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Most languages' words for tea come from Chinese, in one of two forms. 'Te', from the coast of Fujian, reached most of Western Europe by sea with Dutch traders and gave English 'tea'; 'cha' travelled overland to Persia, Russia, India and Turkey, giving 'chai' and 'çay'.

Etymological/trade-history fact

LanguageHistory

The story behind the card

The written character for tea is the same across China, but it is read cha in Mandarin and Cantonese and te in the Min dialects of Fujian ports such as Xiamen. From the early 1600s the Dutch East India Company, which bought tea from Min-speaking traders, dominated the European trade, so English, French, German and Spanish took te. Cha moved along the Silk Road, where Persian added an ending to make chay, the source of Turkish çay, Russian chay and Arabic shay. Portugal is the exception in Western Europe: its traders bought tea in Macao, where Cantonese says cha, so Portuguese says chá.

Türkçe oku
Çoğu dilde çayın adı Çinceden gelir ve iki biçimden birine dayanır. Fujian kıyılarında söylenen “te”, Hollandalı tüccarlarla deniz yoluyla Batı Avrupa'nın büyük bölümüne ulaştı ve İngilizcedeki tea sözcüğünü verdi; “cha” ise karadan İran'a, Rusya'ya, Hindistan'a ve Türkiye'ye yol aldı, “chai” ve “çay” gibi sözcükleri doğurdu.

Çay için kullanılan yazı karakteri Çin'in her yerinde aynıdır, ama Mandarin ve Kanton lehçelerinde “cha”, Xiamen gibi Fujian limanlarında konuşulan Min lehçelerinde ise “te” diye okunur. 1600'lerin başından itibaren Avrupa'daki çay ticaretine, çayı Min dili konuşan tüccarlardan alan Hollanda Doğu Hindistan Şirketi hâkim oldu; bu yüzden İngilizce, Fransızca, Almanca ve İspanyolca “te” biçimini aldı. “Cha” ise İpek Yolu üzerinden ilerledi; Farsça ona bir ek getirip “çay” yaptı. Türkçedeki çay, Rusçadaki çay ve Arapçadaki şay buradan gelir. Batı Avrupa'da tek istisna Portekiz'dir: Portekizli tüccarlar çayı Kantonca konuşulan Makao'dan aldığı için Portekizce “chá” der.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Etymology of tea
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