Telugu (English: /ˈtɛlʊɡuː/; తెలుగు [teluɡu]) is the most spoken Dravidian language and is spoken predominantly in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (where it is official) and in the Union Territories of Puducherry (Yanam) and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands by the Telugu people. It stands alongside Hindi and English as one of the few languages with primary official language status in more than one Indian state. Telugu is also a linguistic minority in the states of Odisha, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. It is one of six languages designated a classical language of India by the country's government.
Telugu ranks 4th among the languages with the highest number of native speakers in India, with 6.7 percent at the 2011 census, and fifteenth in the Ethnologue list of most widely-spoken languages worldwide. It is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language family, and one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India. It is also the fastest growing language in the United States, where there is a large Telugu-speaking community. Roughly 10,000 pre-colonial inscriptions exist in the Telugu language.
Source: Wikipedia
