Manuel De La Langue Tamoule (Grammaire, Textes, Vocabulaire)

A want of a proper comprehensive grammar in Tamil language grammar in French has long been felt. The Convention created the School of Oriental Living Languages, requires the teachers of this school to compose in French the Grammar of the languages they are responsible for teaching. It is to obey these prescriptions that the author has written this book, which is particularly intended for students and learners of the Tamil course. Certainly, Tamil grammars are not lacking; for more than two centuries, about twenty of them have been published, some of which are very developed, in late, Portuguese, English, French, but most of these books do not contain texts and no vocabularies; they were written from a purely practical point of view, and in an absolutely empirical way, apart from any method. It is still far too widespread a prejudice that educational works have nothing to do with science and that, to learn a language well, it suffices to exercise memory and apply the rules taught professed. Worse still; some improvised pedagogues have invented rapid methods and are leading, at the moment, with the help of a few native people, a campaign in favor of the practical teaching of language. In 1903 he would be the first to create a Tamil language grammar in French drawing extensive examples from Tamil texts. In 1879, he was responsible for teaching Hindustani and Tamil at the School of Living Oriental Languages. There he was professor from 1882 until his death in 1926.