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