Tea

Tea is a caffeine-containing beverage, an infusion made by steeping the dried leaves or buds of the shrub Camellia sinensis in hot water for a few minutes. In addition, tea may also include other herbs, spices, or fruit flavours.

The word tea

The Chinese character for tea is 茶, but it is pronounced very differently in the various Chinese dialects. Two pronunciations have made their way into other languages around the world. One is 'te' (POJ: tê) which comes from the Minnan dialect spoken around the port of Xiamen (Amoy). The other is 'cha', used by the Cantonese dialect spoken around the ports of Guangzhou (Canton) and Hong Kong, as well as in the Mandarin dialect of northern China. Yet another different pronunciation is 'zoo', used in the Wu dialect spoken around Shanghai.

Related Topics:
Chinese character - Chinese dialect - POJ - Minnan - Dialect - Port - Xiamen - Cantonese - Guangzhou - Hong Kong - Mandarin - Wu - Shanghai

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Languages that have Te derivatives include Armenian, Danish, Dutch ('thee'), English ('tea'), Finnish, Estonian ('Tee'), Faroese, French ('Thé'), German ('Tee'), Hebrew ('תה', /te/ or /tei/), Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian ('tè'), Latvian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish (herbata from Latin herba the), Singhalese, Spanish (té), Swedish ('te'), Tamil ('thè'), Yiddish, and scientific Latin.

Related Topics:
Armenian - Danish - Dutch - English - Finnish - Estonian - Faroese - French - German - Hebrew - Hungarian - Icelandic - Indonesian - Italian - Latvian - Malay - Norwegian - Polish - Latin - Singhalese - Spanish - Swedish - Tamil - Yiddish

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Those that use Cha or "Chai" derivatives include Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian,Bangla, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hindi, Japanese ('茶', 'ちゃ', 'cha'), Korean, Nepali ('chia'), Persian, Portuguese ('chá'), Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, ('чай', 'chai'), Serbian, Slovak Slovene ('čaj'), Swahili, Tagalog, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Malayalam,and Vietnamese ('chè' or 'trà').

Related Topics:
Albanian - Arabic - Bulgarian - Bangla - Croatian - Czech - Greek - Hindi - Japanese - Korean - Nepali - Persian - Portuguese - Russian - Ukrainian - Romanian - Serbian - Slovak - Slovene - Swahili - Tagalog - Thai - Tibetan - Turkish - Malayalam - Vietnamese

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It is tempting to correlate these names with the route that was used to deliver tea to these cultures, but this correspondence does not follow. For example, most British trade went through Canton, which uses cha.

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In Ireland, or at least in Dublin, the term "cha" is sometimes used for tea, with "tay" as a common pronunciation throughout the land, and "char" was a common slang term for tea throughout British Empire and Commonwealth military forces in the 19th and 20th centuries, crossing over into civilian usage. In North America, the word "chai" is used to refer almost exclusively to the Indian "chai" (or "masala chai") beverage.

Related Topics:
Ireland - Dublin - Slang - British Empire - Commonwealth - 19th - 20th centuries - North America - India - Chai

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Perhaps the only place in which a word unrelated to tea is used to describe the beverage is South America (particularly Andean countries), because a similar stimulant beverage, hierba mate, was consumed there long before tea arrived. In various places of South America, any tea is referred to as mate.

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