"Cha" versus "Te"

[wildisthewind]

https://qz.com/1176962/map-how-the-word ... the-world/

An interesting linguistic map showing how the two dominant words for tea spread to the languages they did - trading routes!

[Psyck]

Interesting that the article specifies the word used in Hindi and Urdu as Chay. As far as I know it is written and pronounced Chai. In addition, thanks to globalisation, the word Tea has become just as common with Chai being mainly used for the version where milk is added. So an infusion of say just green leaves would be called Tea and not Chai.

Do any of the users here use the Chay pronunciation?

[tealifehk]

Interesting that the article specifies the word used in Hindi and Urdu as Chay. As far as I know it is written and pronounced Chai. In addition, thanks to globalisation, the word Tea has become just as common with Chai being mainly used for the version where milk is added. So an infusion of say just green leaves would be called Tea and not Chai.

Do any of the users here use the Chay pronunciation?

Chay, although not written in the conventional way used in India and Pakistan, would still be pronounced 'chai.'

[Psyck]

Chay, although not written in the conventional way used in India and Pakistan, would still be pronounced 'chai.'

The article uses the word Chai, though only for Swahili. So as it uses both the Chay and Chai variations, I think it believes them to be pronounced differently. When I entered Chay into Google Translate and set the language as Russian - then Google, which recognises it as Tea, pronounces Chay as Chay - a word ending in something like aye and not as Chai. So I still think assigning Chay to Hindi is a bug in the article

[wildisthewind]

Interesting that the article specifies the word used in Hindi and Urdu as Chay. As far as I know it is written and pronounced Chai. In addition, thanks to globalisation, the word Tea has become just as common with Chai being mainly used for the version where milk is added. So an infusion of say just green leaves would be called Tea and not Chai.

Do any of the users here use the Chay pronunciation?

Their point isn't about contemporary usage, though. Often when there are two common words for the same referent they will differentiate to describe more specific things, like "chai" has today. What's so interesting is how the linguistic evolution can be tied so neatly to the method & routes of trade.

[tealifehk]

Chay, although not written in the conventional way used in India and Pakistan, would still be pronounced 'chai.'

The article uses the word Chai, though only for Swahili. So as it uses both the Chay and Chai variations, I think it believes them to be pronounced differently. When I entered Chay into Google Translate and set the language as Russian - then Google, which recognises it as Tea, pronounces Chay as Chay - a word ending in something like aye and not as Chai. So I still think assigning Chay to Hindi is a bug in the article

'Aye' also rhymes with 'chai!' The writer's name is Nikhil Sonnad, so you'd think he'd know how to pronounce it desi style! 'Chay,' pronounced 'chai,' is the term used in Russia as well. The word is pronounced the same, but the writer chose to use the -ay ending for India for some odd reason.

[Psyck]

<...>
Do any of the users here use the Chay pronunciation?

Their point isn't about contemporary usage, though. Often when there are two common words for the same referent they will differentiate to describe more specific things, like "chai" has today. What's so interesting is how the linguistic evolution can be tied so neatly to the method & routes of trade.

Of course. What I mentioned was an extremely minor point that does not in any way take away from the main interesting point of the article. I was merely curious about the Chay pronunciation - and the Google Translate for that word in Russian seems to have answered my query.

[tealifehk]

Try entering it as ЧАЙ !



1:05

[Rui]

"Tea if by sea, cha if by land" - Portugal must be an exception as they always brought tea to Europe via sea first for the Dutch who later decided to bring it themselves to make it cheaper. Their version of the word tea is "chá".

This topic seems to flare up from time to time and sometimes I struggle to reconcile the different versions of tea history bouncing around.