Few products defined the early phases of globalisation as much as tea did. From China to India to England, tea is central to the identities of so many countries. Growing up speaking English as well as Mandarin Chinese, I would have referred to it as “tea” and “茶” (pronounced chá) respectively. What I did not expect was that a perusal of the languages of the world reveals that their words to refer to this product all seem to either be related to “tea” or “cha”! Here are some examples:
Related to “tea”:
Dutch: “thee”
French: “thé”
German: “Tee”
Hebrew: “teh”
Italian: “te”
Malay: “teh”
Sinhalese: “thé”
Spanish: “té”
Swedish: “te”
Tamil: “theneer”
Vietnamese: “tra”
Related to “cha”:
Arabic: “shay”
Bengali: “cha”
Czech: “caj”
Greek: “tsai”
Hindi: “chai”
Japanese: “o-cha”
Korean: “cha”
Persian: “chay”
Russian: “chay”
Thai: “chah”
Turkish: “cay”
What can explain this? Well, both etymologies actually trace their origins to China. This comes as no surprise as tea originated in China. Looking at the map above, a distinct pattern appears, where languages of countries historically linked to China via overland trade use “cha” and its derivatives, while it is “tea” for those countries historically linked to China via maritime trade.
The term “茶” or “cha” is a Sinitic (Chinese) term. Westwards, along the Silk Road connecting China to Europe and the Middle East, the Mandarin “cha” evolved into the Persian “chay”, which in turn spread overland to influence Arabic, Turkish, Russian and the variety of languages spoken in Northern India, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, among others.
What about “tea” then? Well, there are many varieties and dialects of Chinese, and for the same characters, those words of the same meanings can be pronounced rather differently. As for “茶”, n the Min Nan dialect (Hokkien) spoken in the coastal Fujian province as well as Taiwan. In the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) set up port in Fujian and Taiwan, and monopolised the tea trade from China to Europe. The beverage was referred to as “thee” in Dutch and spread to Western Europe, as well as other coastal regions such as Southern India or the Malay Archipelago.
While “cha by land, tea by sea” is the general trend for many languages around the world, there are of course exceptions. The Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese terms for this beverage have nothing to do with the overland Silk Road trade, since they are not situated west of China. Over the sea, the Dutch were in fact not the first to Asia, although the VOC monopolised the tea trade later on. Credit actually goes to the Portuguese, who traded through Macau and Canton where Cantonese is spoken, and the Cantonese unlike the Hokkiens called it “cha”, hence the Portuguese unlike other Western Europeans, call it “cha”.
Language is such an interesting part of human history, culture and our everyday lives. The case of “tea” and “cha” is testament to the profound effects of globalisation even in its early days. This is not the only curious case where so many languages refer to something in such similar terms. There is also “pineapple” and “ananas”, as well as “papa” and “mama” to refer to one’s parents. Will definitely be an eye-opener to explore more of these things that come to us a bit too naturally.
Comments