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Tamil vs. Telugu

Difference between Tamil and Telugu

Tamil and Telugu both belong to the Dravidian family of languages and two major South Indian languages spoken in India along with Dravidian family of languages Kannada and Malayalam. Most of outsiders and international visitors are confused because to the stranger’s ears, the language may sound same. However, the difference between two major languages lies in their origin and scripts. Tamil is spoken majorly in the state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Mauritius. On the other hand, Telugu is limited to the southern Indian state Andhra Pradesh.

The difference lies in the origin of these two languages. Tamil is the oldest language of Dravidian family with an existence of over two thousand years. Sangam literature, dated between 3rd century BC and 3rd century AD, is one of the earliest literature of the language whereas Telugu literatures can be found only dated to 575 AD. The three writers Renati Cholas, Nannaya, Tikkana and Erra Preggada started the Telugu literary movement in real terms when they started writing Mahabharata in Telugu. The language, Telugu shows strong influence of Sanskrit whereas Tamil is not dependant on Sanskrit for grammar. Tamil has of 12 vowels, 18 consonants and one special character- the āytam with 216 combined consonants and vowels whereas Telugu has sixty characters including forty-one consonants, 16 vowels and three vowel modifiers. The words in Telugu end with vowel sound.

The evolution of the Tamil language is categorized into three periods which are Old Tamil, Middle Tamil period and Modern Tamil. Though, the scholars have differentiated the languages however, both of them have rich history and produced excellent literatures. Both languages- Tamil and Telugu enjoy the status of classical language given to them by Government of India.

 

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  • kiran

    Telugu is praised my many great people of other communities.

    • Anand

      Tamil is praised by even ordinary people of other communities!!!

      • Subba

        who said Tamil is old!!! all are false news

        • Servophbabu

          Can you prove

          • Strangerjane1

            UNESCO has approved Tamil scripts dated 2000 years old

        • Rahul_kumar20022003

          Tamil is the oldest. That is why it got Classical status ahead of even Sanskrit.

          • Jpavanaryan

            do u have brain , KARUNANIDHI bought   Language feeling in Tamil guys , for election purpose , why don’t understand ?

  • Bhala

    Tamil is one of the oldest classical langauge with grammer (before 2500 years ago) in the world still spoken by all sort of peoples which has its own scripts for numeric too.

    • Jpavanaryan

      u don’t know the facts , then u r talking like   a monark , Tamil is originated from  SANSKRIT only  only a fool would question it . do u know  why valmiki ,vyasudu  written mahabharatha , Ramayana in sanskrit . realise now man , if u celebrate  classical  literature means it won’t become  classical language .

  • Raja

    Tamil has kept its purity till this day and has withstood the onslaught of Sanskrit, Arabic, Urdu/Hindi,english, French, Dutch, Portugese,Armenian,Greek etc. It can stand alone with capacity to develop own vocabulary drawing from its own roots, for any emerging phenomenon, which other languages lack because of their dependance on Devanagari table of alphabets as well as prolific mix-up of Sanskrit words.

  • phani

    Tamil has of 12 vowels, 18 consonants and one special character- the āytam with 216 combined consonants and vowels whereas Telugu has sixty characters including forty-one consonants, 16 vowels and three vowel modifiers.

    what is the point of saying 216 combined consonants in tamil
    u have to mention 37*16*3=1176 characters in telugu as well, then

    • Rahul_kumar20022003

      Telugu came much later than Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada & Malayalam. Telugu has borrowed 75% of its words from Sanskrit and 25% from Tamil.
       

      • Savitri Shankaran

        Wth… yo get your facts straight… Kannada and Malayalam came from Tamil and by that time Telugu was already an ancient language… Tamil is also an amazing language… but hell NOO telugu did not borrow 75% from sanskirt and 25% from tamil… infact there are hardly any words in telugu that are the same as in tamil… Telugu is more closely related to prakrit and sanskirt then it is to tamil… even tamil itself has a lot of sanskrit words so i don’t know where your going with this… I would like to say telugu is the only language which holds north india and south india together (language wise) as it is a dravidian language which came from proto-dravidian the same place where tamil came from. anyways all the languages of India are unique in their own way…

        • Jpavanaryan

           u don’t know the facts , then u r talking like   a monark , Tamil is originated from  SANSKRIT only  only a fool would question it . do u know  why valmiki ,vyasudu  written mahabharatha , Ramayana in sanskrit . realise now man , if u celebrate  classical  literature means it won’t become  classical language .  

          • Jash121

            Tamil originated from sanskrit ? What ignorance.Tamil was and continues to be totally independent of Sanskrit except for loanwords.  

        • Jpavanaryan

          Both telugu and tamil are orginated  same time only . telugu is never dependent on TAMIL . 

  • Ragav

    Sri Krishnadeva Raya has said “Desa bhashalandu Telugu Lessa” which means “Among the nation’s languages, Telugu is the best”. Rabindranath Tagore is said to have stated that Telugu is the sweetest language. The famous Tamil poet Subramania Bharati also has sung thus “Sundara Telunginil Pattisaithu” which literally means “Sing in beautiful Telugu”.

    Being a mellifluous language, British authors in the 19th century called Telugu, Italian of the East. It is believed that Italian explorer Niccolò Da Conti, who visited Vijayanagara empire during the reign of Vira Vijaya Bukka Raya in the fifteenth century, coined the phrase.

    • Jash121

      Let me point to the fact that languages are neither good not bad, nether sweet nor rough. All of this is subjective and is in the minds of people. As a Tamilian, my stance is that Tamil is the best language around. That many not be acceptable to you because you have your own opinion on this issue. 

  • Suman_ranger

    BHRATHIYAR IS A TELUGU BUT HE HIMSELF SAID….AMONG ALL THE LANGUAGE HE KNOWS…THERE IS NO LANGUAGE AS WONDERFUL AS TAMIL…

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