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Old Telugu (Telugu: ప్రాఁదెనుఁగు, ప్ఴాన్దెనుఙ్గు, పాత తెలుగు, romanized: prām̐denum̐gu, pḻāndenuṅgu, pāta telugu) is the earliest attested stage of the Telugu language.[1]
Old Telugu is attested in various inscriptions, labels and as early loanwords in the literature of several other languages.
The term పాత తెలుగు /pāta telugu/ is the Modern Telugu word, referring to the Old Telugu language.
The word పాత /pāta/ and the adjectival prefixes ప్రాఁ /prām̐/, ప్ఴాన్ /pḻān/ come from the reconstructed Dravidian word *paḻan-(tta), meaning old/ancient.
Phonology
In Old Telugu, the inherited Proto-Dravidian consonantal system was fairly well preserved except for incorporating the feature of voicing from the earliest known period.
Old Telugu maintained a three-way distinction of coronal consonants which includes, alveolar, retroflex and dental stops. ḏ was originally derived from ṟ but they contrasted sometimes, eg. caḏu (> ceḍu) vs pāṟum but it was mostly an allophone of ṟ before n, eg. mūnḏu.[2]
Voiceless stops appeared at medial positions, by the simplification of geminates after a long vowel and a nasal.
Aspirated consonants were borrowed from Indo-Aryan and were incorporated into the writing system.
Apical displacement was progressive for certain period of time, resulting in word-initial apical consonants in some words.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m (మ) | n (న) | ɳ (ణ) | |||||
| Stop | Voiceless | p (ప) | t̪ (త) | ʈ (ట) | tʃ (చ) | k (క) | ||
| Aspirated | pʰ (ఫ) | t̪ʰ (థ) | ʈʰ (ఠ) | tʃʰ (ఛ) | kʰ (ఖ) | |||
| Voiced | b (బ) | d̪ (ద) | ḏ (ౚ,న్ఱ్) | ɖ (డ) | dʒ (జ) | g (గ) | ||
| Breathy | bʰ (భ) | d̪ʰ (ధ) | ɖʰ (ఢ) | dʒʰ (ఝ) | gʰ (ఘ) | |||
| Fricative | s (స) | ʂ (ష) | ʃ (శ) | h (హ) | ||||
| Approximant | ʋ (వ) | l (ల) | ɭ (ళ) | y (య) | ||||
| Rhotic | ɾ (ర), r (ఱ) |
ɻ (ఴ) | ||||||
Morphology
Old Telugu is an agglutinative language primarily utilizing suffixes to express grammatical relationships. Noun morphology included gender markers and various derivational processes, while verb morphology was highly developed with distinct markers for tense, mood, and aspect.
Old Telugu preserved the two-way masculine vs non-masculine gender pattern intact, which is said to be the original case with Proto-Dravidian and this is also inherited by Modern Telugu.
Telugu branch is evidenced to have inherited three distinct plural markers which are: -ḷ, -kVḷ and -r. 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. mrām̐-kulu later getting analyzed as mrām̐ku-lu, creating a root mrām̐ku.
Parts of speech
Nouns in Old Telugu could be primary or derived, with primary nouns often being free forms and derived nouns formed through suffixation. Gender was signaled by specific suffixes and the overall morphology was influenced by both native Dravidian elements and Indo-Aryan borrowings.
Verbs
Old Telugu verbs were categorized into finite and non-finite forms, with various suffixes indicating tense, mood, and agreement with subjects. The language had three primary tense paradigms: past, non-past, and negative. Additionally, Old Telugu featured several derived verb forms, including causatives and denominal verbs.
Pronouns
The pronominal system in Old Telugu marked person, number, and gender. Reflexive pronouns and a range of demonstratives, interrogatives, and indefinites were also used.
Declension
| Case | maganḏu ('man'/'son') | cēy(i) ('hand') | koṭṭaṁbuḷ ('fortresses') |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accusative | maganin | cētin | koṭṭaṁbuḷan |
| Instrumental | maganicētan
maganitōḻan |
cētitōḻan | koṭṭaṁbuḷatōḻan
koṭṭaṁbuḷacētan |
| Dative | maganiki(n) | cētiki(n) | koṭṭaṁbuḷaku(n) |
| Ablative | magani-nuṇḍi
magani-nuñci |
cēti-nuṇḍi
cēti-nuñci |
koṭṭaṁbuḷa-nuṇḍi
koṭṭaṁbuḷa-nuñci |
| Genitive | magani | cēti | koṭṭaṁbuḷa |
| Locative | maganiyandun
maganiyoḷan maganiḷōn |
cētiyandun cētiyoḷan cētiḷōn |
koṭṭaṁbuḷandun
koṭṭaṁbuḷan koṭṭaṁbuḷoḷan koṭṭaṁbuḷaḷōn |
Syntax
The structure of Old Telugu sentences typically involved nominative-accusative alignment, with case markers indicating the grammatical roles of nouns. The language employed a variety of case forms and postpositions to express detailed semantic relations.
Indukur & Potladurthi inscriptions (600 CE)
svasti srī cōḻa mahārājull ēḷan erigal dugarājul iccina pannasa kocciya pāṟa rēvasarmmārikin dīni ḻaccina wāṉḏu pañcamahāpataka samyuktuṉḏagu...
...oḷana inpuḻōli aṇapōtulu rēvaṇakālu puddaṇakālu iccina pannasa pen pāṟa iseṟēnikin dīni ḻaccina wāṉḏu pañcamahāpatakuṉḏagun asivairuvu likitam...
Addanki Inscription (848 CE)
paṭṭambu gaṭṭina prathamambu nēṇḍu balagarvvaṁ boppaṅga bai lēci sēna paṭṭambu gaṭṭiñci prabhu baṇḍa raṅgu bañcina samatta paḍuvatō bōya koṭṭam̐bulvaṇḍreṇḍu goṇi vēṅgi nāḍin goḷalci (ya) tribhuvanāṅkuśa bāṇa nilpi kaṭṭepu durggaambu gaḍu bayalsēsi kaṇḍukūr bejavāḍa gāviñcemecci...
Bezawada inscription of Yuddhamalla (898 CE)
...velayaṅga niyyeṭṭu ḻissi malinurai viḍisina vrōla gala tānapatulunu rājupaṭṭambu gaṭṭina patiyu naliyaṁ bayvūrala velvariñcina naśvamēdhambu phalambu pēkṣiñcina liṅgaṁ baḻisina pāpambu damaku...
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