It's well known that the word tea originated in China. China is the home of tea, so the practices of drinking and planting tea spread to other regions of the world in direct or indirect ways.
不少人可能知道，「tea」（茶）這個詞來源於中國，畢竟我國是茶葉的故鄉，世界上其他地方的飲茶習慣、種植茶葉的習慣都是直接或間接地從中國傳過去的。
The word tea has blended in English for such a long time, producing so many phrases like teaspoon, teabag, high tea, low tea, etc. No wonder it's hard to tell that tea is actually a Chinese word. In addition, tea's pronunciation is nowhere near its Chinese counterpart 「茶」（chá）.
但這個詞進入英語時間太久，構詞能力極強， teaspoon、teabag、high tea、 low tea……許多人都看不出來茶是個中文詞。而且「tea」的讀音和中文的「茶」（chá）也相去甚遠。
In fact, the word tea borrows the pronunciation "te" from Minnan dialect.
實際上，「Tea」這個詞借的是閩南語中茶的發音「te」。
Professor Wang Jianshe from College of Humanities of Huaqiao University says tea is the best example to represent those English words derived from Minnan dialect.
華僑大學文學院教授王建設告訴我們，要說部分由閩南語演變成的英文單詞，「茶」這個詞最具代表性。
In foreign countries tea has two pronunciations, "cha" and "tea". Professor Wang says that in most cases words with consonants "z" and "c" probably come from the northern dialects, which sound like "cha", while words with consonants "d" and "t" are more likely to develop from Minnan dialect.
在國外，「茶」有兩種讀法，一是讀作「cha」,二是讀作「tea」。這裡，王教授分享了一個小知識：一般來說，單詞輔音是「z」或「c」的，那麼讀法便是由北方傳入，讀音大致與「cha」雷同；而讀作「d」或「t」的，詞語來源便是從閩南話演變而成。
Judging by tea's pronunciation in English, it is remarkably similar to "te" in Minnan dialect. Professor Wang adds that the phenomenon is largely caused by influence of the Maritime Silk Road. In the past tea, silk and porcelain were the most popular products in maritime trade. Thus, some foreigners learned the pronunciation "te" when they were doing business with Minnan people, and finally "te" became "tea" in English.
在閩南語中，「茶」讀作「te」。從英語「tea」一詞的讀法來看，顯而易見其發音與閩南語的「te」類似。王建設說，之所以受此影響，還得歸功於海上絲綢之路，當時，茶和絲綢、瓷器是海上貿易火熱的商品，不少外國人通過買賣交易茶葉學到了閩南人對於「茶」即「te」的讀法，久而久之，便演變成了英文單詞「tea」。