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> the "chai" form comes from Persia. Well this all comes from the Chinese pronunciation. Persia had old links with China through the silk road. That's how tea
by NotPaidToPost 7y ago
> the "chai" form comes from Persia.
Well this all comes from the Chinese pronunciation.
Persia had old links with China through the silk road. That's how tea, silk etc. got there while Islam reached China very early.
- thaumasiotes 7y agoSure, all pronunciations ultimately derive from China. But "chai" pronunciations do not derive directly from China, where there is no such form. And so the use of "chai" can tell us something about how tea got into a particular culture.
- NotPaidToPost 7y agoIt might have arrived to India through Persia but it derives directly from (Northern) Chinese. 'Tea' also derives directly from Chinese but through another Chinese dialect (Southern).
- thaumasiotes 7y agoYou're using "directly" to mean something mysterious. Tea brought to India by non-Chinese traders speaking non-Chinese languages was referred to by a non-Chinese name. That is not an example of direct contact with China. And as you'll see if you read the links posted variously through this subthread, the word for tea which English derived directly from contact with China (in very southerly Guangzhou) was "cha". That word was quickly replaced by "tea", derived from Dutch. The Dutch word was derived directly from China, but, as you note, from the language spoken in a different region.