Words R Us
- Telugu (tel)

Telugu is spoken mainly in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where there are about 96 million speakers. There are approximately 93.9 million native speakers of Telugu in India, including 13 million people who speak it as a second language.

Other countries with significant numbers of Telugu speakers include the UAE (455,000), Saudi Arabic (349,000), the USA (248,000), Sri Lanka (230,000) and Malaysia (119,000). Telugu is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language family, and one of the 22 official languages of India, and a statutory provincial language in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, in the Yanam district of The Puducherry Union Territory, and in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. It is also a recognised minority language in South Africa. Telugu is one of the six languages designated as a classical language by the Government of India. It is the 14th most spoken native language in the world.[9] Modern Standard Telugu is based on the dialect of Krishna-Godavari delta region in Coastal Andhra.

There are six major dialects in Modern Telugu:

Northern Telangana : The old districts of Telangana: comprising Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Warangal

Southern Telangana : The old districts of Telangana comprising Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, major parts of Ranga Reddy. Dialect here is a blend of Northern Telangana and Rayalaseema.

Southern AP : The old four districts of Rayalaseema together with parts of Nellore and Prakasam.

South-Central AP : The old districts of AP comprising Guntur, Krishna and parts of Prakasam district and Khammam district of Telangana.

East-Central AP : The old Godavari districts.

Eastern AP : The old Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam districts.

Sources: Wikipedia
https://omniglot.com/writing/telugu.htm