“Tea” by sea, “Cha” by land.
@teawish.co “Tea” by sea, “Cha” by land. #chinesetea #teaculture #silkroad #teahistory #teawish ♬ original sound – Derry@Teawish
Hi guys. Today I have a very interesting topic.
With a few minor exceptions, there are only two ways to say “tea” in the world. One is the form like English term tea. Or it’s Thé in Frech, Tee in German, or thee in Dutch, té in Spanish.
The other form is some variation of cha, like chay in Hindi, Çay in Turkish, τσάι in Greek, Chai in Swahili spoken by people in eastern Africa.
Sorry please correct me if I made a mistake with your language.
Why is it like this? Please have a look at this map. Tea is originated from China. When it spread across land along the silk road, it used the name of Cha. When it spread over sea, it used the name of tea.
In fact, these 2 names are from the same Chinese character “茶”. The difference is the pronunciation. In 17th century, Dutch traders came to Funjian province, where was one the most famous tea production areas of China. Dutch people started trading and shipping teas from South Fujian, where the local people pronounce “cha” as te, which is a dialect. This is the source of kind of name “tea”.
Cha is tea, tea is cha. They have the same origin. So from the leaves, you might get a view on how the world is connected.