Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
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Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
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Re: Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
#2[deleted]
Re: Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
#3I really like the word "tea" across languages.
Japanese - cha
Chinese - chá
Thailand - chā
Russian - чай (chay)
Turkish - Çay (chai)
Sri Lanka Sinhala - තේ (tē)
Arabic - شاي (shay)
German - tee
English - tea!
You have to go out of your way to find a language where "tea" deviates from those patterns.
Re: Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
#4I really like the word "tea" across languages. Japanese - cha Chinese - chá Thailand - chā Russian - чай (chay) Turkish - Çay (chai) Sri Lanka Sinhala - තේ (tē) Arabic - شاي (shay) German - tee English - tea! You have to go out of your way to find a language where "tea" deviates from those patterns.
Korean - 차 (cha)
Re: Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
#5I really like the word "tea" across languages. Japanese - cha Chinese - chá Thailand - chā Russian - чай (chay) Turkish - Çay (chai) Sri Lanka Sinhala - තේ (tē) Arabic - شاي (shay) German - tee English - tea! You have to go out of your way to find a language where "tea" deviates from those patterns.
Yes, the absurdity of the package in my cupboard, claiming to contain "chai tea". But your list is a latter-day pattern, the word exported from China together with the product itself.
Re: Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
#6I really like the word "tea" across languages. Japanese - cha Chinese - chá Thailand - chā Russian - чай (chay) Turkish - Çay (chai) Sri Lanka Sinhala - තේ (tē) Arabic - شاي (shay) German - tee English - tea! You have to go out of your way to find a language where "tea" deviates from those patterns.
But that's because the Europeans all adopted the word later.
From etymology online:
The distribution of the different forms of the word in Europe reflects the spread of use of the beverage. The modern English form, along with French thé, Spanish te, German Tee, etc., derive via Dutch thee from the Amoy form, reflecting the role of the Dutch as the chief importers of the leaves (through the Dutch East India Company, from 1610). Meanwhile, Russian chai, Persian cha, Greek tsai, Arabic shay, and Turkish çay all came overland from the Mandarin form.
Re: Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
#7I really like the word "tea" across languages. Japanese - cha Chinese - chá Thailand - chā Russian - чай (chay) Turkish - Çay (chai) Sri Lanka Sinhala - තේ (tē) Arabic - شاي (shay) German - tee English - tea! You have to go out of your way to find a language where "tea" deviates from those patterns.
As common words go, this one isn’t that old though. Dates from the late 1st millennium, and has mostly been spread around in the past 500 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea
I think it’s similar with other products originating largely from a single source, e.g. “chocolate”, “ramen”, “tofu”, “wine”, “cashmere”, “curry”, “khaki”, “shampoo”, ...
Re: Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
#8My favorite example of this is the word "squirrel," which is originally from ancient Greek, σκίουρος (lexical translation: skiouros, which means shadow-tailed). Somehow the notion that Socrates would use approximately the same (rather unlikely) word for this animal that I do is fascinating.
Re: Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
#9I really like the word "tea" across languages. Japanese - cha Chinese - chá Thailand - chā Russian - чай (chay) Turkish - Çay (chai) Sri Lanka Sinhala - තේ (tē) Arabic - شاي (shay) German - tee English - tea! You have to go out of your way to find a language where "tea" deviates from those patterns.
But that's because the Europeans all adopted the word later. From etymology online: The distribution of the different forms of the word in Europe reflects the spread of use of the beverage. The modern English form, along with French thé, Spanish te, German Tee, etc., derive via Dutch thee from the Amoy form, reflecting the role of the Dutch as the chief importers of the leaves (through the Dutch East India Company, f…
Yeah, you are right on with that observation. You prompted me to find out from where the VOC imported their tea. Apparently the initial source was Macao which spoke Cantonese. In modern day Canton and Putonghua words for tea are near indisguishable, so perhaps the Cantonese word for tea circa 1600 was quite like the current Putonhua word for tea. Had VOC sourced their tea from Sri Lanka, our word for tea might be dramatically different. In Tamil, tea is called தேநீர் (tēnīr)
http://www.mightyleaftea.be/history-of-tea?___store=uk&___fr...
edit: tea not teat
Re: Ultraconserved words in use since the last Ice Age
#10For anyone interested in etymology and the endless source of fascinating stories that is language, I recommend The History of English Podcast: http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/
It starts all the way back in Proto-Indo-European and gives a really fulfilling amount of linguistic detail. Some of the most enjoyable parts, IMO, are when you realize that two seemingly-unrelated words are actually cognate.