Ernest Ménétrier

François-Ernest Ménétrier [pen name E. Ménétrier] was a French teacher and Inspector of primary schools in Cambodia during the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s who authored studies in Khmer philology and a monograph of Kampot province.

He taught at several French primary schools in Phnom Penh before being enrolled into the French Army in France during WWI. Back to Cambodia, he was appointed ​‘professeur principal’ in Kampot, where he worked along with his wife Marie-Olympe Ménétrier née Tissot. 

His book on Pali and Sanskrit roots in the Khmer language was praised by EFEO director George Coedès, who had supervised the creation of Phnom Penh Pali School in 1912 and again in 1920.

[not to be confused with R.P. Ménétrier, Félix Ménétrier, a French missionary and abbott of Sainte-Marie Church in Phnom Penh in the 1920s and 1930s.]

Publications

• “Les Fêtes du Tang-Tok à Phnom Penh”, Revue Indochinoise XVIII-10, Oct. 1912, p 341.
• [with Dr. A. Pannetier] Elements de grammaire cambodgienne appliqué́e, Phnom Penh, Imprimerie du Protectorat, 1922, 266 p.
• Monographie de la Circonscription résidentielle de Kampot, Saigon, Imp. d’Extreme-Asie, 1926, 87 p. [pdf via AEFEK]
• Le vocabulaire cambodgien dans ses rapports avec le Sanscrit et le Pali, Phnom Penh, Imprimerie du Protectorat, 1933, 176 p.