The Vowel Signs — గుణింతం

The Vowel Sign

22.A consonant carries the vowel అ (a) of itself (¶8). To make it carry any other vowel, a sign is attached to it, and that sign replaces the inherent vowel rather than adding to it: కి (ki) is ki, not kai or kai. The signs are not the independent vowel letters of ¶7 but a separate set of shapes, and the two must never be confused.

క → కి

ka → ki

ka → ki — the sign replaces అ; it does not add to it

క → కు

ka → ku

ka → ku

ఇ against ి

i against i

the letter i against the sign i — different shapes for the same vowel, used in different places

• [1] An abugida is defined by exactly this: a default vowel that a mark may override. An alphabet writes every vowel; a syllabary gives every syllable an unrelated sign; Telugu does neither.

The Guṇintam

23.The series of one consonant taken through all sixteen vowels is called its గుణింతం (guṇintaṁ). Every consonant has one, and every guṇintam uses the same signs in the same order, so that the sixteen signs learned once serve all thirty-six consonants — five hundred and seventy-six syllables from fifty-two letters and sixteen marks. This is the economy that makes an abugida worth learning.

కా కి కు కె

kā ki ku ke

kā ki ku ke — one consonant, four vowels

మా మి ము మె

mā mi mu me

mā mi mu me — the same four signs

Where the Signs Are Written

24.A vowel sign is not written after its consonant as a letter would be. Some stand above the consonant, some below it, some to its right, and some are made of parts in more than one place at once. This is why Telugu cannot be read letter by letter from left to right as English is: the eye must take in a whole syllable, with everything attached to it, before it can be sounded.

కు

ku

ku — the sign hangs below

కే

kē

kē — the sign sits above

కో

kō

kō — the sign has parts in two places

There Is No Sign for అ

25.Of the sixteen vowels, fifteen have a sign and అ (a) has none, because a consonant already carries it. It follows that the bare consonant letter is the first member of its own guṇintam, and that anything written on a consonant is by definition not అ. A learner who looks for a sign meaning a is looking for something that does not exist.

క

ka

ka — the first of the guṇintam, with no sign

కా

kā

kā — the second, with the ā sign

How the Consonant Changes Shape

26.Several signs do not merely sit beside the consonant but alter it, taking the place of the తలకట్టు (talakaṭṭu) (¶6) or reshaping the top of the letter. క, కి (ka, ki) and కె (ke) are one consonant in three dresses. This is the point at which a learner who knows the bare alphabet discovers they still cannot read: the letters on the page are not quite the letters on the chart.

క / కి / కె

ka / ki / ke

ka / ki / ke — the same consonant, its top altered by the sign

మ / మి / మె

ma / mi / me

ma / mi / me — the same alteration on another letter

Reading a Syllable

27.To read a Telugu syllable, take the consonant, then look above, below and to the right for a sign, and sound the consonant with whatever vowel that sign names — or with అ (a) if there is none. A Telugu word therefore has as many syllables as it has consonant-clusters, and a word of three written units is a word of three syllables.

కల

kala

kala — a dream — two letters, no signs, so both vowels are అ

కాలు

kālu

kālu — a leg — ā on the first, u on the second

పులి

puli

puli — a tiger — u below the first, i above the second