In US, Telugu fastest growing language
■ Number of US residents speaking Telugu rose by 86% during 2010- 17
Washington, Oct. 21: Yes it is, according to a study by an American think tank. The number of speakers of Telugu, a south Indian language, has grown by 86% in the last seven years. However, it is still outside the top 20 of the most widely- spoken languages other than English, reported BBC online.
The number of US residents speaking Telugu rose by 86% between 2010 and 2017, according to an online video by the World Economic Forum.
The video referred to a study by the US- based Centre for Immigration, which analysed census data to look at the pace at which languages are being spoken in America.
Telugu is mainly spoken in the south Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They have a combined population of 84 million people. It’s the fourth most spoken language in India, according to the 2011 census.
The study on languages spoken in the US used data from the American Community Survey and compared the number of people who said they spoke a language other than English at home in 2010 and 2017.
Last year there were more than 400,000 Telugu speakers in the US — nearly double the number in 2010.
Out of the top 10 fastestgrowing languages in America, seven are from South Asia.
A lot of this can be attributed to the links forged between the city of Hyderabad and the US engineering and technology industries, says Prasad Kunisetty, founder of the Telugu People Foundation, a non- profit organisation in the US. Mr Kunisetty moved to the US in 2001 seeking a career in the IT sector.
The rapid growth of information technology in the mid- 1990s led to a huge demand for software engineers, he said.
Many were recruited from Hyderabad, the biggest Telugu- speaking city. Both Telugu- speaking states together now have more than 800 engineering colleges.
The city has become a major hub for the technology and engineering industry in India and has been sending students to the US in droves. Down the years T e l u g u - s p e a k i n g Americans have continued to hire software engineers from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.