He/She's Just a Friend

First day of Telugu goes roughly like this: Three hours into the initial four-hour bombardment, Andrew, Glor and I learn the word for "friend." And here by "learn" i mean "hear it spoken in a rapid-fire succession of Telugu words."

There's a male version: snehithudu. Or if you prefer the Telugu script?

స్నేహితుడు *

And of course there is also a female version: snehithuralu. In Telugu?

స్నేహితురాలు *

(You may or may not need to download stuff in order to view the font on your browser.)

So Andrew starts wondering aloud what we all wanted to know, "Well, if that's how you say 'a friend who is a girl' how do you say 'girlfriend' in Telugu?"

Our instructor (wonderful) didn't skip a beat. "There is no word for boyfriend or girlfriend in Telugu. There is no dating where I come from. You are either friends with someone or you are married."

Oh, we three singles thought in unison. We had been warned that the proposition of dating in South India was daunting, but we were sad to learn that it is, in fact, LINGUISTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.

Ouch.

* Disclaimer: Until I get good, all Telugu comes via google:transliteration and carries no warranty, express or implied, of accuracy.