Waddar Language Letters & Script

Waddar (ISO code wbq) is a Dravidian language very close to Telugu, spoken by the community known as Vaddera or Vaddar in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Odde or Bhovi in Karnataka, and Vadar in Maharashtra, where the language itself is usually called Vadari. It is mostly spoken at home rather than taught in school, and it has no standard script of its own. When it is written, speakers tend to use a script they know from school, and Unicode's language data (CLDR) lists Telugu script for it, which is why this page gives the Telugu letters.

Across the state borders the same language is written in other letters: in Kannada script in Karnataka (ವಡ್ಡರ, ಭೋವಿ) and in Devanagari, the Marathi letters, in Maharashtra (वडार, वडारी). The many "vadari language in marathi" word lists online are written that way. Those alphabets have collections of their own, Kannada Letters and Marathi Letters, and the Telugu Alphabets & Letters page covers Telugu itself in more depth, with guninthalu and vattulu charts.

The Waddar alphabet in Telugu letters

Telugu script is an abugida: each consonant carries a built-in a, and a vowel sign changes it. డ is ḍa, డా ḍā, డి ḍi, డు ḍu, డె ḍe, డో ḍō. The independent vowel letters shown here, అ a ఆ ā ఇ i ఈ ī ఉ u ఊ ū ఋ ṛ ఎ e ఏ ē ఐ ai ఒ o ఓ ō ఔ au, stand only at the start of a word or syllable. The consonants run from క ka through మ ma in five rows of five, then య ర ల వ, శ ష స హ and the curled-back ళ ḷa.

The name itself shows how the pieces join. వడ్డెర, Vaḍḍera, is వ va, then డ + ్ + డ, which the font draws as one stacked డ్డ ḍḍ, then the sign ె that turns its a into e, then ర ra. The pollu ్ (the virama) does that joining work everywhere: it removes a consonant's built-in vowel and ties it to the next consonant. The round ం (sunna, the anusvara) writes a nasal before a consonant. Because Waddar is mostly spoken, its spelling is not widely standardised: two writers may spell the same word with a short or a long vowel, or with a single or a double consonant.

How to type the Waddar language in Telugu script

On a phone, add the Telugu keyboard (in Gboard: Languages → Add keyboard → Telugu). Its transliteration layout lets you type a word in English letters, vaddera, and pick the Telugu spelling from the suggestions; the other layout shows the Telugu letters directly. On Windows, add Telugu under Settings → Time & language → Language & region and choose the Telugu Phonetic or Telugu InScript keyboard; switch with Win + Space. On a Mac, add a Telugu input source under System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources.

However you type, the letters are stored in speaking order: consonant, then its vowel sign, with a virama between joined consonants, and the font draws the stacked shapes. That is why copying from the grid works: paste వ, డ, ్, డ, ె, ర and you get వడ్డెర. Telugu sits in the Unicode block U+0C00–U+0C7F; వ is U+0C35, so in HTML it can be written వ, and in Word you can type 0C35 and press Alt+X.

Where the Waddar language is spoken

CLDR estimates about 2.5 million speakers of Waddar, all of them in India 🇮🇳. The community lives across the Deccan: in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, in northern Karnataka and in Maharashtra, with smaller groups elsewhere in southern India. Many speakers also use the main language of their state, Telugu, Kannada or Marathi, which is one reason the language borrows each state's script.

Its closest relative is Telugu, and some linguists treat Waddar as a Telugu variety; Telugu in turn belongs to the Dravidian family with Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam. Lambadi, the Banjara language, is another language of India written in borrowed Telugu letters and has its own collection here, as does India.

Stone, wells and tanks: the Waddar heritage in emoji

The Vaddera, Odde and Bhovi communities are known across the south for their work in stone and earth: quarrying and dressing stone 🪨🔨⛏️, digging wells, building village and temple tanks, and building walls, roads and houses 🧱. Some lanes and neighbourhoods in Karnataka and Maharashtra are called Waddar Galli (the Waddar lane). These four emoji are part of the set for community posts, association banners and greetings.