superlinguo:The map above was made by Katie Gao, and shows how the story of tea is one of economic

superlinguo: The map above was made by Katie Gao, and shows how the story of tea is one of economic and linguistic contact. The word for tea in the majority of the world’s languages comes from one of two sources, either the form cha found in most Sinitic languges, or the form te which is found in Min Nan Chinese, spoken in Fujian and Taiwan. Which form ended up in a language was dependent on which trade route tea took -  the Dutch traders went through Fujian, and laguages on their route took the te form, while the Portuguese traders went through Macao, where the cha form was used. There’s more information on the WALS page on tea (one of my favourite chapters), and a Google Earth map. Katie’s map also includes the trade routes, which I like. Katie is also hoping to add to the number of languages on the map. If you want to contribute a word for tea in a language you know, email her at katiebgao@gmail.com. Don’t forget to include the word for tea (in the local script and also a romanization), plus language location (preferably latitude and longitude, which you can find in Google Maps by right clicking on the correct location and selecting ‘What’s here?’). She’s hoping to eventually make it available as a poster when more languages have been added! -- source link

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