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From: "Paul J. Kriha" <kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz>
Subject: Re: Etymology of 'tea'
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Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 13:29:33 GMT
References: <1708E11F1ES86.JAREA@ukcc.uky.edu> <3d2omn$1sh@dekalb.DC.PeachNet.EDU> <3d3jju$bfa@infoserv.rug.ac.be>
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baeyens@elis.rug.ac.be (Bart Baeyens) wrote:
>
> : In a previous article, JAREA@ukcc.uky.edu () says:
> 
> : > 
> : >Of course there's (British) English colloquial ' cuppa char' (with the
> : >final <r> silent, of course).  Wonder what the source of that could be???
> 
> : On the Indian subcontinent we called `tea' `chai' which is where the 
> : brits got it.
> 
> : I understand that chai come from the chinese and that the word chai is 
> : spread all around se asia and west africa and the middle east as a result 
> : of Tamerlaine et al.
> : -- 
> : xDavid F. Addleton: daddleto@dekalb.dc.peachnet.edu
> 
> Maybe interesting: The Portuguese word for 'tea' resembles very much
> 'chai' it is namely 'cha' (with  an ` on the 'a'). I thought the 
> Portuguese got it from their African colonies as Angola and Mozambigue,
> but as they were quiet active in the East too, it could be from there
> too of course. And, according to my knowledge, Portuguese is the only
> European language, whose word for 'tea' differs so much from the
> English one.
> 
> Bart Baeyens.

There are other European languages with word for 'tea'
based on and pronounced 'chai'. I think most of the
Slavic languages have the word 'chai'. (Somebody
refered here earlier to Polish which doesn't).

Yesterday, I checked with Indian colleques of mine.
It seems that at least Russians, Czechs and Slovaks
pronounce 'chai' the same way as they do.
The only slight difference between Russian and Czech is
the length of the middle vowel.  Of course the declensions
and plurals are different.

I guess this is the result of the predominance of
continental trade between Central Europe and India
in the past.

Paul JK


