the word for tea comes from one of just two roots: cha or te.水陸分明

 張華  水陸分明

中國茶沿陸路運輸從官話讀chai,沿水路路從閩南話讀te

The Language NerdsAlmost everywhere on Earth, the word for tea comes from one of just two roots: cha or te. And which one a language uses depends less on grammar… and more on how tea arrived there.

Here’s the short version:

Tea traveled the world by land and by sea, and the word followed the route.

The origin:

Tea comes from China, where different regions pronounced the word differently:

• In Mandarin and northern varieties: 茶 = cha

• In Min Nan (southern coastal China): 茶 = te

By land → CHA

Tea that moved westward along the Silk Road carried the cha pronunciation with it.

That’s why we get:

• Persian chay

• Arabic shay

• Russian chay

• Hindi chai

• Turkish çay

• Swahili chai

Even Korean (cha) and Japanese (ocha) fall into this group.

These regions didn’t get tea from ships — they got it from caravans, traders, and overland routes.

By sea → TEA

Tea that left China through southern ports (especially via Dutch traders) spread the te form.

That’s why we have:

• English tea

• Dutch thee

• French thé

• Spanish té

• Portuguese chá (an interesting hybrid due to mixed routes)

• Malay teh

• Javanese teh

Maritime trade shaped not only economies, but vocabulary.

Why this is linguistically beautiful:

• Two pronunciations

• One plant

• A global trade network

• A linguistic fossil record still visible today

This map is basically historical linguistics in one sip. Every time you say tea or chai, you’re unknowingly referencing ancient trade routes.

Language remembers things history forgets.

And sometimes, it remembers them in a cup.

Image Courtesy: India.In.Pixels