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Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
201–210 of 338 posts
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#202Portugal imported tea from India way before Macau. That was the whole thing of the sea route to India...
Portuguese went to India for the tea? That doesn't sound right at all. Who was importing large quantities of tea to Europe before then? They went there to take the valuable spice trade.
Tea was imported by the Portuguese from China and became popular in Europe after that. The British then started producing tea massively in India to obtain it at a lower price.
From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tea
"The history of tea is long and complex, spreading across multiple cultures over the span of thousands of years. Tea likely originated in southwest China during the Shang dynasty as a medicinal drink.[1] An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the 3rd century AD, in a medical text written by Hua Tuo.[2] Tea was first introduced to Portuguese priests and merchants in China during the 16th century.[3] Drinking tea became popular in Britain during the 17th century. The British introduced tea production, as well as tea consumption, to India, in order to compete with the China monopoly on tea.[4]"
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#203By « the world » I guess they mean « English »
You didn't read the article obviously.
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#204I'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 t…
In modern usage you're right, 茶 is used as 'beverage'.
When the character was created (appears in Erya under 'plants', so a very early character), it referred to one of a number of 'bitter herbs,' and linguists think it might have sounded like 'rlya'.
The character is composed of the top part, 艹 (classically written as 艸), meaning 'herbaceous plant' and the bottom part, 余, which supplied the pronunciation 'lya'.
There are two modern characters that come out of this, 茶 (cha) and 荼 (tu); the first one is used for tea/beverage, the second one has been borrowed a lot for its sound but at least one of its meanings is still 'bitter plant'.
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#205I'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 t…
Including the hundreds of different bubble tea. It’s also used to refer to dim sum in hong kong as in “yamcha” (drink tea) which colloquially means to eat dim sum
I have just realized that I have never heard anything remotely close to "dim sum" when talking about dim sum, in both Mandarin and Cantonese. I've only heard "ying cha" or "yum cha." In fact I had to search up why it's "dim sum" in English just now. It literally means "snack"
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#206If 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...
It helped me understand why green tea is dominant in China vs. black tea in most other places..
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks, that was very informative. I was always told that dinner (from "dine") is the main meal of the day. So if you have a 'fancy' afternoon meal that can be your dinner (e.g. we usually do Christmas dinner between 3 and 4). I wonder if HN knows of a linguistic map for meal names, it appears that these words shift meaning a lot. EDIT: I thought this was interesting -- "Harvard's Dialect Survey had the question, 'Wh…
The slightly snooty Daily Telegraph style guide: "Christmas lunch is what most of our readers would eat, not Christmas dinner. Use the latter only if referring specifically to an evening meal." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/about-us/style-book/143530...
Even in Southern England (Cambridge), I don't think I've ever heard the phrase "Christmas lunch".
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#208At 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"!
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.
+1
Would you like some coffee latte with milk and cappuccino with foam with your chai tea latte order :-P
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks, that was very informative. I was always told that dinner (from "dine") is the main meal of the day. So if you have a 'fancy' afternoon meal that can be your dinner (e.g. we usually do Christmas dinner between 3 and 4). I wonder if HN knows of a linguistic map for meal names, it appears that these words shift meaning a lot. EDIT: I thought this was interesting -- "Harvard's Dialect Survey had the question, 'Wh…
I don't think it's as easy as geography, it depends on your parents upbringing too. One other great British-English question is "what do you call an individually portioned baked bread article" ... roll, barm, bap, cob, ...
Or "How do you pronounce 'scone'?"
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I am aware, I speak Japanese.
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)
Aren't there also some words in Kanji that don't have Chinese origins? Like 硝子 for example?