Telugu language

Telugu is a Dravidian language that is spoken mostly by individuals of the Telugu ethnic group. It is the official language of the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where its speakers are concentrated. It is the language that has the most native speakers among the Dravidian languages and is also one of the few languages, along with Hindi and Bengali, that has main official status in more than one Indian state. Additionally, Telugu is spoken by a linguistic minority in the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Kerala, as well as in the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. It is considered by the government of India to be a classical language, along with the other five languages that make up that category.

Telugu is the 15th most spoken language in the world, according to the Ethnologue list of languages, and it is the fourth most spoken language in India, according to the census of 2011. Telugu has over 81 million speakers. It is the member of the Dravidian language family that is spoken by the most people and is one of the twenty-two languages that are officially recognised as being spoken in the Republic of India. It is also the language with the highest rate of expansion in the United States, where there is a sizable population of people who speak Telugu. The Telugu language has the remains of around 10,000 pre-colonial inscriptions.