蓮霧 is a delicious fruit here in Taiwan. It has many English names. It even has many scientific names.

Some scientific names I can find are listed here.

Syzygium samarangense
Syzygium javanicum
Eugenia javanica
Eugenia alba
Eugenia formosa
Myrtus samarangense

Its common names include Java apple, Java rose, rose apple, Samarang rose apple, water apple, wax jambu, wax apple, bell fruit, Malay apple, moutain apple and jambu.

This fruit is best known here in Taiwan by either wax apple or bell fruit.

Indeed the name 蓮霧 should come from jambu. The name jambu came from Sanskrit ultimately. In Minnan or Taiwanese, there's a tendency for j- sounds to change to l- sounds. Like in Xiamen, the j- sounds are bascially lost or changed to l- sounds. This should be why it's called so in Taiwanese.

Tim

中文版

蓮霧是台灣一種好吃的水果。它有很多英文名稱，甚至連學名都有好幾個。

底下列出一些我可以找到的學名。

Syzygium samarangense
Syzygium javanicum
Eugenia javanica
Eugenia alba
Eugenia formosa
Myrtus samarangense

蓮霧的英文俗名有 Java apple, Java rose, rose apple, Samarang rose apple, water apple, wax jambu, wax apple, bell fruit, Malay apple, moutain apple 以及 jambu。

此水果在台灣最常聽到的英文名稱不是 wax apple 就是 bell fruit。

事實上蓮霧這個名稱應該是從 jambu 來的。Jambu 這個名稱的最終來源是梵文。在閩南話或台語裡，有把 j- 的音變成 l- 音的趨勢。例如在廈門，基本上 j- 音已經消失或變成 l- 音。這也應該是為什麼在台語叫做蓮霧。

Tim