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From: wing@pegasus.com (Wing Ng)
Subject: Re: Original Chinese Language
Organization: Pegasus Information Systems
Message-ID: <D0uBnI.5AL@pegasus.com>
References: <3c3dgu$fba@agate.berkeley.edu> <>> <3cggb9$817@usenet.rpi.edu> <3cjbl8$33g@zip.eecs.umich.edu>
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 1994 07:04:29 GMT
Lines: 24

In article <3cjbl8$33g@zip.eecs.umich.edu>,
Chung-Hsiung Yang <chyang@quip.eecs.umich.edu> wrote:
>the pronunciation for "Tea".  In Taiwanese it is pronunced "Te2", and 
>in Mandrain "Cha2".  In English as well as other western european languages, 
>pronunciation of tea is closer to that of ancient languages.  However
>in Russia or other eastern European languages, it is pronunced "Cha2".
>I don't what what they are called in Japanese or Korean, but I suspect 
>it to be closer to "Te2" than "Cha2". 
>
>	Any addition observation or explanations?

Obvious explanation:  Europeans and Japanese got their tea from
Fujian coast, where it's te / tea, while Russians got their tea 
from N. China, where it is cha / chai.  Tibetan word for tea
is also cha, they got it from Sichuan.

wing

>
>- C. H. Yang
>
>


