[darkwater]

Not doubting about this but then, how come that Portuguese uses the "chai" version, being on the extreme west of Europe, and with all the other countries in between Portugal and the end of the Silk Road using "te"? Not to mention the fact that Portuguese were a naval power for many years, with colonies in Asia as well.

[zkid18]

Good question, Portuguese traded not through Fujian but Macao, where chá is used.

The term cha (茶) is “Sinitic,” meaning it is common to many varieties of Chinese dialects. Meanwhile, the word tea comes from the Min Nan variety of Chinese, spoken in the coastal Fujian province, where the character 茶 is pronounced te.

[fjivnfyu]

Russia got it from Mongolia, so it uses the “chai” variation. Move just a tiny bit West though and Poland got it from France, which got it via sea routes, therefore Poland uses the “te” variation, even though a lot of the culture of drinking tea in Poland has been influenced by Russia, with boiled tea being a thing in more eastern parts, and variations on that with citruses and honey being very popular (even becoming more popular today). Curiously, contrary to the word for tea, Polish word for kettle borrows from Russian influence – “czajnik”, where the first syllable comes obviously from “chai”.