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Chart 1

Time-line for five early missionary descriptions of Tamil

Abbreviation
& title
Author's name,
dates of Birth and Death
(and stay in India)
Work Date,
type & Meta­language used
English translation
HH
Arte em Malauara
Henrique Henriques
1520-1600
(1546-1600)
16th c.
MS grammar
(in Portuguese)
J. Hein & V.S. Rajam
(HOS 76, 2013)
AP
Vocabulario
Tamulico
Antaõ de Proença
1625-1666
(1647-1666)
1679
Printed vocabulary
(in Portuguese)
Nob
BZ
Grammatica
Damulica
Bartholomæus Ziegenbalg
1682-1719
(1706-1714 & 1716-1719)c
1716
Printed grammar
(in Latin)
Daniel Jeyaraj (English transl. 2010)
CJB
Grammatica
Latino-Tamulica
Constantius Joseph Beschi
1680- c.1746
(1710-1746)
1738
Printed grammar
(in Latin)
Horst (18061, 18132)
Mahon (1848)
CTW
Observationes
Grammaticæ
Christoph Theodosius Walther
1699-1741
(1724-1740)
1739
Printed grammar
(in Latin)
No
a

Another title (Arte da Lingua Malabar) is possible (and more current). I extract this title, slightly arbitrarily, from a sentence which appears on top of folio 8 (recto) and is transcribed in Vermeer (1982, p.5, ll.6-7) as “Em nome de nosso sinior Jhesu Christo começa a arte em malauar”. The English translation by Hein & Rajam [2013, p. 38] reads: “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ the Arte in Malabar begins.”

b

Proença’s dictionary has been extensively studied by G.James in several publications.

c

BZ made a two-years journey (1714-1716) to Europe. See Jeyaraj (2010).