=0097-8507}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Linguistic Survey of India (1906) |date=1906 |page=273 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.62469/page/n273/mode/1up?view=theater&q=older |quote=Dravidian languages such as Telugu have preserved older forms and represent a more ancient state of development.}}</ref>

* Plural Markers: One notable feature is the presence of contrast in plural markers, such as ''-r'', ''-ḷ'' and ''-nkkVḷ'' (a combination of ''-nkk'' and ''-Vḷ''), which was lost in the earliest forms of many other Dravidian languages.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Andronov |first1=Mikhail Sergeevich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vhB60gYvnLgC&pg=PA23 |title=Compartive Grammar of Dravidian Languages by Mikhail Andronov |date=18 January 2024 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-04455-4 |page=112}}</ref> Examples include ''pū-ḷ'' (flowers), ''ā-ḷ'' (cows), distinct from ''kolan-kuḷ'' (tanks), and ''ī-gaḷ'' (houseflies). By the time of early writings, -kVḷ marker underwent back-stem formation with the root words, losing its status as a distinct plural marker, eg. mrā̃-kulu (< *maran-kVḷ), later getting analyzed as mrā̃ku-lu, creating a root mrā̃ku (> Modern māku). Other examples include goḍugu, ciluka, eluka, īga.
* Nominative Markers: The nominative markers were ''-nḏu'' (masc.sg.p1) and ''-aṁbu'' (inanimate.sg), which continued to appear in early inscriptions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nominative suffixes in Old Telugu, Iravatham Mahadevan |url=https://www.harappa.com/arrow/3.html |quote=The Old Telugu nominatives are the possible retentions of the ancient pictorial values of the symbols on Indus Valley tablets.}}</ref>
* Personal Pronouns: Reconstructed personal pronouns include ''ñān'' (I) with the oblique form ''ñā'', and ''ñām'' or ''ēm'' (we).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Krishnamurti: The Dravidian Languages |url=https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4415432/mod_folder/content/0/Cambridge%2520Language%2520Surveys/Krishnamurti%25202003.%2520The%2520Dravidian%2520Languages.pdf?forcedownload=1 |access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref>
* Phonemic Retention: The early language displayed high phonemic retention, with characteristic phonemes like the [[voiced retroflex approximant]] (''ḻ'' or /ɻ/) and the [[Voiced dental and alveolar plosives|voiced alveolar plosive]] (''ḏ'' or /d/), which evolved into the [[Voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar trills|alveolar trill]] (''ṟ'' or /r/) in different positions. Both /d/ and /r/ are evidenced as distinct phonemes in early epigraphic records.<ref name="auto12">{{Cite web |date=18 January 1971 |title=ప్రాచీనాంధ్రశాసనాలు (క్రీ.శ. 1100వరకు) (పాఠ, పదకోశ, సంగ్రహభాషా చరిత్రలతో): బూదరాజు రాధాకృష్ |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.493129 |access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=18 January 2012 |title=Proposal to encode 0C5A TELUGU LETTER RRRA |url=https://unicode.org/L2/L2012/12016-telugu-rrra-proposal.pdf |access-date=6 April 2024 |publisher=unicode.org}}</ref>
* Tenses: Tenses were structured as "past vs non-past," and gender was categorized as "masculine vs non-masculine."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/dravidian-languages/CB6877BB2AFC237DA0B154E62F8DD898&ved=2ahUKEwi57o6r6eSDAxX3cGwGHXNlAJMQFnoECA4QBQ&usg=AOvVaw3nl5sxu0iZyE2nHwS5mszk|title=Dravidian Languages, Krishnamurti|accessdate=23 February 2025}}</ref>
* Demonstratives: Three demonstratives were in use: ''ā'' (distant 'that'), ''ī'' (proximate 'this'), and ''ū'' (intermediate 'yonder'; in Classical Telugu, ''ulla'').<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Dravidian Languages by Bhadriraju Krishnamurthi |url=https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4415432/mod_folder/content/0/Cambridge%2520Language%2520Surveys/Krishnamurti%25202003.%2520The%2520Dravidian%2520Languages.pdf?forcedownload=1 |page=256}}</ref>
* Non-Palatalized Initials: Non-palatalized initials are identified in words like ''kēsiri'' ("they did"), found in inscriptions up until the 8th century CE.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Andronov |first1=Mikhail Sergeevich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vhB60gYvnLgC&pg=PA23 |title=A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages |date=18 January 2024 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-04455-4 |page=60}}</ref>
* Word Endings: Words typically ended in vowels, though some had consonant endings with [[sonorant]]s like ''-y'', ''-r'', ''-m'', ''-n'', ''-l'', ''-ḷ'', ''-ḻ'', and ''-w''. Classical Telugu developed an [[Epenthesis|epenthetic]] ''-u'' that vowelized the final consonant, a feature that has been partly retained in Modern Telugu.
* Place Name Suffixes: Archaic place name suffixes include ''-puḻōl'', ''-ūr'', ''-paḷḷiya'', ''-pāḷiyam'', ''-paṟṟu'', ''-konḏa'', ''-pūṇḍi'', ''-paṭṭaṇa(ṁbu)'', ''pāḻu'', ''paṟiti'', and ''pāka(m)''.<ref name="auto12" />
* Apical Displacement: Apical displacement was underway for certain words.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krishnamurti |first=Bhadriraju |title=Comparative Dravidian Linguistics |chapter=Areal and Lexical Diffusion of Sound Change: Evidence from Dravidian |date=2001 |pages=160–182 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198241225.003.0010 |isbn=978-0-19-824122-5 |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/book/48110/chapter-abstract/421300203?redirectedFrom=fulltext}}</ref>
* Conjunctive Marker: The conjunctive marker ''-um'' had various structural applications.<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 January 1971 |title=Early Telugu Inscriptions (Up to 1100 AD), Dr. Budaraju Radha Krishna. |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.493129/page/n1/mode/1up |quote=Pg: ci; "Of these, '-umu' is the earliest form".}}</ref>