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Some people in England also use "cha" as slang for tea. It's not widely used, but it is present. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/18152/british-usag
by ZenoArrow 9y ago
Some people in England also use "cha" as slang for tea. It's not widely used, but it is present.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/18152/british-usage-of-cha-char-or-chai-to-mean-tea https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/18152/british-us...
- mhandley 9y agoLikely that influence comes from when India was part of the British Empire. Lots of Indian-derived words made it into British English.
- gerdesj 9y agoPyjamas 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 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 please stand up!)
- Y_Y 9y agoI 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.
- gerdesj 9y ago"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).
- iamshs 9y agoCaravan Thug Juggernaut Guru Avatar Karma Nirvana Cheetah Jungle Are just some Indian words loaned by English. Two interesting words that Punjabi/Hindi has loaned from French is Savon (sabun) and Cartouche (Kartoos).