Re: [tied] Re: Ca_i, tea

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 10143
Date: 2001-10-11

You mean "Austric", not "Austronesian". The Austric hypothesis proposes that several language families of SE Asia are genetically related. They include Austronesian, Tai-Kadai, Hmong-Mien, and Austroasiatic (= Munda + Nicobarese + Mon-Khmer). The Mundas are not Austronesians, though there may be a distant relationship between the two families.
 
Piotr
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: cas111jd@...
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 8:41 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Ca_i, tea

--- In cybalist@......, "S.Kalyanaraman" <kalyan97@......> wrote:

As Mandarin originated in northern China, Chinese cha, "tea" (also cha in Korean and I think Japanese), would have adopted it from a southern dialect when the Chinese began conquering the place many centuries ago. Southern China was populated by people speaking
Austronesian and Thai languages. I suspect that cha and all its cognates originated in some ancient Austronesian dialects, given that most of SE Asia was originally populated by that language group, and the epicenter of the word and early cultivation of tea seems to be from this area. Only in historic times did the Burmese and Thais migrate into the southern parts of those countries, and Munda suggests that Austronesian-speaking peoples once inhabited much of eastern India.