Re: [tied] Re: Ca_i, tea

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 10155
Date: 2001-10-12

There were basically two migration routes of the "tea" word:
 
(1) From northern China, mainly by land (except across the sea to Japan), giving the "chai set" in Russian, Mongolian, Farsi, etc. (Mandarin cha 'tea', chaye 'tea-leaves').
 
(2) From the trade centres of southeast China (Fujian) and the islands (Taiwan), mainly by sea, giving the "tea set" (te: 'tea' in the local Min dialects) all over coastal South Asia. The Dutch were indeed responsible for carrying the word to Europe.
 
In the 16th/17th c. the British first heard of a herb called <chaa>, and I think <cha> still occurs in Dublin slang.
 
Piotr
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: veejay_kavi@...
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 12:46 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: Ca_i, tea

According to legends, tea was drunk in CHina and India more than 4000
years ago?! However the first reference in writing to tea-drinking
dates from eight century AD onwards. Tea was known to Nipon-go
(Japanese) as early as 6th century but was only widely used as
beverage after 11th century, when Zen Buddhist priest started to
encourage them...due to medicianl reason and drinking it is thought
to be morally uplifting.

The Dutch introduced it to europe and america early 17th century and
since then it became very commercial...thx to dutch ;-))

Tea bags began to originate in New York on 1904 when ice tea was
introduced at World's Fair in St. Louis (1904).

My guess is tea came to english thru dutch, whereby dutch received it
either from malay (malaysia), and malay would have either got it from
chinese or india, as both traded heavily in malaysia and sorrounding
peninsular.

Prosper with Prosperity

VeeJay