Which Indian language is called the 'Italian of the East'?

Telugu, the official language of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, is often called the "Italian of the East". The phrase is commonly attributed to the 15th-century Italian traveller Niccolò de' Conti, though it was also used by later European writers. The comparison is made because, like Italian, almost every word in Telugu ends with a vowel sound, which gives the language a musical, flowing quality. This makes Telugu very suitable for music and poetry; a large part of Carnatic classical music, including the compositions of Tyagaraja, is in Telugu.

Telugu belongs to the Dravidian family of languages, along with Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. It is one of the most widely spoken languages in India. According to the 2011 Census, Telugu is the fourth most spoken language in India by number of native speakers, after Hindi, Bengali and Marathi. It is also spoken by large communities in other states and abroad, including the USA.

Telugu has a rich literary tradition going back more than a thousand years. The first major literary work is the Telugu translation of the Mahabharata (Andhra Mahabharatamu), begun by Nannaya in the 11th century and completed by Tikkana and Errana. The Vijayanagara emperor Krishnadevaraya, a great patron of Telugu literature, wrote the "Amuktamalyada" and is said to have described Telugu as the finest of the languages of the land ("Desa bhashalandu Telugu lessa"). His court had eight famous poets called the "Ashtadiggajas".

Telugu was declared a classical language of India in 2008. The Telugu script is derived from the ancient Brahmi script, through the Bhattiprolu script, and is closely related to the Kannada script.

Other descriptions:

• Bengali is sometimes called the "sweetest language".
• Tamil is the oldest surviving Dravidian literary language.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Tamil is the oldest classical Dravidian language, first declared classical (2004).
• ✗Kannada, also Dravidian, shares its script origin with Telugu.
• ✗Bengali is the second most spoken language in India.