HYDERABAD: As many as 31 alphabets of the Telugu language may have to be dropped with the formation of the separate Telangana state .

“The Telugu language has 56 alphabets but we can make do with just 25 of them to converse in the Telangana slang and also to write,” said Dr T Kanakaiah, head of the Telugu department, Telangana University in Nizamabad.

According to him, most words in the Telangana slang comprise of two letters or three letters. “The complicated Telugu Sankritized language that we have adopted so far can be discarded and the much better sounding Telangana slang can be adopted for official purposes,” Dr Kanakaiah said.

With the Telangana state going to become a reality, linguists are also moving fast on getting the Telangana slang to be adopted officially. Next month, writers, poets, artistes, academics and everyone connected with the language will meet to discuss the language issue, among other topics. A two-day meet “Telangana Nava Nirmanam” is being organized by the Telangana University for the purpose. The approval for the meet was given by the university authorities on Thursday.

The main aim of the meet would be to take steps to revive the Telangana culture. In fact, in 2011 itself, work on this began with the university vice-chancellor Prof Mohd Akbar Ali Khan establishing the Regional Centre for socio-economic cultural research studies of Telangana in the university.

The effort to bring the Telangana slang to the fore began last year itself when the Satavahana University in Karimnagar organised a seminar inviting linguists to participate and present papers on it. “It was a fruitful exercise. The sooner we move to adopting the Telangana slang as the official language the better,” said linguist Nalimela Bhaskar. Bhaskar who is proficient in 14 languages said though there is variation in the way Telangana slang is spoken in different parts of the region, it was possible to come to a decision on the exact slang that could be adopted. “The root of the word should be important in deciding whether it has to stay. An exercise should be undertaken to compile all the words and meanings,” he said. Bhaskar himself has attempted that before and this year will come out with additional words and meanings.

Linguists said that some words clearly are a corruption, especially in the villages which border other states. They said though the words may be understood by the locals there, they cannot form part of the Telangana language.

Bhaskar said the language, as it is spoken, in Karimnagar and Warangal districts, could be taken as main basis of the Telangana language. “However, there should be discussions at the initiative of the government to finalize on the basic Telangana language style,” he said.

Text books will also have to undergo a drastic change. If one has been reading about Alluri Sitaramaraju, it will be time to read about Komaram Bheem. If Kandukuri Veeresalingam Panthulu was taught as a reformer, a social reformer from Hyderabad, Bhagya Reddy Varma, would have to take his place in textbooks. Telangana freedom fighters including valiant people like Sakali Ailamma and Doddi Komaraiah will also have to make it into the text books.

“Another good thing is that we may not even need 'Am', 'Aha', the last letters in the Telugu language when we are talking about Telangana slang,” Dr Kanakaiah of Telangana University said.