
Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea - ValentineC
https://qz.com/1176962/map-how-the-word-tea-spread-over-land-and-sea-to-conquer-the-world/
======
kawsper
It can also refer to food like lunch or dinner which the danish school system
did not prepare me for in their english lessons,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_(meal)#Tea_as_the_evening_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_\(meal\)#Tea_as_the_evening_meal)

~~~
gumby
That Wikipedia section needs a rewrite. It does mention that that usage is a
class marker but then conflates it with the pastry-and-tea afternoon snack
practice of upper classes. They are two radically disjoint uses.

The origin of the “tea” being the term for evening meal are pretty well
attested to lie the poverty of the English lower classes who could not afford
much more than a cup of tea in the evening.

I grew up using the word “tea” to refer to the evening meal in Australia
(actually my parents were at pains to _avoid_ this usage, but the rest of my
dad’s family still does). My father, the only one in his family to attend
university, clearly saw it as a dangerous class marker.

Interestingly my mother grew up using a _chai_ language (Marathi) in the home
but _te_ languages (Cantonese and Fujianese) in the street. These usages of
course were all for the drink.

(And btw your comment was funny to me because on of the all time greatest
linguists of English was a Dane, Otto Jesperson).

~~~
rkachowski
I'd never heard of this before. Growing up in rural Scotland, meals were
always "Breakfast", "Dinner" and "Tea". There was sometimes confusion with
other people over whether dinner was a midday or evening meal, but I'd never
thought much of it until now.

~~~
teh_klev
I'm also originally from rural Scotland (around Tomintoul), for us it was
"Breakfast", "Dinner" and "Supper".

Upon moving to the central belt, and ingratiating myself into more middle
class circles of friends I then discovered:

Breakfast - eaten usually when you get up in the morning, say early morning
until ~1030am

Lunch - eaten from 12pm until ~2:30pm

Afternoon Tea - taken from around 3:30pm until 4:30pm (cakes/biscuits
[cookies] and would also include some kind of sandwich - often cut into
triangles)

Tea - 5pm until 6pm - usually a lighter two course meal (say an omlette) and
some pudding (desert).

Dinner - taken from 7pm until perhaps 9pm - this would be a fully laiden two
or three course meal.

Supper - taken from around 10pm until around 11pm (or just before bedtime) -
likely cheese on toast or crackers & cheese and a cuppa.

Obviously you don't need to have every one of these meals every day of the
week.

~~~
jackbravo
In spanish I think all countries agree on at least: desayuno (breakfast),
comida (lunch), cena (dinner) as the three basic. But we also have merienda
and almuerzo which get different times and portions depending on country.

And there can be other terms of course. In Guadalajara, México, where I live,
schools say "hora del lonche" (lunch time) to the midday meal.

~~~
irrational
Interesting. In Puerto Rico, comida meant food and almuerzo meant lunch.

~~~
sithadmin
'La Comida' as the main meal of the day at approximately lunchtime is a
Castillian term and generally a Spanish (in the sense of: people that live in
Spain) practice. The practice and this sense of the term 'comida' aren't
common in Latin America, in my experience.

------
dwyer
I'm no Chinese expert, so somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I've found
that the Chinese word 茶 (cha) doesn't always necessarily mean tea, but can
refer generically to a number of different brewed drinks. e.g. barley tea
(大麥茶), ginger tea (薑茶), golden oats tea (燕麥茶), etc. all of which translate to
tea, but often contain no tea leaves. It may seem like a nitpick, but when
you're in China and order what you expect to be a ginger flavored tea, only to
receive a cup of hot water with chopped ginger at the bottom, the distinction
can be important. That isn't to say you can't simply order 茶 in China and
receive what you would expect, as long as you're expecting green tea.
Likewise, if you simply order tea in England, you'll likely receive what the
Chinese call 紅茶 (red tea). So in my mind, the words aren't exactly equivalent
and I wonder how much the different variations of tea and cha relate to
themselves and each other.

Edit: Applied jpatokal's correction.

~~~
Sean1708
Reading your comment I'm a bit confused about what your point is. Even in
English tea doesn't necessarily mean a drink brewed in tea leaves, which you
presumably know since you yourself say:

> e.g. barley tea (大麥茶), ginger tea (薑茶), golden oats tea (燕麥茶), etc. all of
> which translate to tea

You call all of these things tea (and I would call them all tea too), so I'm
not really sure why you say that cha doesn't necessarily translate to tea.

~~~
klipt
I have heard some people argue that "tea" refers only to things made using the
plant Camellia sinensis (e.g. black tea, green tea, white tea) and everything
else (e.g. rooibos) is a "tisane".

~~~
romwell
Never heard "tisane" being used by anyone.

Most of the people in the US don't seem to care much about the distinction
between infusions containing tea leaves and infusions that don't (when it's
not just tea leaves); those who do, would often ask whether it's a caffeinated
"tea" or not (infusions containing tea leaves usually contain caffeine).

Personally, I prefer to use the term "herbal infusion", because it unambiguous
and relatively widespread.

However, in common usage people will say "herbal tea", both in English and
Russian, even when aware that the tea plant is not in the mix. It seems like
the crusade for "tea/chai" meaning something brewed from tea leaves is not
only doomed, but has been lost before the West started to drink tea.

~~~
ianleighton
Tisane probably comes from French, where it is relatively common (at least
understood, and a stickler for tea would correct your usage) and perhaps one
would use it in English like other French culinary terms like “à la mode”

~~~
klipt
Wiktionary says it went

English <\- French <\- Latin <\- Greek

[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tisane#Etymology](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tisane#Etymology)

Interesting that in English it starts with the "tea" sound, but has a
completely separate origin (I don't think the ancient Greeks were even aware
of Chinese tea...)

------
angrygoat
At least in Australia, "chai" is on sale in cafes meaning Masala chai, a mix
of leaf tea and Indian spices and herbs. And then you've got the "chai latte",
like a regular latte but with "chai" instead of espresso.

Amusing weirding of language - it should really be a "masala"!

~~~
oasisbob
Same in many parts of the US, except it's taken one step further with "chai
tea" \- even in big-budget advertisements by chains who should know better.

Seeing or hearing "chai tea" drives my Indian wife up the wall everytime.

~~~
Cyberdog
I'm the type that gets triggered by people who enter their "PIN number" into
an "ATM machine," so I can relate.

------
yetihehe
Polish language has "herbata", which is a third one, from herbs.

~~~
summner
But where do we boil water for "herba-ta"? In "Czajnik" (keetle), where root
"czaj" most definately comes from "cha".

~~~
jutaz
Lithuanians call tea as "arbata", and it's boiled in "arbatinis". It also has
nothing to do with "herbs". AFAIK, there is no reference to the word tea or
cha anywhere in terms of tea.

~~~
spfix63
Clearly, arbata comes from the same herbal tea origin, just the h got dropped
somewhere along the way, herb -> arba, tea -> ta

~~~
fyfy18
This would appear to be confirmed based on regional dialects from this area.

In the Samogitian dialect of Lithuanian it's spelled "erbata", however the
first "a" in modern Lithuanian isn't stressed, so it's very similar. Also in
Kashubian (spoken in parts of northern Poland, often considered a dialect of
Pomeranian) it is the same as modern Lithuanian.

On the other hand in Sambian Prussian it is "tejs", which is similar to "teja"
in modern Lativan. It's interesting how two different forms emerged in the
same geographic area.

------
anqurvanillapy
I’m a native (simplified) Chinese speaker and I found it interesting to see
the growth of meanings of tea, from originally a kind of bitter vegetable (荼,
as 艹 for vegetable-related, 余 from 涂 for muds), to brewed drinks. For instance
if you order a cup of 果茶 (lit. fruit tea), you will end up having a cup of hot
water with sugar and cut apple pieces and more. The meaning of the “brewed
drink” is IMO really pervasive.

------
Keysh
There's a more comprehensive version of this story at linguist Dan Jurafsky's
web site (it can also be found in the book by Jurafsky mentioned by
aniket_ray): [http://languageoffood.blogspot.com/2014/08/tea-if-by-
sea.htm...](http://languageoffood.blogspot.com/2014/08/tea-if-by-sea.html)

------
ekianjo
Tea to Japan was certainly not "by land". I know they want to make it into a
simple rule, but that's just not as simple as they pretend.

~~~
_0nac
The friendly article notes that both Japan and Korea likely acquired the word
long before the Silk Road.

Relevant random factoid: it's possible to tell when many Chinese words were
imported into Japan based on the pronunciation, which varies based on where
the Chinese capital (and hence the ruling class dialect) happened to be. See
"Onyomi" under
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji).

~~~
ekianjo
Yeah I am aware, I speak Japanese.

~~~
schemathings
And if you're an American in Japan speaking to a Japanese who speaks English
they say Chinese alphabet (a literal translation) rather than Kanji (based on
my 6 trips there)

~~~
drawnwren
Aren't there also some words in Kanji that don't have Chinese origins? Like 硝子
for example?

------
erebrus
Portugal imported tea from India way before Macau. That was the whole thing of
the sea route to India...

~~~
megaman22
Spices were far bigger initially. Black pepper, cloves, nutmegs and mace were
the real money makers. Cloves and nutmegs especially, since they only grew
natively on a handful of the Molucca islands, and a succession of bloody and
exploitative regimes maintained a monopoly on production and export almost
into the 19th century.

~~~
phillc73
Cloves and nutmegs may have been somewhat more widespread than just the
Molucca islands, although the Dutch and Portuguese did much to try and protect
their spice trade monopoly by limiting production to those few islands.

Visiting Mindanao island, in the Philippines in 1686, the Englishman William
Dampier observed the following:

 _"...but the nutmegs this island produces are fair and large, yet they have
no great store of them, being unwilling to propagate them or the cloves, for
fear that should invite the Dutch to visit them and bring them into subjection
as they have done the rest of the neighbouring islands where they grow. For
the Dutch, being seated among the Spice Islands, have monopolised all the
trade into their own hands and will not suffer any of the natives to dispose
of it but to themselves alone. Nay, they are so careful to preserve it in
their own hands that they will not suffer the spice to grow in the uninhabited
islands, but send soldiers to cut the trees down. Captain Rofy told me that
while he lived with the Dutch he was sent with other men to cut down the
spice-trees; and that he himself did at several times cut down 7 or 800 trees.
Yet although the Dutch take such care to destroy them there are many
uninhabited islands that have great plenty of spice-trees, as I have been
informed by Dutchmen that have been there, particularly by a captain of a
Dutch ship that I met with at Achin who told me that near the island Banda
there is an island where the cloves, falling from the trees, do lie and rot on
the ground, and they are at the time when the fruit falls 3 or 4 inches thick
under the trees. He and some others told me that it would not be a hard matter
for an English vessel to purchase a ship's cargo of spice of the natives of
some of these Spice Islands."_[1]

Whether the trees were truly native to this island, or brought there from
elsewhere, is probably not known.

[1] A New Voyage Around the World, William Dampier, 1697,
[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500461h.html](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500461h.html)

------
HumanDrivenDev
In modern Taiwanese Min Nan, "tê" sounds more like "day" than "tea". Maybe it
sounded different in the Min Nan of Fujian a few hundred years ago, or
something was "lost in transcription" when the dutch wrote "thee".

~~~
wluu
I’m not sure how you got “day" out of it, the linked recording sounded (to me)
more like "the", if you were trying to say the word "there" (but obviously
without the "re").

My mums' native dialect is Teo Chiew, which is a variant of and falls under
the Min Nan family of dialects (but can be quite different in many ways, a
native speaker of one does not necessarily means mutual understanding of the
others). And while similar, Teo Chiew uses a "dê” rather than "tê" for tea.

On another note, the area is also the origin of the "Gong Fu Cha" style tea
ceremony. [1]

[1] [https://www.kyarazen.com/chaozhou-gongfu-
tea/](https://www.kyarazen.com/chaozhou-gongfu-tea/)

~~~
HumanDrivenDev
> I’m not sure how you got “day" out of it, the linked recording sounded (to
> me) more like "the", if you were trying to say the word "there" (but
> obviously without the "re").

What kind of English accent do you have?

I'm from New Zealand, so the way I pronounce vowels is probably differs a lot
from the prestige accents of English.

~~~
wluu
Ah. I’m from across the ditch (Aussie for those unfamiliar with the term).

------
gadders
In London, "Char" is also slang for tea as in "a cup of char". Looks like
there is some overlap.

[http://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/cup-
char](http://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/cup-char)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
In UK people also sometimes solely use the term "brew" or "cuppa".

~~~
gadders
Yes, I'm sitting there now. You can also ask for a "cup of splosh".

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Oh, don't know that one; I guess South-East .. where's it from?

~~~
gadders
Yeah, I think so.

------
codeN
Interestingly in my home state of Kerala situated in the south western coast
of India. Tea is called Chaaya while tea leaves are called Theyila where ila
means leaf. The heavy commercial production of tea was started in Kerala only
after the British arrived.

~~~
drwu
I thought `Chaaya` could mean 茶叶(chá'yè), while 茶 is the tea and 叶 are the
leaves.

The interesting thing here is that the old pronunciation of 茶(cha) was with a
long vocal (chaa), whereas 叶(ye) was short and sounded like (ya)

~~~
cevn
In hindi, chai is written चाय - chaaya, but the final "a" is elided due to
language rules. I wonder if it has anything to do with that.

~~~
drwu
thank you, exactly this is what I want verify, that it is just a coincident.

------
gerhardi
Almost the same goes for the word Restaurant. Everywhere in the world it's
almost the same - except in Russia it is pectopah! :)

~~~
DoreenMichele
For those who can't read any Russian, or never read that short story where
this is the punchline essentially, pectopah is pronounced restoran. It only
drops the T, basically.

~~~
ivanhoe
It should be really written in upper case, as PECTOPAH, to match the cyrillic
letters better :)

~~~
chki
or just write the cyrillic letters, i guess: ресторан ;)

------
richardknop
In Slovak tea is caj (ignoring diacritics, or "čaj" as written properly, it's
just I have English keyboard and diacritics is hard to use on it). And it’s
pronounced as “chaj”. So very similar to cha. And it turns out Slovakia is a
landlocked country. Just one data point but seems to be additional evidence.

~~~
bitcoinusername
In Croatia it is "čaj". Although it has a coast on Adriatic and coastal people
use "čaj" as a word too, despite Italian influence (which uses tè for tea).
Even people on islands that were influenced hugely by the Republic of Venice.

~~~
smcl
I'm curious - was the Croat language (or some parent of it) pretty predominant
during the times of the Republic of Venice? Or is that a "new" thing after the
unification of Yugoslavia, and prior to that Italian (or some Venetian
dialect) was widely spoken?

~~~
Keyframe
It was predominant. Only difference was that latin was predominant in written
form until 16th century, after which there was some kind of standardization of
the language on one main dialect (we have three) and a movement(s) towards
written croatian as well.

------
skety
Any Vietnamese know why Vietnam has "tea" in the middle and "cha" in north or
south on the map? I spend 2 months in the north then lived for a few month in
Saigon. I never came across people using anything other than "trà" (cha).

~~~
favadi
Vietnamese uses both "chè" and "trà". But for some reasons, for things like
iced tea, bubble tea we only use "trà". For the traditional tea that serves in
a teapot, either is fine.

~~~
skety
I forgot about chè, thank you for reminding me. this word is also a desert
according to:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A8)

------
taejo
Kind of strange that this refers to "Sinitic" contrasting to "Min Nan" when
Min Nan is a Sinitic language.

~~~
tsing
Just learnt that "Min Nan" dialect can be referred to "Hokkien"

~~~
jpatokal
"Hokkien" is an approximation of how "Fujian" is pronounced in Min Nan, which
in turn means "Southern Min" (dialect/language).

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Min](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Min)

------
mdadashyan
Interesting enough, in Armenian tea is pronounced as 'tey' and Armenia is
surrounded by countries where tea is pronounced as "chay" \- Georgia,
Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran.

~~~
tigrank
Came here to say this.

------
abritinthebay
This is a quite cool breakdown of the differences.

One thing it misses is in English (ie, the country) usage there is _both_.

Tea, obviously, is more common but the phrase "a cup of char" is clearly
derived from the Chinese and Indian origins. Interestingly it (at least was)
primarily a working class phrasing, possibly originating with sea-faring types
and dock workers.

Of course now the US is confusing matters by making "chai" be ubiquitous for
Massala chai, but that's a different matter!

------
aniket_ray
If you are interested in the linguistics of food names, might I recommend:
Daniel Jurafsky's The Language of Food[1]

[1] -
[https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Language_of_Food_A_...](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Language_of_Food_A_Linguist_Reads_th.html?id=7BF0AwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false)

------
justaaron
I'd always understood the T to come from the Taxa (Alfandegaria) imposed upon
the blocks the Portuguese imported to Europe and sold to the rest of Europe.

Cha (Portuguese) because the Portuguese were not only the first Europeans to
reach China by boat, but Japan and India as well, so they used the rightful
Asian terms for it, having no other. (back when the Dutch were still pirates
hoping to catch a laden Portuguese caravella. FWIW.)

------
nimrod0
_" A few languages have their own way of talking about tea. These languages
are generally in places where tea grows naturally, which led locals to develop
their own way to refer to it. In Burmese, for example, tea leaves are
lakphak."_

Actually, 'lakphak' is not entirely distinct, and likely related to 'tea,' at
least the 'lak' part. The STEDT project has a number of reconstructions across
Sino-Tibetan for etyma variously meaning leaf, flat object, and tea:
[http://stedt.berkeley.edu/~stedt-
cgi/rootcanal.pl/etymon/786](http://stedt.berkeley.edu/~stedt-
cgi/rootcanal.pl/etymon/786)

See also my comment here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16134698](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16134698)

The first character associated with a 'bitter herb' that later became specific
to tea, 荼 (rlya), is probably a cousin of this 'lak' in modern Burmese.

------
apt-get
Moroccan arabic actually uses both word: the classical "shay" and "atay",
which is more common.

------
jolesf
The map looks so very similar to this modern OBOR project
[http://mercaturaglobal.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/10/1200x-...](http://mercaturaglobal.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/10/1200x-1.png)

------
kerneltime
If you want to read more about history of tea consumption and the role of
China, India and England, I recommend reading "For all the team in china: How
England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History"
[https://www.amazon.com/All-Tea-China-England-
Favorite/dp/014...](https://www.amazon.com/All-Tea-China-England-
Favorite/dp/0143118749/) It helped me understand why green tea is dominant in
China vs. black tea in most other places..

------
aamody
In a world with the many complexities of language, its refreshing to see an
example of a word that's pretty much used in 2 ways almost everywhere!

------
myth_buster
If this fascinates you as it does for me, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of
Human Societies [0] is an equally fascinating read, although there are
arguments against the hypothesis.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-
Societies/dp/0...](https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-
Societies/dp/0393317552)

------
ShirsenduK
The local Nepali speaking people of Darjeeling, which is famous its champagne
of teas, call it chi-yah. Close to Cha but not quite.

~~~
njsubedi
I was about to add this. It's "chi-yaa" almost all over the mountains of
Nepal.

~~~
ShirsenduK
I hear it as ending with yeah! As no one says no to them. :P

Although I live in that area and don't drink tea.

------
odiroot
What about "herbata" in Polish then?

~~~
yarek
Comes from French "herbe" meaning "grass/plant". "Herbe" is also source for
English "herb".

~~~
Anderkent
Latin herba actually, rather than french herbe

------
Profan
This is an excellent map for the purpose of it, lifted from a bunch of
research (shows the words in each individual language and also which language
they originated from)

[http://wals.info/feature/138A#2/25.5/143.6](http://wals.info/feature/138A#2/25.5/143.6)

------
etqwzutewzu
Wikipedia has a long page on the etymology of tea and how to say it in various
langages in the world:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea)

------
llamaz
I'm confused. In Urdu and Hindi it's "chai" (rhymes with eye) not chay (rhymes
with stay)

~~~
coolsunglasses
They're using an unusual transliteration. "ay" can sound like "eye" in English
but it's atypical to use that in transliterations now-a-days.

~~~
int_19h
They're using a transliteration that's usual for basically everything but
English, the one that assumes common Latin sounds for all the individual
letters, and then you just pronounce them one by one.

~~~
coolsunglasses
They're using a transliteration that's unusual:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chai)

------
jvandonsel
I'd like to see the equivalent map for 'coffee'.

~~~
neaden
This article is about the spread of the word coffee, and has a small map at
the end.
[http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/12/10/coffee_...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/12/10/coffee_cognates_arabic_qahwah_turkish_kahve_and_other_cross_linguistic_borrowings.html)

It's pretty similar with coffee being almost universal across different
languages.

------
narvind
In south india Tea is called "theneer" in the Tamil language. I wonder if
that's because it came from Sri Lanka as opposed to Northern Indian states.

------
jhoechtl
Austria is isolated from sea and the one and only word used to reference that
beverage is "Tee" (tea), so we have one exception to the rule.

~~~
awiesenhofer
well, back then Austria still had sea access via Trieste etc.

------
ferreirix
There are exceptions since the Portuguese brought tea from India to Europe by
sea, and still they call it "cha"

~~~
ZenoArrow
Some people in England also use "cha" as slang for tea. It's not widely used,
but it is present.

[https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/18152/british-
us...](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/18152/british-usage-of-cha-
char-or-chai-to-mean-tea)

~~~
mhandley
Likely that influence comes from when India was part of the British Empire.
Lots of Indian-derived words made it into British English.

~~~
gerdesj
Pyjamas and bungalow are examples of borrow words from India. India has rather
a lot of languages and I don't think you can lump them all into "Indian".

"Char" as in "cuppa char?" is the usual spelling (would you like a cup of
tea?)

According to this: [http://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/cup-
char](http://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/cup-char) it is likely that "char"
is derived from Chinese (another country with rather a lot of languages -
would the real Chinese please stand up!)

~~~
Y_Y
I think this is overly snippy. GP just seemed to imply that the words cone
from India, not that India has a single language.

Also as far as i can tell "cha" is far more common than "char" in the British
Isles.

~~~
gerdesj
"Also as far as i can tell "cha" is far more common than "char" in the British
Isles."

No, it isn't. "Char" is always the spelling I have encountered here (in 47
years).

------
arketyp
This adds a new dimension to the chai latte as a token of globalization.
Breaking borders.

------
2T1Qka0rEiPr
I had just made a pot, sat down to have breakfast and came across this.
wonderful!

------
Fiahil
And what about South America ?

~~~
gota
In Brazil, at least, the Portuguese 'cha' is used

------
thaumasiotes
The headline seems to imply an overland trade route between China and Japan.

------
expertentipp
Wrong. Herbata if Slav or Commonwealth.

~~~
snaky
Lithuanian - lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbata

Polish - pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbata

That's pretty much all exceptions.

~~~
seba_dos1
Apparently it still comes from "herbal tea" (herba thea).

------
kryachkov
In Swedish ”te” is what is usually refeerrd as a tea (in England for example).
Herbal tea is ”chai” in Swedish

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hashmush
Herbal tea is örtte (lit. herb + tea). Chai is something different.

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Snortibartfast
Correct. When we swedes say "chai" we actually mean "masala chai".

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Grustaf
I'm confused, tea and cha are the same word.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea)

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shakna
Yes, and that's pointed out:

> Both versions come from China.

> The term cha (茶)

> But in the Min Nan variety of Chinese, spoken in the coastal province of
> Fujian, the character is pronounced te.

The same word, originating in China, was brought by trade routes around the
world, with slight variations in pronunciation, resulting in two words.

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Grustaf
Then the article title is very misleading...

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shakna
I think, from what I can guess, that you are reading the wrong context from
the title.

We have two words for tea, today, because of one word in the past. Most
languages today use those at least one of those two words.

It may have been one word in China, but it isn't in the languages that it
influenced.

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Grustaf
I know the history of the word very well, and I understand that clickbait
headings have to simplify.

But if you want to call CHA and TEA different words, in what sense are TEA and
THE (French) the same word? I would say they are either all the same word (how
I would phrase it) or all different - since they are in different languages.

But this is all semantics, not very interesting really.

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bitwize
Disproof by counterexample: The Japanese word for tea is _cha_ / _ocha_ ,
which must surely have arrived by sea (Japan is an island archipelago!).

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Ngunyan
In the Philippines, it's "cha-a" or "tsaa", which is a counter-example for
"cha" being spread across land. The Philippines was consecutively under
Spanish and American rule and 99% of Chinese there speak Hokkien/Min-nan yet
do not use "te".

Seems the same applies to Guam as well.

