2 comments about English-Tamil and Tamil-English Dictionary.

1. Out of this dictionary's 829 pages, 531 are English-Tamil. Thus the Tamil-English pages are only 36% of the whole, versus 64% the other way. This is unbalanced.

   This dictionary is completely useless for English speakers trying to learn Tamil, for several reasons.

   The Tamil entries are very incomplete and omit some of the most frequent Tamil vocabulary. Most of the time the word you need to look up isn't even there. Information that would be useful, such as noun gender or verb conjugational class, is completely ignored. The choice of which words to include looks careless and disorganized. The transliteration is erratic and I doubt it gives a reliable idea of the pronunciation; it would have been better to use a systematic approach to transliteration, such as that used by the University of Madras and the Library of Congress.

   The English entries do not even translate the words into the Tamil equivalent! Instead they define the word in English (pointless for English speakers) and then only translate the definition. This is a maddening habit of some bilingual dictionaries published in India. So you cannot find out what the Tamil word for something is. The English entries also omit many commonly used words while including obscure vocabulary and meanings that you never see outside early 19th-century British novels. Some Indian lexicographers have not yet caught on to the fact that the 20th century has already come (and gone). Also, this dictionary lumps together the different meanings of an English word and does not distinguish them so as to show which Tamil words correspond to which meanings.

   How old is this dictionary? It's obviously a reprint from some long-ago edition but there is no publishing history. The reproduction is blurry, with many words illegible.

   I am still hoping that someday we will have a good, useful Tamil-English dictionary. This one was utterly worthless. Be forewarned.




2. I completely agree with the previous reviewer. This dictionary is useless, and yes, like all Hippocrene dictionaries it is a cheap reprint of an earlier edition. The comments on the dictionary are spot on - and the explanatory approach in lieu of a translation reflects a habit common in cheap Indian dictionaries (there are examples of Bengali and Oriya dictionaries just as bad - but I hasten to add that there are some excellent Indian dictionaries as well). The real pity is that as far as I am aware there is no good modern dictionary either Tamil-English or English-Tamil and surprisingly for such a major language, very few serious textbooks either. This dictionary can do nothing other than further frustrate learners and does nothing to serve the needs of more advanced scholars.

No comments about A Grammar of the Common Dialect of the (Tamul) Tamil Language.

No comments about Tamil - English and English-Tamil Dictionary.

1 comments about Compendious Tamil-English Dictionary.

1. This book is probably actually one of the best compact Tamil-English dictionaries there are, but that's not saying much -- most are really awful! There are several outdated words, but the printing is generally pretty good and having the Tamil characters is a good idea (many people just use a transliteration, which is difficult, as there is no standard transliteration system). However, this is very useful when reading literature; a pocket guide or something is better if you're travelling.

1 comments about A Poem at the Right Moment: Remembered Verses from Premodern South India (Voices from Asia , No 10).

1. A Poem at the Right Moment offers a rare chance to take an inside look at culture in south India. The poems are a snapshot of an evolving verbal form of verse called catus. The verses are known and recited with personal modifications by many literate people in south India. They may mention well known poets, such as Kalidasa, but don't necessarily refer to the actual person. Kalidasa may be incanted in a modern setting, or be conversing with another poet from a different time period. Poetry and poets from former times are reinterpreted in the context of today's world in south India, in a form I found very refreshing.

No comments about English-Tamil Dictionary (Readwell's).

No comments about Talk Now! Tamil: Beginners (Talk Now!).

No comments about Beginner's Tamil.

1 comments about Milet Picture Dictionary: English-Tamil.

1. Bought it as a gift for a niece in US and ended up not giving it to her as I didn't like it at all - Pictures were poorly done and not attractive - Tamil translations too complex sometimes even I hadn't heard of the word.

No comments about A Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil (Reference Grammars).