Frenchman Daniel Negers can stun many a person with his fluent Telugu and far-reaching knowledge of the language

It’s odd to hear a Frenchman belt out padyalu, Jana Padalu and Geetalu. All right, the song, ‘Endaro Mahanubhavulu’ is rendered with a quaint French accent, but the words are all there.

An expert in Telugu from INALCO (National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilization, Paris), social anthropologist Daniel Negers leaves more than a few faces agape as he delivers a public lecture about his research on Telugu and how he mastered the language.

As he confuses pracheena for parachikam and then immediately corrects himself, you wonder why he has undertaken the difficult struggle to master the language. He points to his forehead and says, “It’s fate, I cannot explain it. Telugu is a beautiful language. With its deerghalu and sandhis, it is seductively complex.”

Daniel came to India as a tourist way back in the 70s and then returned with his wife in 1983 after completing his M. A. to study ‘Burrakatha’ traditions in Peddapuram near Tuni. “My tryst with the language started out as an academic endeavour to understand the language better. I never imagined this — my life has become the language now,” he smiles.

Was learning the intricacies of Telugu difficult? Yes, says Daniel adding that even after 29 years of studying the language, he still hasn’t mastered it. “Telugu has no similarity to French and everything I learnt came from books and audio tapes.” Daniel points out that the linguistic differences between French and Telugu made the learning an excruciatingly challenging task: “I still face a problem in speaking properly and pronouncing those sounds which don’t exist in my mother tongue.”

Daniel realises that many young Telugu people have lost an interest in speaking the language today. He asserts that this is because the country underwent a serious change in the early 90s, when economic liberalisation ushered in a certain cultural attitudes.

He laments the growing fascination for America and things American and the growing desire to get ahead. “People are so caught up with modern subjects such as engineering and medicine that there is no time to go back and learn their own traditions,” he says.

Currently teaching Telugu to students in France, Daniel hopes to establish a national diploma course in the Telugu language by 2014. While it might have been his interest in folk culture that drew him initially towards the language, it’s the beauty and structure of Telugu that has retained his interest.