The process of copying and transmitting the word for tea in the Turkic languages

• Published in: Türkbilig Vol. 2023; no. 46; pp. 313 - 322
• Main Author: Yakup,Abdurishid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hacettepe Üniversitesi 2023
• Subjects: Edebiyat; Türk Dili; Ankara; Türkiye; Old Uyghur; eski Uygurca; transmission; aktarım; čay; kopyalama; Türk dilleri; copying; Turkic languages; çay
• ISSN: 1302-6011

This paper briefly addresses some aspects of copying and transmitting the word for tea in the Turkic languages. It starts with a classification of words for tea in the Turkic language to their phonetic shape and semantics, followed by discussions of the etymology of the word for tea, mainly focusing on the origin of the final palatal approximant y found in the words for tea. It extends discussions to the explanation of the process of fusion of two words, word for tea and word for monk’s meal. It is assumed that the fusion happened first in Old Uyghur and then was introduced to Pre-Classical Mongolian. The Old Uyghurs together with Mongols brought the word čay to Persia presumably in the Ilkhanate period where it was simply accepted as a word for ‘tea’. They also introduced the word to Russian around the same period or later. And then the word is assumed to have been introduced to the majority of Turkic languages in this meaning via the intermediary of Persian or Russian.