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Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea

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Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poland represent! We also have a word for "woman" that is unlike any other Slavic language. Polish goes its own way.

Other slavic languages (croatian here) also have that word, similar. It means something different though. It meant (that) something different in polish too. "A bit" offensive, haha.

If you don't mind my asking: what word is that? I'm only familiar with žena (I speak some Croatian but not enough to know archaisms)

Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea

#303
post #284

Wrong. Herbata if Slav or Commonwealth.

Lithuanian - lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbata Polish - pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbata That's pretty much all exceptions.

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

Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairly well-off family in the Ozarks, USA. We only say "dinner" when it's a special occasion and it isn't in the morning. For normal meals it's breakfast, lunch, supper. Most of my classmates in elementary school (many of whom had not enjoyed those "changing socioeconomic realities") were the same.

I feel like you're conflating "traditional agrarian" with "rural." I also feel like you're conflating "changing socioeconomic realities" with "people getting rich or well-off." Was your elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse? Did most people go home for the mid-day meal? Was school in session through the summer and winter with breaks for the planting season and the harvest? Did most people stop going after 6th,…

Yes I probably misunderstood you, because I have no idea what you meant by "standard American English". I'm an American and I speak English, and my rural neighbors are the same, so I thought I would report my observations. Around here we rarely use the word "dinner" for meals eaten in one's own home.

Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea

#305
post #93

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 t…

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 necessa…

Anything else is a herbal tea or tisane.

Ginger tea in India is a sweet, milky tea with camellia sinensis and ginger for flavour.

Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea

#306
post #198
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

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.

Or just chai

Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea

#307
post #139
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly pu-erh is often referred to as "red tea" in Western countries.

I've only heard "red tea" used to refer to rooibos tea.

Same here. I live in San Francisco and to the best of my knowledge, Pu-erh seems to be called just that. “Red tea” is not often said, but I would assume it meant rooibos. (BTW — if you haven't tried rooibos, please do. It is delicious.)

Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by “without the h sound” ? “Charcoal” doesn’t have an h sound as far as I can tell.

The first syllable in charcoal reads "tʃɑ:" in IPA. I was referring to the "ʃ" sound, formally the "voiceless palato-alveolar fricative" according to Wikipedia.

So, a “sh” sound, right?

Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea

#309
post #93

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 t…

So one thing that a lot of people, including the author of the article, may not realize is that Chinese 'dialects' aren't really dialects. They are each different languages spoken by different ethnic groups, kind of like how Spanish and Italian are different languages but still related. These different languages are called dialects mainly for political reasons, with the main one being unification. It's useful to thin…

What you have described is exactly what happened in Qin dynasty 2000 years ego. Then those languages evolved together and all influenced what is the modern Chinese.

It is funny that this is the reverse process as how Latin evolved into Italian and Spanish etc after the fall of Rome.

Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other slavic languages (croatian here) also have that word, similar. It means something different though. It meant (that) something different in polish too. "A bit" offensive, haha.

If you don't mind my asking: what word is that? I'm only familiar with žena (I speak some Croatian but not enough to know archaisms)

Kobieta, kobila in croatian meaning mare.
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