I'm confused, tea and cha are the same word.
Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
321–330 of 338 posts
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#322I'm confused, tea and cha are the same word. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea
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.
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is so interesting! So your mom grew up in a Marathi family in Guangdong?
No, in Ipoh, Malaysia, where there were (unsurprisingly) few Maharashtrians, though plenty of Tamils and Sikhs due to te British Empire. Mostly Chinese people though so she needed to communicate in Marathi, Hokkien (Fujianese), Cantonese, and Malay. Then the country was (re-)invaded; the Japanese had schools (pretty much only for Indians) and taught them Japanese; after that the English came back and she learnt Engli…
That's amazing!
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#324I'm confused, tea and cha are the same word. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea
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.
Then the article title is very misleading...
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Then the article title is very misleading...
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.
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then the article title is very misleading...
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.
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.
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
He's actually missing out elevenses and brunch.
And then there is "Second Breakfast". Or was that only in the movies?
I've heard "Second Breakfast" is actually a thing with farmers, i.e. they get up super early (say 4am) to feed the livestock or do some other such thing (cow milking?) and they have a lightish breakfast - a cuppa, some cereal or maybe toast. Then later on, say 730am-8am, once these tasks are done and dusted, they head back to the farmhouse where they have a more hearty affair - sausages, bacon, eggs.
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
Kobieta, kobila in croatian meaning mare.
That's not the same word. https://goo.gl/7ZZTrd
I don't know russian and can't read most of that anyways. Here's for polish: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kobieta and it's definitely mare in croatian, and via that same in all languages in the region since we share large volume of vocabulary.
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not the same word. https://goo.gl/7ZZTrd
I don't know russian and can't read most of that anyways. Here's for polish: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kobieta and it's definitely mare in croatian, and via that same in all languages in the region since we share large volume of vocabulary.
You should check in a real etymological dictionary. It's not entirely clear what the origins of 'kobieta' are whereas those of 'mare' are fairly well understood - it helps that it's practically universal in all slavic languages. There are lots of etymological mysteries out there, even surrounding very common words. It's fun to try but they generally don't get resolved by thinking of a somewhat similar-sounding word in a related language and glancing at wiktionary.
Re: Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 it is likely that "char" is derived from Chinese (another country with rather a lot of languages - would the real Chinese…
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.
"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).