Hindustani cāy belongs to the cha/chay family derived from Chinese chá; the final glide and exact sequence of intermediaries are not treated as one settled sound law.
CANONICAL RELATIONSHIP RECORD
COVERAGE LEDGER ↗EDGE / 0229overland borrowing routeprobable
A CLAIM
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A relationship—not a generated explanation. Both endpoints, every editorial field, every citation, and every dossier reuse are preserved below.
चाय / چائے
tea
OPEN NODE 234 ↗DESCENDS FROM→
PARENT / EARLIER FORM / attestedMandarin Chinese · modern Mandarin · tea beverage茶
tea
OPEN NODE 235 ↗01
THE COMPLETE RELATIONSHIP
EVERY FIELD, NOT A FAIRY TALE
The core meaning remains tea, while preparation traditions vary across receiving languages.
Overland transmission preceded the modern English borrowing; individual regional dates vary.
Östen Dahl · Merriam-Webster Editors
probable — WALS supports a broad overland cha/chai pattern, and Merriam-Webster lists multiple intermediate language forms. This edge represents the family route, not a claim of direct Hindi–Mandarin contact.
reviewed
02
CITATION REGISTER
SOURCES ON THIS EDGE
Chapter 138: TeaChapter 138, discussion of overland chai-type transmission
supportsAUDIT SOURCE ↗ORIGINAL ↗Documents the tendency for overland receiving languages to use cha/chai-type forms.
Chai — Definition and Word HistoryEtymology
contextAUDIT SOURCE ↗ORIGINAL ↗Lists Turkish, Russian, Persian, Hindi, and Urdu chay forms without selecting one unique English donor.
03
EDITORIAL REUSE