Tamil words borrowed from Portuguese

Here is an interesting email I got today, about some interesting Tamil word etymologies!

"There was a discussion about this word in kalaignar TV. பரவாயில்லை is actually a marwadi [marathi ?] word. "barwanahi" loosely translates to its ok. The marwadi community who migrated to erstwhile madras presidency and before that, used to tell barwanahi to locals. Then they learned Tamil and started telling Barwa-இல்லை. பரவாயில்லை - came into existence it seems. :)

ஜன்னல் - window - Portuguese - actual Tamil word - சாளரம்
சாவி - key - Portuguese - actual Tamil word - திறப்பு.

Interestingly the people in Sri Lanka and some parts of TN still use this word to mean key :) "


Searching more for the Portuguese-Tamil connection, here is a list of Tamil words borrowed from Portuguese.

for ஜன்னல், the Portuguese word seems to 'janela' and for for சாவி, it is 'chave'...

here are some more Tamil words that came from Portuguese...

அலமாரி- armário

அன்னாசி (pine apple) - ananas

சூப்பு (suck) - chupar / chupo

கோப்பை (cup) - copo

பப்பாளி - papaia (cud be from english too - whichever came first!?)

பேனா - pena

பீங்கான் (used now for porcelain but the Portuguese word means plate) - palangana

பீப்பாய் (barrel) - pipa

pun?ai - bunda (buttock in Portuguese)

and the following word, which i have always wondered abt, seems to have from Dutch!

கக்கூஸ் - toilet - kakhuis

hmmm, now i know an iota of Portuguese too ;-)