re: punctuation in telugu
palaka@simon.wustl.edu
Tue, 14 Nov 95 18:08:59 CST
I am trying to add my 2 n.p. to the two "viccu roopaayalu"
submitted by prof. VN Rao and Paruchuri Srinivas.
In not needing punctuation, telugu may be a close relative of sanskrit.
In sanskrit, sentences don't need punctuation; in fact, the words can be
jumbled without spoiling the meaning. I believe this is due to the fact that
each word in a sentence has a modifier sitting on it, which makes it obvious
as to where the word belongs and what the relationship with the rest of the
sentence is. In telugu (or at least spoken telugu) we see the same phenomenon.
We have a way of indicating what comes next in the sentence and so on - without
requiring punctuation. A small example for the kind of cues we use:
english: Rama, Krishna and Gopal went to the temple.
telugu : raamuDoo krishnuDoo mariyoo gOpaaluDoo guDiki veLLaaru.
In English, unless "Rama" is followed by a comma, the reader can not guess that
there are more names to come. Where as in the telugu sentence, the "oo" on
raamuDu makes it clear that there are more names to follow. As Smt. MuppaaLLa
Ranganayakamma complains in her "vaaDuka bhaashalOnE wraastunnaamaa?", even
though we have such nice features in our spoken language, they are not retained
in (sloppily) written telugu. That is, we often have to read sentences such as:
"raamuDu, krishnuDu mariyoo gOpaaluDu vastunnaaru". Such writing makes
english-style punctuation mandatory and even with punctuation the writing is
not as intuitive as the spoken language (telugu).
on a related question, why do we see more typos in current day telugu?
i don't think there are any profound reasons except that with the rapidly
increasing importance of english in the work place, telugu is taking a backseat
in students' curricula and the telugu proficiency may be dropping in general.
i can conjecture another reason: the publishing industry has partly moved to
our capital and the "hyderabadi telugu" may be showing up via the local
compositors (sp?). (It is just my "opinion" that hyderabadis are less
proficient in telugu than their counterparts from coastal cities. ) Yet another
reason is publishers are just sloppier.
regards,
- rao