పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/243

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The personal name is often that of a Hindu god or goddess : as TPsfccsfig Ramaiia, and «X Laxmi: but the family name is usually that of a place. Thus ZiS&Tr>s&,<&g Ramaiia of Kadapa. It is hence called either ssto£j-=&& house-name or Stfl'Sao village name.

Among Europeans the family name is known to all, even to strangers: the Christian name is not so often heard. Among the Telugus the contrary is the case: we may know a man well by name, though we may never have heard his family name. A man baptized at Madras in 1837 was named Wesley Abraham.

The English contract the christian or personal name and write the family name at length : the Telugus do the contrary. Thus j^Ha^c&g 'P. Chinnaiia' may stand for *ft^^e3ajSjcBSe 0r Chinnaya of the Pasupuleti family. In signatures the personal name alone is generally written. In marriage the wife takes her husband's family name. But some persons and castes have no family name.

The family name is often that of a place. Thus there are places named &fr-4)-$& and §"o£i>ao whence ^rM^iS"^^^ Ramaya of Pasupuleru foaSfiS^cseg Krishnaya of Condavidu. If asked the names of their respective families, these men would answer (using plural forms) "^sS»*f&>^"343«r«oi£8S» we are of Pasupuleru &c.

In such genitives ^"^ is inadmissible.

When two or more persons bearing the same family name are mentioned together, cor° 'This' (equivalent to Ditto) is used. Thus*£^«^*>«*$,«r«*)&<*6S Ramaya and Krishnaya of Pasupuleru. Or, Pasupuleru Ramaya, and ditto Krishnaya: like 'John and Charles Wesley.' Thus Eo^jiS-^oSg Narasaya of your family. s^xr'sacss our Ramaya, &c.

Chinese too place the family name first. So in old English, John of Gaunt, Anne of Geierstein, Balfour ofBurley. The same is the custom among the Finns and also the Hungarians. See Foreign Quarterly Review No. 57, p. 65, where ' John living at Kinte' was called ' Kinte's John' &c. See Blackwood's Magazine No. 334, page 178.