HYDERABAD: Have you ever wondered why certain names of villages and towns in the State are spelt and pronounced differently in Telugu and English? For instance, Bhuvanagiri town’s spelling changes to Bhongir when written in the English. Same is the case with Jangaon, which in Telugu is Janagama. Likewise, Tirumalagiri, a suburb’s name in Secunderabad, becomes Trimulgherry in its anglicised form.
On the occasion of World Telugu Conference, Telugu scholars want the government to take steps to correct these discrepancies in the spellings of such names. They also say there is a need to standardise the spelling of all places in the state in English as per their “original form” in Telugu.
In fact, Bhuvanagiri, the district headquarter of Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, is an ancient place. It has a historic fort, which is one of the isolated monolithic rocks carved by the Western Chalukya ruler Tribhuvanamalla Vikramaditya VI and was thus named after him as Tribhuvanagiri, which gradually became Bhuvanagiri. Later, because of the influence of Urdu during the regime of Nizams, the name Bhongir came into being, which also took the English form.
Coming to Jangaon town, the district headquarters of Jangaon district, the name evolved from “Jain Gaon”, which means village of Jains. Jain Thirthankara sculptures found in the excavations near the town revealed the existence of Jainism in the Megalithic age. Later, it became Janagama in Telugu. Because of Urdu’s influence, the name later became Jangaon. The same is written even in the English language, now.
Interestingly, most of the names of Telugu places do not adhere to the Telugu grammatical rules in their new form in English.
This is because in Telugu, which is a vowel-ending language, pronunciation of all words end with vowel sounds. Noted poet and Telugu scholar, Acharya N Gopi, said because of the influence of Urdu during the Nizams’ era, Telugu names of several places have a different form. Hence, he felt that on the occasion of World Telugu Conference, an effort should be made to correct these discrepancies.
“A lot of research is to be done to find out the stories behind the names of each place, whose Telugu name is altered in English. It is the right time for the government to set the ball rolling towards restoring the Telugu names to their original form in English too,” the Telugu scholar, who hails from Bhongir, told Express on Monday.
The eminent poet, who also served as the Vice Chancellor of Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University, had carried out a research work, with the name, Janta Nagaraala lo- Graama Naamalu (Village names in the twin cities), 30 years ago in Hyderabad and Secunderabad twin cities, said there are names of several places in Hyderabad itself that had taken altered form in the course of history.
Nirmal district collector directs municipal commissioner to put up sign boards in Telugu
Nirmal: Nirmal district collector K Illambarthi directed municipal commissioner to put up all types of sign boards including commercial in Telugu language as part of World Telugu Conference. After the public grievance, a review meeting was organised with the officials at the collector’s conference hall to discuss about the district-level programmes as part of the World Telugu Conference, to be held in the state capital from December 15 to 19.