Telugu

About Telugu

Telugu is a Dravidian language with about 82 million native speakers and the official language of the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It is one of the most widely spoken languages of India, and there are large Telugu communities in the United States and the Gulf states.

Telugu has its own rounded script. Use meeru as the polite "you" with elders and people you do not know, and nuvvu with close friends and younger people. Namaskaram is a respectful greeting. Most Telugu words end in a vowel, which gives the language its flowing sound.

FamilyDravidian
Native speakersabout 82 million (2019)
Official inIndia (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana)
ScriptTelugu script
Codeste (ISO 639-1), tel (ISO 639-3)

Speaker numbers: Ethnologue (2019), via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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