Telugu has earned the moniker "Italian of the East" for the musical and resonant nature of the language. In 1420, Italian explorer Niccolo De Conti called it "Italian of the East" finding similarity with Italian language. Rabindranath Tagore also wondered if Telugu was a language or music.
Tamil poet Bhartiar captured the beauty of Telugu beautifully in his Tamil songs. It can be considered that Telugu holds the same higher position among the southern languages just as Bengali, considered to be a sweet language among the northern languages. Vijayanagara emperor Sri Krishnadevarayalu was so impressed by Telugu that he wrote his collection of poems Amuktamalyada in the same language.
When asked why he chose Telugu, he said "Desa bhashalandu Telugu lessa" (Of all the languages in the country, Telugu is the best). Because every Telugu letter's sound ends in a vowel (acchulu), it is also called Achanta or Ajanta launguage, having vowel harmony..
Telugu belongs to the Dravidian family like the Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Telugu language is like a pyramid with Dravidian base and Sanskrit peak. Telugu will have two words for every noun -- one coming from Sanskrit and the other from pure Telugu.
Kannada and Telugu script is almost the same. Sri Krishna Devaraylu had Ashtadiggajalu who shaped Telugu language further and at the same time, a poetic contest - Avadhana Prakriya- came into existence. The Telugu gender system is distinctly unique in the fashion in which the verbs are used.
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