Potatoes, yams, and tomatoes around the world

The following data tend to show that many foreign-introduced fruits and vegetables are called something to the effect of 'foreign [type of produce]'. See below for all the fun details!

Lisu 

In Lisu, Hꓶ; Bꓲ; [xɯ̂ˀ bîˀ] 'potato' in Lisu comes from Hꓶ: [xɯ̂] 'Chinese' and Bꓲ; [bîˀ] 'taro/yam', so literally 'Chinese taro/yam'.

Chinese

In Chinese, 土豆 tǔdòu (lit. 'earth bean') refers to 'potato' in mainland China, and 'peanut' in Taiwan. 

Other Chinese words for 'potato' or 'yam' include: 

马铃薯 mǎlíngshǔ (lit. 'horse bell potato/yam') 'potato'

薯 shǔ 'yam/tuber/potato'

地瓜 dìguā (lit. earth melon) 'sweet potato'

红薯 hóngshǔ (lit. red yam/tuber/potato) 'sweet potato'

番薯 fānshǔ (lit. foreign yam/tuber/potato) '(dialect) sweet potato / yam'

洋芋 yángyù (lit. ocean/foreign/western taro) '(dialect) potato'.

As a bonus, here are Chinese words for 'tomato':

西红柿 xīhóngshì (lit. western red persimmon) 'tomato'

番茄 fānqié (lit. foreign eggplant) 'tomato'

Thai

Thai words for foreign fruits and vegetables:

มะเขือเทศ má-khʉ̌a thêet (lit. eggplant foreign = foreign eggplant) 'tomato'

มันเทศ man thêet (lit. yam/tuber foreign = foreign yam/tuber) 'sweet potato'

มันฝรั่ง man faràŋ (lit. yam/tuber foreign = foreign yam/tuber) '[general] Irish potato; potato'

French

In French, pomme de terre (lit. apple of [the] earth) means 'potato'. (In Old French, pomme originally meant 'fruit'.)

Bread around the world

 In teaching an ESL lesson about groceries yesterday, I learned the following about bread: several decades ago in Russia or Ukraine, bread was not already sliced when you bought it at the store. If you wanted a piece, you bit it off of the loaf. In Vietnamese, bánh mì [ʔɓan˦˥ mɪj˨˩] (literally snack-wheat = wheat snack) refers to long French-style baguettes, whereas our typical sliced loaves are called xăng-(đ)uých [saŋ˧˧ (ɗ)wɨt˧˥] (from 'sandwich'). (The IPA forms are Saigon pronunciation.) This reminds me of Mandarin Chinese, where 面包 miànbāo (literally flour-package) is for bread in general, whereas 土司 tǔsī (from 'toast') is for sliced bread, especially thick-sliced bread. It shows that different cultures have their own concepts of a food based on size, shape, ingredients, and use, and when a new foreign version is introduced, they are likely to borrow the foreign word for the foreign version.

Loanwords for 'write' in Nungish

In this squib, I want to present some data on the words for 'write' in various Nungish languages.

Mətwàng: əru-e (Kachin dictionary app)

Dərù: ga (KL Zineng)

     < Jinghpaw: ka (Kachin dictionary app)

Central T'rùng: brì (vt.); əbrí (vi.) (T'rùng dictionary)

    < Written Tibetan: 'bri (Marrison 1967 Naga, cited in STEDT)

Central T'rùng: bɔ̀ (T'rùng dictionary)

     < Northern Lisu: bɔ³³ (Bradley 1994)

Conclusion: When the surrounding majority culture invents writing first, your language is susceptible to borrowing their word for writing. When we consider the fact that Mətwàng is the variety that does not use a loanword for this word (although the younger generation sometimes uses the Jinghpaw form), this helps explain why Mətwàng was chosen as the standard Rawang variety in the 1950s.