世界上的“茶”为什么有两种叫法？
Cha or tea? Why the world has two words for tea
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在美国的咖啡馆里，你也许会在菜单上看到一种加了香料的奶茶，英文名字直译过来，叫“茶茶拿铁”。这并不是印错了。名字的前两个词，一个是印地语的“茶”，一个是英语的“茶”。点这么一杯，等于连说了两遍“茶”。
更有意思的是，这两个词的老家都在中国。世界上大多数语言里的“茶”，都能归入两个大家族：一个家族听起来像普通话的“茶”，俄语、波斯语、土耳其语、日语都在这个家族里；另一个家族以“特”的音开头，英语、法语、德语、西班牙语都在其中。一部世界语言地图集统计过二百三十种语言，前一个家族有一百一十种，后一个家族有八十四种，剩下的三十六种另有叫法。
两个家族的源头，其实是同一个汉字。普通话和粤语都念“茶”，可是在福建南部和台湾说的闽南话里，“茶”的读音跟西班牙语的“茶”几乎一模一样。英语的“茶”本来也差不多是这个音，后来英语的元音发生了变化，才念成了今天的样子。同一个字，怎么会有两种读音？研究古音的学者认为，这些读音本来出自同一个古音，只是在各地慢慢变了样。
那么，一个国家用哪个音呢？关键在于它的茶是从谁手里买来的。十七世纪初，荷兰东印度公司成了往欧洲运送茶叶的主力。荷兰人学会了闽南话的读音，再把茶连同名字一起卖到欧洲各地，英语、法语、德语的“茶”都是这么来的。在荷兰人统治过的印度尼西亚，“茶”也是这个音。至于他们是在哪儿学会这个词的，说法各不相同：有人说是在厦门，有人说是在台湾，也有人说是在爪哇岛，跟当地的商人学的。
往西走陆路的茶，带走的是“茶”的音。它一路经过中亚和波斯，添上了一个尾音，听起来像“柴”；印度、俄罗斯、土耳其和阿拉伯国家用的都是这一类叫法。日语和韩语的“茶”，则是更早的时候直接从汉语借过去的。
这么看，好像是海路传“特”，陆路传“茶”。不过这里有个大例外：葡萄牙人。他们比荷兰人来得更早，十六世纪，葡萄牙的传教士和商人就坐船到了中国。可他们的据点在澳门，那里说粤语，于是葡萄牙人也跟着把它叫作“茶”。
名字一旦定下来，往往就很难再改。到了十九世纪，英国人的茶大多直接从广州买，那里也念“茶”，可英语的叫法再也没变。也有些词跟两个家族都不像，比如波兰语的“茶”。不过它来自拉丁语，意思是“茶草”，其中的“茶”其实还是那个“特”。
所以，下回再看到“茶茶拿铁”，别笑它多余。这两个“茶”，一个走陆路，一个走海路，绕了大半个地球，最后又在同一个杯子里重逢了。
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 等于 | děngyú | to equal; to be equivalent to; to amount to |
| 统计 | tǒngjì | statistics; to count; to add up |
| 念 | niàn | to read aloud |
| 读音 | dúyīn | pronunciation (of a word or character) |
| 学者 | xuézhě | scholar; academic |
| 出自 | chūzì | to come from; to originate from |
| 欧洲 | ōuzhōu | Europe |
| 当地 | dāngdì | local; in the locality |
| 商人 | shāngrén | merchant; businessman |
| 一路 | yílù | all the way; throughout the journey |
| 传 | chuán | to pass on; to transmit |
| 大多 | dàduō | mostly; for the most part |
English (for the teacher)
In an American café you might spot a spiced milk tea on the menu called a “chai tea latte”: literally, a “tea tea latte”. It isn’t a misprint. The first two words of its name are Hindi for “tea” and English for “tea”. Order one, and you’ve said “tea” twice in a row.
What’s more interesting is that both words started out in China. In most of the world’s languages, the word for tea belongs to one of two big families: one sounds like Mandarin chá, and Russian, Persian, Turkish and Japanese are in it; the other starts with a “t” sound, and English, French, German and Spanish are among its members. One world atlas of languages surveyed 230 of them: 110 were in the first family, 84 in the second, and the other 36 had other words for it.
Both families actually go back to the same Chinese character. Mandarin and Cantonese both say chá, but in Southern Min, spoken in southern Fujian and Taiwan, the word sounds almost exactly like Spanish té. English “tea” once sounded much the same, until a change in English vowels gave it the sound it has today. How can one character have two pronunciations? Scholars of ancient Chinese pronunciation believe these readings all grew from one old sound that slowly changed from place to place.
So which sound does a country end up with? It comes down to who it bought its tea from. In the early seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company became the main carrier of tea to Europe. The Dutch picked up the Southern Min pronunciation and sold the tea, name and all, across Europe; that is where the English, French and German words come from. In Indonesia, once ruled by the Dutch, the word for tea has this sound too. As for where the Dutch learned the word, accounts differ: some say Xiamen, some say Taiwan, and some say Java, from merchants there.
The tea that went west overland took the chá sound with it. On its way through Central Asia and Persia it picked up an extra sound at the end, so that it sounded like chái, “firewood”; India, Russia, Turkey and the Arab world all use words of this kind. Japanese and Korean, meanwhile, had borrowed their word for tea straight from Chinese much earlier.
So it looks as if the “t” word travelled by sea and chá by land. But there is one big exception: the Portuguese. They got there even earlier than the Dutch: in the sixteenth century, Portuguese missionaries and merchants were already coming to China by ship. But their base was Macau, where people speak Cantonese, so the Portuguese called it chá as well.
Once a name sticks, it is often hard to change. By the nineteenth century, the British bought most of their tea directly from Guangzhou, where it is also chá, yet the English word never changed. Some words belong to neither family, such as the Polish word for tea. But it comes from Latin for “tea herb”, and the “tea” in it is that same “t” word after all.
So next time you see a “tea tea latte”, don’t laugh at it for saying the same thing twice. Its two teas, one that travelled by land and one by sea, went most of the way round the world before meeting again in the same cup.