- 1
- Asher, R.E., and R. Radhakrishnan. A Tamil Prose
Reader: Selections from Contemporary Tamil Prose with Notes and
Glossary. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, England.
(1971.)
Intermediate; expensive, with readings of unequal quality and
usefulness. Readings that are supposedly graded are not; a few easy
readings at the beginning are followed by a jump to difficult readings.
Glossary is unhelpful.
- 2
- Annamalai, E. The `Jim and Raja' Conversations (and cassettes). Tamil
Language Study Association, 2127 Maple Ave., Evanston, IL 60201. (1980.)
Spoken Tamil; tapes include material for comprehension and repetition.
No exercises accompany these materials, but the conversations are
fairly authentic, and can be adapted.
- 3
- Daivasundaram, N., and A. Gopal. Tamil: An
Auto-Instructional Course (and cassettes). Also: accompanying
Handbook by S. Jean Lawrence and D. Ranganathan. International Institute of
Tamil Studies, T.T.T.I., Taramani, Madras 600 113.
I have never seen or used these materials, and know nobody who
has; most materials produced in India are, paradoxically, lacking in
authenticity, since they try to provide a `sanitized' view of the Tamil
language.
- 4
- Gair, J., et al. An Introduction to Spoken Tamil.
External Services Agency, Univ. of Sri lanka. (1978.)
Grammar in English; translations, dialogues, drills given in
Simhala too. I have never used these materials, since I have no
need to try to teach anyone Sri Lanka Tamil.
- 5
- Hart, Kausalya. Tamil for Beginners, Part 1. Center
for South Asia Studies, T-9 Building, Room 100, Univ. of California,
Berkeley, CA 94720. Phone: 415-642-3608. (1991.)
Script, dialogues, readings, vocabulary, exercises, glossary,
grammar, etc.
- 6
- Hart, Kausalya, and G.L. Hart. Tamil for Beginners,
Part 2. Center for South Asia Studies, T-9 Building, Room 100, Univ. of
California, Berkeley, CA 94720. Phone: 415-642-3608. (1991.)
Includes grammar explanations, with Tamil-English and English-Tamil
glossaries.
- 7
- Hart, Kausalya. Tamil Madhu: from Sangam to
Bharathy. Center for South Asia Studies, T-9 Building, Room 100, Univ.
of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. Phone: 415-642-3608. [QUERY:
Forthcoming soon?]
Intermediate-level prose retellings of literary classics with
vocabulary, glossary.
- 8
- Hart, Kausalya. Advanced Tamil via Audio-Video Media,
Parts I and II. Mrs. Kausalya Hart, Center for South Asia Studies, Univ.
of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.
Part I: plot summaries of tamil films, with glossaries; Part II:
a general dictionary.
- 9
- Kerslake, P., and C.R.N. Aiyar. Tamil Course for
European Schools, 5 pamphlet volumes. Christian Literature Society,
Madras 600 003. (1972-77, 12th ed.)
Literary Tamil; for children; Vol. 1 is a useful script introduction.
- 10
- Kothandaraman, Ponnuswamy. A Course in Modern Standard
Tamil: Laboratory Manual, Texts and Exercises. International Institute
of Tamil Studies, Madras 600 020. (1975.)
- 11
- Kumaraswami Raja, N., and K. Doraswamy. Conversational
Tamil. Annamalai Univ. Dept. of Linguistics Publication
No. 9. Annamalai
University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamilnadu.
Reprint of original 1966 version, especially good for spoken Tamil.
Conversations are somewhat more authentic than Rajaram 1979, but complex
material is introduced early, without explanation.
- 12
- Paramasivam, K., and J. Lindholm. A Basic Tamil Reader
and Grammar, 3 vols. (and cassettes). Tamil Language Study Association,
2127 Maple Ave., Evanston, IL 60201. (1980.)
Vol. 1: Readings; Vol.2: Grammar and notes; Vol.3:
Translations.
- 13
- Pattanayak, D.P., et al. Advanced Tamil Reader,
Part One; Text, Notes, and Exercises. Central Institute of Indian
Languages, Manasa Gangotri, Mysore 570 006. (1974.)
Based on radio broadcasts (but in literary Tamil) availability
uncertain. Extremely boring and uninteresting materials.
- 14
- Pattanayak, D.P., and M.S. Thirumalai. An Introduction
to Tamil Script, Reading and Writing. Central Institute of Indian
Languages, Mansas Gangotri, Mysore 570 006. (1980.)
Very thorough, programmatic introduction to script; includes
exercises.
- 15
- Pope, G.U. A Handbook of the Tamil Language. Asian
Educational Services, C-2/15, S.D.A., New Delhi 110 016. (1983,
reprint of 1904 revised 7th ed.)
- 16
- Pope, G.U. A Tamil Prose Reader. Asian Educational
Services, C-2/15, S.D.A., New Delhi 110 016. (1982, reprint of 1906
revised 7th ed.)
- 17
- Rajaram, S. An Intensive Course in Tamil (and
cassettes). Central Institute of Indian Languages, Manasa Gangotri, ,
Mysore 570 006. (1972, No. 3 of CIIL series.)
A traditional audio-lingual guide to Spoken Tamil for non-native speakers.
The series was designed to teach Indian languages to speakers of other
Indian languages, so certain cultural material is typically ignored. Some
conversations are `sanitized' and lacking in authenticity, and the
`spoken' dialect tends toward literary forms too often; but pending
anything new, these are the best spoken materials we have.
- 18
- Schiffman, Harold. Intermediate Tamil: A
Self-Instructional Method. Seattle, Department of Asian Languages, mimeo,
1974.
Mimeographed materials designed to be used after Doraswamy-Raja
to bring students to a supposed `advanced' level of proficiency where they can
then begin to use Radio Play materials (see below). Lacking in authenticity;
focuses too heavily on grammar, drills. Needs updating. Tapes available.
- 19
- Schiffman, Harold. Reader For Advanced Spoken Tamil,
Part One: Radio Plays. Dept. of Asian Languages and Literatures, Univ.
of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. (1971.)
Typescripts of radio plays originally broadcast over All-India Radio in
1965-6, in authentic spoken Tamil, printed in transliteration, with
exercises. A slower-paced repetition of the original spoken version is
also provided.
- 20
- Vaidyanathan, S., and J. Murphy. Tamil Newspaper
Reader (plus 2 cassettes ). Dunwoody Press, P.O. Box 1825, Wheaton, MD
20915. Phone 301-946-7006. (1990.)
Macintosh script, nicely printed. Authentic journalistic Tamil.
