NODE / 0231reconstructedOld Chinese (reconstructed)
*lˤra
TRANSLITERATION *lˤra
name of a plant
- DATE
- Old Chinese reconstruction
- SENSE
- tea beverage
- FAMILY
- Sino-Tibetan / Sinitic
- CANONICAL KEY
- node:26:lra:reconstructed:sense:tea-beverage
Baxter and Sagart reconstruct Old Chinese *lˤra for 茶. The Southern Min connection is displayed as a probable Sinitic reflex, not as descent through the later Middle Chinese reading.
*This form is reconstructed by comparison. It is not directly attested in this exact written form.
01ANCESTRAL EDGES
ROOT OF THIS ROOT
*THE TRAIL ENDS HERE.No securely reviewed ancestor extends beyond this node. 7 evidence paths stop at this boundary.
INSPECT 7 CITED BOUNDARY CLAIMS
02DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES
THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP
DESCENDANTsinitic reflexprobable
Xiamen Min Chinese · Southern Min, attested in modern descriptions · tea beverage茶
tea
- SOUND
- Southern Min te is treated as a divergent Sinitic reflex of the word reconstructed by Baxter and Sagart as Old Chinese *lˤra; the exact sound history is not reduced here to one uncontroversial rule.
- MEANING
- The plant or beverage meaning remains tea.
- CHRONOLOGY
- Old Chinese reconstruction to the historically documented Southern Min form.
- SCHOLAR
- Östen Dahl · William H. Baxter · Laurent Sagart
- CONFIDENCE
- probable — WALS establishes the Min Nan te family; Baxter and Sagart establish the reviewed Old Chinese reconstruction. The Min branch is not falsely routed through the later Middle Chinese *drae reading.
DESCENDANThistorical reconstructionprobable
Middle Chinese (reconstructed reading) · Middle Chinese reconstruction · tea beverage*drae
tea; name of a plant
- SOUND
- Baxter and Sagart reconstruct Middle Chinese drae from Old Chinese *lˤra for the same character 茶.
- MEANING
- The gloss remains a plant name associated with tea.
- CHRONOLOGY
- Old Chinese to Middle Chinese.
- SCHOLAR
- William H. Baxter · Laurent Sagart
- CONFIDENCE
- probable — Both phonological stages are scholarly reconstructions even though the character and lexical tradition are historically attested.
DESCENDANTsinitic reflexprobable
Cantonese · Cantonese contact form · tea beverage茶
tea
- SOUND
- Cantonese cha is treated as a Sinitic reflex of the word reconstructed as Old Chinese *lˤra; no false one-line sound law is invented.
- MEANING
- The tea meaning remains stable.
- CHRONOLOGY
- Old Chinese reconstruction to the historically documented Cantonese form.
- SCHOLAR
- Östen Dahl · William H. Baxter · Laurent Sagart
- CONFIDENCE
- probable — WALS identifies the Cantonese cha family; Baxter and Sagart supply the reviewed Old Chinese reconstruction. Intermediate readings are not over-specified.
03TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE
EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE
This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.
- UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES
- 13
- REVIEWED EDGES
- 13
- DEEPEST PATH
- 4
- MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
- 7
HISTORICAL STEP 013 EDGES
STEP 01sinitic reflexprobable
- SOUND
- Southern Min te is treated as a divergent Sinitic reflex of the word reconstructed by Baxter and Sagart as Old Chinese *lˤra; the exact sound history is not reduced here to one uncontroversial rule.
- MEANING
- The plant or beverage meaning remains tea.
Östen Dahl · William H. Baxter · Laurent Sagart2 CITATIONSEDGE 226 ↗ STEP 01historical reconstructionprobable
- SOUND
- Baxter and Sagart reconstruct Middle Chinese drae from Old Chinese *lˤra for the same character 茶.
- MEANING
- The gloss remains a plant name associated with tea.
William H. Baxter · Laurent Sagart1 CITATIONEDGE 231 ↗ STEP 01sinitic reflexprobable
- SOUND
- Cantonese cha is treated as a Sinitic reflex of the word reconstructed as Old Chinese *lˤra; no false one-line sound law is invented.
- MEANING
- The tea meaning remains stable.
Östen Dahl · William H. Baxter · Laurent Sagart2 CITATIONSEDGE 529 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 023 EDGES
STEP 02borrowingestablished
- SOUND
- Dutch thee adapts the Southern Min te-type pronunciation with Dutch spelling conventions.
- MEANING
- The meaning remains tea.
STEP 02historical continuationprobable
- SOUND
- Modern Mandarin chá continues the Chinese word represented by reconstructed Middle Chinese *drae, with the onset and vowel changes summarized by the Baxter–Sagart correspondence table.
- MEANING
- The tea meaning remains stable.
William H. Baxter · Laurent Sagart1 CITATIONEDGE 230 ↗ STEP 02borrowingprobable
- SOUND
- Portuguese chá adapts a Cantonese cha-type form with Portuguese spelling and /ʃ/ realization; Infopédia instead labels the source Mandarin.
- MEANING
- The meaning remains tea, later extending regularly to the plant, leaves, infusion, and social uses.
Östen Dahl · Porto Editora Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 528 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 036 EDGES
STEP 03borrowingprobable
- SOUND
- English tea reflects the Dutch thee-type form; the modern /iː/ follows the wider English raising of earlier /eː/.
- MEANING
- The plant and beverage senses were retained, then English developed additional meal, social-event, infusion, and slang branches.
STEP 03overland borrowing routeprobable
- SOUND
- 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.
- MEANING
- The core meaning remains tea, while preparation traditions vary across receiving languages.
Östen Dahl · Merriam-Webster Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 229 ↗ STEP 03borrowingprobable
- SOUND
- Persian čāy is reported as derived from Chinese ch’a, retaining the cha onset and adding the final glide represented in Persian transliteration.
- MEANING
- The meaning remains tea.
Daniel Balland · Marcel Bazin2 CITATIONSEDGE 233 ↗ STEP 03borrowing via persianprobable
- SOUND
- Turkish çay belongs to the Chinese cha/chay family, but the reviewed Turkish study argues that historical Turkey Turkish received it through Persian rather than by direct Chinese contact.
- MEANING
- The core tea meaning remains, then Turkish develops ordinary plant, beverage, gathering, and refreshment senses.
STEP 03borrowing via turkicprobable
- SOUND
- Russian чай is traced through a relay of Turkic forms—including Turkish, Crimean Tatar, Tatar, Kyrgyz, Altai, and Uyghur comparisons—to northern Chinese ch’a; no single immediate donor is silently selected.
- MEANING
- The tea meaning remains stable across the relay.
STEP 03overland borrowing routeprobable
- SOUND
- Urdu cāy belongs to the cha/chay family ultimately derived from Chinese chá; Rekhta labels the current Urdu headword Persian in origin, while the graph does not invent an exact dated Persian-to-Urdu event.
- MEANING
- The general tea meaning remains, with local extensions to infusions and social tea.
Rekhta Dictionary Editors · Östen Dahl · Merriam-Webster Editors3 CITATIONSEDGE 543 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 041 EDGE
STEP 04borrowingprobable
- SOUND
- English chai adapts the chay/cāy form as /tʃaɪ/.
- MEANING
- A general word for tea specializes in English toward South Asian-style spiced tea.
“Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.
04RECORDED EVIDENCE
ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE
NO RECORDED WITNESS ATTACHED.That is expected for a reconstructed form: the node is inferred from comparison, not quoted from a surviving occurrence.
05EDITORIAL REUSE
WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE