NODE / 0236reconstructedMiddle Chinese (reconstructed reading)
*drae
TRANSLITERATION *drae
tea; name of a plant
- DATE
- Middle Chinese reconstruction
- SENSE
- tea beverage
- FAMILY
- Sino-Tibetan / Sinitic
- CANONICAL KEY
- node:25:drae:reconstructed:sense:tea-beverage
Baxter and Sagart give Middle Chinese drae. SET-U adds the visible asterisk because the phonological form is reconstructed.
*This form is reconstructed by comparison. It is not directly attested in this exact written form.
01ANCESTRAL EDGES
ROOT OF THIS ROOT
GO DEEPERhistorical reconstructionprobable
Old Chinese (reconstructed) · Old Chinese reconstruction · tea beverage*lˤra
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.
02DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES
THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP
DESCENDANThistorical continuationprobable
Mandarin Chinese · modern Mandarin · tea beverage茶
tea
- 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.
- CHRONOLOGY
- Middle Chinese to modern Mandarin.
- SCHOLAR
- William H. Baxter · Laurent Sagart
- CONFIDENCE
- probable — The modern form is attested, while the Middle Chinese phonological value is reconstructed.
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
- 7
- REVIEWED EDGES
- 7
- DEEPEST PATH
- 3
- MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
- 5
HISTORICAL STEP 011 EDGE
STEP 01historical 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 ↗ HISTORICAL STEP 025 EDGES
STEP 02overland 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 02borrowingprobable
- 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 02borrowing 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 02borrowing 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 02overland 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 031 EDGE
STEP 03borrowingprobable
- 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