*SET-U

CANONICAL LANGUAGE GRAPH

TRACE A WORD ↗
NODE / 0581boundaryBeyond secure reconstruction

UNKNOWN

No unique deeper ancestor is promoted by this dossier.

DATE
before the reviewed Old Chinese reconstruction
SENSE
turkish cay deep boundary
FAMILY
unclassified
CANONICAL KEY
boundary:102:5

The dossier preserves the relay while stopping at the reviewed Old Chinese horizon.

01

ANCESTRAL EDGES

ROOT OF THIS ROOT

0
*
THE TRAIL ENDS HERE.

No reviewed parent edge extends beyond this canonical node.

02

DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES

THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP

1
DESCENDANTknowledge boundaryboundary
Old Chinese (reconstructed) · Old Chinese reconstruction · tea beverage

*lˤra

name of a plant

SOUND
No older form is promoted beyond Baxter and Sagart’s *lˤra in this reviewed path.
MEANING
The plant-name history reaches the present editorial evidence horizon.
SCHOLAR
SET-U editorial boundary
CONFIDENCE
boundary — This is a boundary of the selected evidence, not proof that no deeper proposal has ever been published.
03

TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE

EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE

14

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
14
REVIEWED EDGES
14
DEEPEST PATH
5
MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
7
HISTORICAL STEP 011 EDGE
HISTORICAL STEP 023 EDGES
STEP 02sinitic 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 02sinitic 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 033 EDGES
STEP 03historical 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 03borrowingprobable
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 046 EDGES
STEP 04borrowingprobable
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.
Östen Dahl2 CITATIONSEDGE 224 ↗
STEP 04overland 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 04borrowingprobable
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 04borrowing 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.
Erdoğan Boz · Östen Dahl3 CITATIONSEDGE 535 ↗
STEP 04borrowing 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.
Max Vasmer · Östen Dahl3 CITATIONSEDGE 539 ↗
STEP 04overland 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 051 EDGE

“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.

04

RECORDED EVIDENCE

ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE

0
NO RECORDED WITNESS ATTACHED.

The reviewed graph does not yet attach a source-reported or directly inspected witness to this canonical form.

05

EDITORIAL REUSE

WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE

1