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mango-the indian connection



	I forgot to mention in my previous message about the word 'mango'
that its derivation is actually from Tamil, a language spoken in The
South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, in Northern Sri Lanka and also by a
large immigrant population in Malaysia. Along with classical Chinese
Tamil is one of the oldest continuously-used literary languages in the
world.

	In Tamil the word is 'mankay', referring only to the UNripe, green
mango. The ripe, yellow mango is called something else altogether.
Since the mango fruit is native to South Asia most of our languages
have  specialized words for different varieties of mangoes, and even
different parts of the mango. 'Mango' is a hispanicization of this
Tamil word.
 
	So, What is the Tamil-Spanish connection? Any geographers? or, better
yet, historians of food? My guess would be that the connection lies
through Portugese traders and mariners who were the earliest colonists
in South India (long before the British), and may have imported the
fruit to their South American colonies (Brazil), from where it spread
north into the Spanish colonies. Moving in an opposite direction, It
was certainly the Portugese who introduced red chillies into South
India--and Indians, of course, took to them with such vengeance that
today chillies are practically synonymous with Indian cuisine. But
they are just as 'un-native' to India as mangoes are to Central
America, and as our little mango is to North Carolina.