Page:A Grammar of the Telugu language.djvu/19



Telugu like all languages of the India family is written from left to right like English.

To render the alphabet easy, it will be requisite first to explain the principles on which it proceeds. In dictionaries and poems the spelling differs slightly, as will be presently seen, form the custom of common writing. The pronunciation is unaltered.

Every letter has an initial form and a secondary form. Thus అ ఇ ఉ are the initial vowels A I and U. But as secondary forms these become ి  ు the first two being raised above the line.

So the consonants క గ​ చ are K. G. Ch which in their secondary forms become   being written beneath the line.

Thus some letters are written in the line, others above it, and others beneath.

Like the best Greek writing, imitated in modern printing, Telugu slopes what we call the wrong way. At least such is the modern fashion, used in all common writing, but the round hand, used in manuscripts of poems, is upright—not sloping backwards.

Consonants which are written on the line generally require that a vowel should be attached to them. Thus క గ​ చ by attaching vowels above them become క ka గ ga చ cha: or కి ki గి gi చి chi or కె ke గె ge చె che or కొ co గొ go చొ cho.

Sometimes a vowel is attached to the side, thus ు which is the vowel U. Thus కు గు చు are ku, gu, chu.