pronunciation of pure Teloogoo words, I think we may fairly infer it to he probable at least that these Sanscrit terms were originally foreign to the language spoken by the great body of the people.
Some Native Grammarians[1] maintain that, before the King Andhra-royadoo[2] established his residence on the banks of the Godavery, the only Teloogoo words were those peculiar to what is emphatically termed the pure Teloogoo, now generally named the language of the land, which they consider coeval with the people, or as they express it “created by the God Brimha.” The followers of this prince, say they, for the first time began to adopt Sanscrit terms with Teloogoo terminations, and by degrees corruptions from the Sanscrit crept into the language, from the ignorance of the people respecting the proper pronunciation of the original words. This would imply that the nation still retain some faint remembrance of those times, in which their language existed independent of the Sanscrit; and it is certain that every Teloogoo Grammarian, from the days of Nunnia Bhutt to the present period, considers the two languages as derived from sources entirely distinct; for each commences his work by classing the words of the language under four separate heads, which they distinguish by the respective names of (
Telugu characters) language of the land, (Telugu characters) Sanscrit derivatives, (Telugu characters) Sanscrit corruptions, and (Telugu characters) provinical terms. To these, latter authors have
- ↑ See the Adhurvana Vyacurnum, as given in the Audhra Cowmudi. (
Telugu characters) The adherents of Anᶁhra Vishtnoo (before mentioned) who then resided on the banks of the Godavery spoke Tutsama words, (Sanscrit derivatives). In the course of time, these words, not being properly articulated by the unlearned, by the changes or obliteration of letters, or by being contracted, a fourth, or a half, became Tudb havas, (Sanscrit corruptions.) Those words consisting of nouns, verbals, and verbs, created by the God Brimha, before the time of Hari, the Lord of Anᶁhra, are called Ucꞕha, (pure.)
- ↑ This is the prince who is now worshipped as a divinity at Siccacollum on the river Krishna, and who was the patron of Kunva, the first Teloogoo Grammarian.
