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Throughout the time I’ve been trying to teach myself Telugu, I’ve noticed that there aren’t many great resources out there, and the ones that do exist are not that great. Below you’ll find some of the resources that I’ve found helpful, plus some I’ve created myself to help others learn.
Books
- A Grammar of Modern Telugu: Bh. Krishnamurti & J. P. L. Gwynn (1985). This is by far the best English language resource I’ve found for Telugu. It is a grammar book, so it uses more technical linguistic vocabulary, but it explains almost every aspect of the language comprehensively. The only sad thing is that it’s hard to obtain (legally). I believe it’s out of print, so there are only a few copies on Amazon but they’re all very expensive ($200+). Large libraries, such as those at larger research universities (like the University of Michigan) may have a copy. You can also obtain it by less-than-legal means.
- Parlons Télougou: Langue et culture [Let’s speak Telugu: Language and Culture]: Deena Bossé (1994). This is the best introductory resource I’ve found for Telugu. It is much less technical than Krishnamurthi’s book, but nearly as comprehensive. It explains each concept then provides several example sentences, in Telugu script and transliteration. I also like Bossé’s transliteration scheme better than Krishnamurthi’s & Gwynn’s. It has a dictionary in the back, as well as an optional audio CD. And because it’s still in print, it’s much cheaper and easier to obtain than the other book (28 EUR / 31 USD for a .pdf). However, it’s in French. If you studied French in high school you should be able to use this as much of written French is pretty intelligible for a native English speaker. It also might not be that hard to use if you took Spanish as well, and are willing to put some effort into translating things.
Articles
I’ve also been building up some resources of my own.
- Telugu Vocabulary List. This was taken from one of those “Learn Telugu in 30 Days” books. I went through it with my grandfather, who grew up speaking Telugu in Andhra Pradesh. I marked down words that were not very common with “N.C. (Not Common)”.
- Telugu Verb Primer. Easy introduction to Telugu verbs.
- Telugu Verb Conjugations. I conjugated the verbs tinu and ceyu (to eat, to do) in the past, future-habitual, and progressive tenses.
- Telugu Past Tense (.docx). A short document explaining the Telugu past tense, and how to form it. The formatting isn’t great on this, and I’ll probably re-write it at some point.
- Telugu Pronunciation Basics (article). Article exploring the basics of Telugu pronunciation.
- Telugu Consonants (video). A short video I made explaining how to pronounce the Telugu consonants. Some of the sounds are different than English, even though we use the same letter (example, “v” is not pronounced the same way as in English – it’s more of a cross between v and w).
Culture
One of the fun parts of learning a new language is exploring a new culture. Here are some fun YouTube accounts, shows, songs, etc. in Telugu
- Mahathalli. Telugu YouTube comedian. You can find a bunch more channels by looking at “Our Network” on the profile page.
- VIVA. Another Telugu YouTube comedy page.
- Alluri. Telugu rock artist who recently released a full album in Telugu. It’s one of a few vinyl records I own.
- Bappi Lahiri Telugu Songs. Bappi Lahiri (or Bappi Da) was a Bollywood music composer, who was known for working disco and funk into his songs. This video is some of his Telugu work.