The two maps presented here show the spread of the words for tea and coffee around the world.
For tea you can see the word originated from the old Chinese ‘rla,’ which no one knows how to pronounce. This then divided into cha and te variations of the word you find today.
Coffee Map created by reddit user targumures
For coffee it comes from the Arabic ‘qahwa’ which then slowly transfer to Persia then Turkey and then to Europe and eventually evolved into the many European language varieties of coffee we have today. These in turn were spread to Africa and Asia via colonial empires.
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bas says
Shouldn’t kaffie be koffie?
MoverDB says
Yes, I believe you’re correct and this was an error.
Harry Janssen says
Yes, In Dutch it’s not kaffie but koffie.
Husarz says
I was told that the Polish word for tea – “Herbata” is derived from Yerba Mate, which is why it is not a variant of Chai or Te.
Renato says
In Portuguese it’s “chá” and it comes from the Japanese.
Gorik says
That user is a moron and should’ve researched a little more. Despite being the 1st Europeans to come in contact with Chá/Tea they aren’t even noted in map. It was the Portuguese princess made English queen that took it to England. Also Port has the only/oldest tea plantations in Europe! Do your homework!
BD says
A story that I read says that Catherine of Braganza, when moving to England to become Queen Consort, had her tea/cha boxes boxes marked T.E.A. (Transporte de Ervas Aromáticas – Transport of Aromatic Herbs) thus tea became the word in English.