A history of tea, the second most-consumed beverage in the world (2017)

Re:A history of tea, the second most-consumed beverage in th... by thaumasiotes on Sunday May 26, 2019 @05:37AM (#20014027)

Sure, all pronunciations ultimately derive from China.

But "chai" pronunciations do not derive directly from China, where there is no such form. And so the use of "chai" can tell us something about how tea got into a particular culture.

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Re:A history of tea, the second most-consumed beverage in th... by NotPaidToPost on Sunday May 26, 2019 @05:45AM (#20014055)

It might have arrived to India through Persia but it derives directly from (Northern) Chinese.

'Tea' also derives directly from Chinese but through another Chinese dialect (Southern).

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Re:A history of tea, the second most-consumed beverage in th... by thaumasiotes on Sunday May 26, 2019 @05:54AM (#20014087)

You're using "directly" to mean something mysterious. Tea brought to India by non-Chinese traders speaking non-Chinese languages was referred to by a non-Chinese name. That is not an example of direct contact with China.

And as you'll see if you read the links posted variously through this subthread, the word for tea which English derived directly from contact with China (in very southerly Guangzhou) was "cha". That word was quickly replaced by "tea", derived from Dutch.

The Dutch word was derived directly from China, but, as you note, from the language spoken in a different region.

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