Tea versus cha- an early influence of globalization

[MacGyver]

In American English chai is also short for masala chai, leading to phrases like chai tea

Chai Latte is a pretty common term for that type of tea when mixed with milk.

[Serpent]

I know But that sounds okay to me because the word tea is not repeated. The example I gave sounds like "tea with tea" or "tea-flavoured tea" to me

[languist]

I have nothing much to add beyond what has already been covered, except to ask for a similar analysis of "ananas" around the world.

Also, the Kabardian/Circassian/Adighabze word is « шей » which is pronounced like "shay" (rhyming with hey), being not too far from the Russian « чай » ("chai", rhyming with hi). They also use čaj in Slovak, Czech, and likely other Slavic languages (including parts of Poland).

[Serpent]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/databl ... ology-maps

[Saim]

Also, the Kabardian/Circassian/Adighabze word is « шей » which is pronounced like "shay" (rhyming with hey), being not too far from the Russian « чай » ("chai", rhyming with hi).

I reckon it's more likely to have passed through Arabic than through Russian on its way to Circassian, as in Arabic it's شاي (shay).

In American English chai is also short for masala chai, leading to phrases like chai tea

In Australian too. I would've thought it's pan-English.

[languist]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2013/nov/14/pain-in-the-ananas-etymology-maps

My new phone background, thank you.

I reckon it's more likely to have passed through Arabic than through Russian on its way to Circassian, as in Arabic it's شاي (shay).

It's possible, but I guess my point was that they both arrived via "cha".

[Saim]

It's possible, but I guess my point was that they both arrived via "cha".

Totally. I was just making sure, since a lot of the time people make assumptions based on state borders (Russian and Circassian are both indigenous to the Russian Federation).

[vonPeterhof]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2013/nov/14/pain-in-the-ananas-etymology-maps

That reminds me of a story from my parents' trip to Germany more than a decade ago. My mother grew up with German grandparents and my father took German classes at school, but they've both basically forgotten everything and are far more comfortable in English. They were in a restaurant and the waiter asked them if they would like something to drink before ordering the food. My mother wanted to know if they had pineapple juice, but had no idea what the German word for it was, whereas the waiter didn't recognize the English word. The conversation went something like this:

M: Do you have pineapple juice?
W: ...apple juice?
F: Um, "Peinapfel"?
W: ...
M: "Pfeinapfel"?
W: ...
F: "Pienapfel"?
W: ...
F: *gives up and starts miming the shape of a pineapple with his hands*
W: Oh, Ananas!
M & F: Да, да, ананас!

[languist]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2013/nov/14/pain-in-the-ananas-etymology-maps

That reminds me of a story from my parents' trip to Germany more than a decade ago. My mother grew up with German grandparents and my father took German classes at school, but they've both basically forgotten everything and are far more comfortable in English. They were in a restaurant and the waiter asked them if they would like something to drink before ordering the food. My mother wanted to know if they had pineapple juice, but had no idea what the German word for it was, whereas the waiter didn't recognize the English word. The conversation went something like this:

M: Do you have pineapple juice?
W: ...apple juice?
F: Um, "Peinapfel"?
W: ...
M: "Pfeinapfel"?
W: ...
F: "Pienapfel"?
W: ...
F: *gives up and starts miming the shape of a pineapple with his hands*
W: Oh, Ananas!
M & F: Да, да, ананас!

I was going to post my own ananas-story, but didn't want to derail too much from tea, however now I can't resist.

I work in a restaurant and was serving a table with people from Greece, Portugal, Italy, Iran, France, China, and some locals. The Italian girl at the end was reading the menu when I was taking the order and was so confused by the word pineapple, and was asking the others what it meant, and they were all describing it like "it's brown.. and spiky! kind of round, but with green at the top? yellow inside!" and she just wasn't getting it, so I said "it's ananas!" and 90% of the table had a big group eureka "AAAaaaAAAaaahhh!" moment.

[yong321]

If you want to see what the word is like for "tea" in many languages, and you don't want to keep changing the target language one at a time in Google Translate, you can use this person's "Simultaneous Multilingual Google Translator"
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

A quick check finds Lithuanian as another exception, "arbata", just like Polish or Latin. Apparently this is related to English "herb".