Telugu phonology

Telugu words generally end in vowels. In Old Telugu, this was absolute; in the modern language m, n, y, w may end a word. Atypically for a Dravidian language, voiced consonants were distinctive even in the oldest recorded form of the language. Sanskrit loans have introduced aspirated and murmured consonants as well.

Telugu does not have contrastive stress, and speakers vary on where they perceive stress. Most judge it to be on the penultimate or final syllable, depending on word and vowel length.

Vowels
Telugu features a form of vowel harmony wherein the second vowel in disyllabic noun and adjective roots alters whether the first vowel is tense or lax. Also, if the second vowel is open (i.e. or ), then the first vowel will be more open and centralized (e.g.  'goat', as opposed to  'nail'). Telugu words also have vowels in inflectional suffixes harmonized with the vowels of the preceding syllable.

only occurs in loan words.

Telugu has two diphthongs: ఐ [ai] and ఔ [au].

Consonants
The table below illustrates the articulation of the consonants.

* The aspirated and breathy-voiced consonants occur mostly in loan words, as do the fricatives apart from native.