The Consonants I — the Five Vargas

The Inherent Vowel

8.A Telugu consonant letter stands for that consonant plus the vowel అ (a): క (ka) is not k but ka. The vowel is inherent in the letter, and it remains unless something is written to remove or replace it.

క

ka

ka — one letter, two sounds

మ

ma

ma

కమ

kama

kama — two letters, four sounds — nothing is written for either vowel

• [1] This is what makes Telugu an abugida rather than an alphabet or a syllabary.
• [2] It follows that the thirty-six consonants are really thirty-six syllables, and that a Telugu word of three letters is a word of three syllables.

The Five Vargas

9.The first twenty-five consonants are arranged in five వర్గాలు (vargālu) (vargas), each of five letters. A varga is a class of sounds made at one place in the mouth, and the five vargas run from the back of the mouth to the front: velar, palatal, retroflex, dental, labial. The order is not arbitrary and not alphabetical — it is anatomical, and it was worked out by Indian grammarians more than two thousand years ago.

క ఖ గ ఘ ఙ

ka kha ga gha ṅa

the velar varga, ka-varga

ప ఫ బ భ మ

pa pha ba bha ma

the labial varga, pa-varga

The Five Columns

10.Within every varga the five letters stand in the same order, and that order is the second half of the system. The first is unvoiced and unaspirated, the second unvoiced and aspirated, the third voiced, the fourth voiced and aspirated, the fifth nasal. It follows that the n-th letter of any varga has the same manner as the n-th letter of any other: క, చ, ట, త, ప (ka, ca, ṭa, ta, pa) are all unvoiced unaspirated stops, differing only in where they are made.

క చ ట త ప

ka ca ṭa ta pa

the first column — all unvoiced and unaspirated

గ జ డ ద బ

ga ja ḍa da ba

the third column — all voiced

ఙ ఞ ణ న మ

ṅa ña ṇa na ma

the fifth column — all nasal

Aspiration

11.An aspirated consonant is released with an audible puff of breath; an unaspirated one is not. In Telugu the difference distinguishes words. The aspirated letters are those of the second and fourth columns, each written as its unaspirated partner with more of a flourish.

క / ఖ

ka / kha

ka / kha

ప / ఫ

pa / pha

pa / pha

• [1] English speakers meet a similar puff in the p of pin against the p of spin, but English does not use it to tell words apart.

Retroflex against Dental

12.The dental letters త థ ద ధ న (ta tha da dha na) are made with the tongue against the teeth. The retroflex letters ట ఠ డ ఢ ణ (ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa) are made with the tongue curled back to the roof of the mouth. The two series are entirely distinct in Telugu.

త ta

ta ta

dental — tongue on the teeth

ట ṭa

ṭa ṭa

retroflex — tongue curled back

న na / ణ ṇa

na na / ṇa ṇa

the same distinction in the nasals

• [1] English t and d fall between the two places; neither series is the English sound.
• [2] The retroflex series is the mark of an Indian language. It is not found in the languages of Europe, and it is what makes English spoken in India sound as it does.

The Nasals

13.Each varga ends with its own nasal — a sound made at that varga's place with the breath let out through the nose. Telugu therefore has five nasals where English has three. Two of them, ఙ (ṅa) and ఞ (ña), are almost never written as separate letters in modern Telugu: the sounds occur, but before another consonant of their own varga they are written with the అనుస్వారం (anusvāraṁ) instead, which is taken up in the next section.

ఙ ఞ ణ న మ

ṅa ña ṇa na ma

ṅa ña ṇa na ma — one nasal to each varga

మ

ma

ma — the labial nasal, the commonest of the five

ణ / న

ṇa / na

ṇa / na — retroflex and dental, distinct words in Telugu