The give-and-take used for 'tea' inward most languages some the globe is derived from Chinese. However non all languages derive the give-and-take 'tea' from the same Chinese word. Some languages piece of job their give-and-take for tea from the mandarin 'chá', piece inward other languages the give-and-take tea derives from the Min Nan Chinese give-and-take 'te'. The effect is that inward most languages some the globe the give-and-take for 'tea' sounds something similar 'chai' or 'tea'.
You tin terminate encounter where tea is called chai as well as where tea is called tea on an interactive map created yesteryear the World Atlas of Language Structures. Their Tea Map uses bluish as well as scarlet dots to present where the give-and-take for tea is derived from the mandarin 'cha' (red) as well as where it is derived from the Min Nan Chinese 'te' (blue).
The map provides a corking event of how loan words inward languages are non ever geographically contiguous. Languages which part mutual linguistic communication roots or closed geographical proximity may yet convey a dissimilar give-and-take for 'tea', alongside a dissimilar 'tea' or 'chai' derivation.
The World Atlas of Language Structures has a whole Tea chapter written yesteryear Östen Dahl which has a theory nearly how dissimilar languages come upward to convey dissimilar derivations of 'chai' or 'tea'. According to Dahl the departure comes from whether countries were historically on a Dutch or Portuguese merchandise route. The Portuguese were the starting fourth dimension European tea importers as well as their merchandise came via Macao. The afterwards Dutch merchandise routes were routed via Amoy. In Macao the give-and-take used for tea was the mandarin 'cha'. In Amoy the give-and-take used for tea was the Min Nan Chinese 'te'. Therefore whether your linguistic communication uses a derivation of 'cha' or 'te' for the give-and-take 'tea' depends if yous were historically on a Dutch or Portuguese merchandise route.
Quartz has refined Östen Dahl's theory a little. In Tea if yesteryear Sea, Cha if yesteryear Land they manage that merchandise routes play a major purpose inward determining where the words 'tea' as well as 'cha' are used some the world. However they propose that the major determining ingredient is non the Dutch as well as Portuguese merchandise routes merely the bounding main as well as state merchandise routes from China.
They usage the same data, from the World Atlas of Language Structures, to plot where people say 'tea' or 'cha'. They believe that their map clearly shows that 'cha' is used inward locations which are on a state based merchandise route from China. Whereas 'tea' is used inward places which are on a bounding main based merchandise route.
The Min Nan Chinese 'te' is spoken inward the coastal say of Fujian. Which is why this 'coastal' Chinese give-and-take is used yesteryear countries inward Europe who were on the Dutch bounding main merchandise routes (except for Portugal). In inland Communist People's Republic of China the mandarin 'cha' was used for tea, which is agency countries on the silk route routes commonly telephone yell upward tea 'chai' or something similar.
