Assembly on Telugu's Classical Status

19th Mar, 2010: The AP State Legislative Assembly today thanked the government for the step of according the "classical language" to Telugu.

The chief miniser K Rosaiah extended his gratutude to the PM Manmohan Singh and other Union Ministers for according the status to the state's language. He thanked all MPs from Andhra Pradesh as well, for their co-operation in achieving the classical language status.

In 2008, the centre had issued a notification declaring that Telugu was a classical language, but the notification was subject to disposal of Public Interest Litigation pending before the Madras High Court.

to the government, for a language to be considered "classical", the following criteria must be fulfilled - high antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years; a body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers; that the literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community.

However, the government also says that classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.

Courtesy: FullHyderabad