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Telugu ( , -tet̪eluguIPA) is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu. Telugu is the language with the third largest number of native speakers in India (74 million as of 2001) and thirteenth in the Ethnologue list of most-spoken languages worldwide. It is one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India and one of the four classical languages.
Telugu is the only literary Central Dravidian language, and it was heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Prakrit. It has also been influenced by Urdu around Hyderabad. Telugu borrowed several features of Sanskrit that have subsequently been lost in Sanskrit's daughter languages such as Hindi and Bengali, especially in terms of the pronunciation of some vowels and consonants.
Telugu is written in a Brahmic alphabet.
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