CHATEE is a computer-generated word search game, which I showcased the word "tea" in 12 different languages. When doing research on the language of tea, I found the word "tea" either starts with the letter "C" or "T."

My observation is that the development of the vocabulary in different countries is linked with how tea originally arrived, for whom/where the country received the tea from. Another theory indicates that "T" means received by sea while "C" means by land.

If the tea is received from China, it will start with C (as in Mandarin tea is pronounced as Cha). And as a result, we get Chai (India) and Cay (Turkey). On the other hand, for most European languages, tea comes from the UK. Therefore, the word "tea" evolved into tee (German), thee (Dutch), and té (Spanish).