# Coffee



## MarX

Hi!

How is it called in other languages?

In Indonesian it's *kopi*.

Thanks!


MarX


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## FC7user

In Spanish it's "el café".


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## elroy

Arabic: قهوة (_qahwa_)


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## OldAvatar

Romanian: cafea


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## Topsie

French: café
French slang: Cawa (not sure about the spelling! - it's the Arabic word!)


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## Revontuli

Turkish: kahve
Finnish: kahvi


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## MarX

Thanks for the replies so far!



Revontuli said:


> Turkish: kahve
> Finnish: kahvi


They're very similar.
Did Finnish "borrow" the word from Turkish or the other way around?


Are there other languages which have a P instead of F, W, or V?


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## Revontuli

Yes Marx,they're very similar. There are other very similar words as well. 
I don't know who borrowed the word ''kahve'' .But I should really search that !


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## jazyk

In Portuguese: café. In Brazil we very often use it in the diminutive form, _um cafezinho_, which gives it an affectionate tone.


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## Zsanna

In Hugarian: kávé.

We (as well as some other European languages during the Ottoman occupation) borrowed the word from Turkish, where it arrived from Arabic. (Coffe coming from the Ethiopian area of Kaffa - I only know the Hungarian way of writing of the area).


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## Tamar

In Hebrew: קפה [kafe]


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## Flaminius

Japanese:
コーヒー
kōhī (h here is similar to the German ich-laut.)


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## blue_jewel

In Tagalog: Kape


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## MarX

blue_jewel said:


> In Tagalog: Kape


Ahh, you also have a P!


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## blue_jewel

MarX said:


> Ahh, you also have a P!


 

Yes!  Ka-pe  usually 'f' in english words becomes 'p' in Tagalog.


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## MarX

blue_jewel said:


> Yes!  Ka-pe  usually 'f' in english word becomes 'p' in tagalog.


In Indonesian, too.

In fact, many Indonesians seem to have difficulty pronouncing the F-sound, which is represented by both the letters *F* and *V*.

That's why it's not unusual to say:
*Pèbruari* instead of *Fèbruari*
*Nopèmber* instead of *Novèmber*

The words *pikir* (think), *paham* (understand), *napas* (breath) and *pasal* (chapter), etc. come from (Arabic) _fikir, faham, nafas,_ and _fatsal,_ etc.

But let's not get off topic here.

Salam,


MarX


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*:  *kafo*.

The place you drink coffee (cafe, coffee house) is called a *kafejo*.

We even have a verb (*kafumi*) which basically means to hang out and have coffee with friends / to go for coffee.


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## Orreaga

*Navajo* has neither f nor p. The word for coffee came via Spanish and is either *gohwééh* or *ahwééh* (depending on dialect), the *hw* pronounced similar to breathy English *wh* in *when*.


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## avok

MarX said:


> Ahh, you also have a P!


 
Why are you surprised Marx?  Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesian are sisters (or brothers) and I am pretty sure that there are some other East Asian languages that have "p" instead of "f" considering the word coffee?


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## Flaminius

Here is another language with P (transliteration by this site).

Korean:
커피
keo-pi


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## kusurija

In Czech:
kafe, káva

In Lithuanian:
kava


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## valdo

In Latvian:

kafija


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## vikicka

Macedonian: kafe (кафе)
Croatian: kava
Serbian: kafa (кафa)
Italian: caffè
Bulgarian: kafe (кафе)
Albanian: kafe

Regards


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## Tamar

In Jewish Iraqi Arabic it's: ka7wa


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## bb3ca201

in Gaelic, we use the English word -- but spell it in the Gaelic way: "cofaidh" (pronounced "Coffee")


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## Frank06

Hi,

In *Dutch*: koffie
[ie is more or les pronounced as a long i-sound, compare English ee]

Groetjes,

Frank


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## MarX

Frank06 said:


> In *Dutch*: koffie
> [ie is more or les pronounced as a long i-sound, compare English ee]


Indonesian *kopi *is a direct loanword from Dutch _koffie_.
Many times *F*, which may be written as _F, V, _or_ PH _becomes *P* in Indonesian.


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## Hakro

Revontuli said:


> I don't know who borrowed the word ''kahve'' .But I should really search that !


Hi Revontuli,

I don't know about Turkish but I know that the Finnish "kahvi" is borrowed from Swedish _kaffe_. In some Finnish dialects it's "kahvee".

As the F-sound doesn't (originally) exist in Finnish it was always changed to "hv" in loan words. There are many examples, like "pihvi" (Swedish _biff_ = beef), "sohva" (_sofa_) etc. Most of our loan words come from Swedish.


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## Revontuli

Hi Hakro,

We have many words from Arabic and ''kahve'' is one of them. And here is the etymology of ''kahve'' from Wikipedia:

'' The term was introduced to Europe via the Ottoman Turkish *''kahveh*'' which is in turn derived from the Arabic '_'qahweh''_.The origin of the Arabic term is uncertain; it is either derived from the name of the Kaffa region in western Ethiopia, where coffee was cultivated, or by a truncation of _qahwat al-būnn_, meaning "wine of the bean" in Arabic ''


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## Hakro

Revontuli said:


> '' The term was introduced to Europe via the Ottoman Turkish *''kahveh*'' which is in turn derived from the Arabic '_'qahweh''_.The origin of the Arabic term is uncertain; it is either derived from the name of the Kaffa region in western Ethiopia, where coffee was cultivated, or by a truncation of _qahwat al-būnn_, meaning "wine of the bean" in Arabic ''


Thanks, Revontuli!

This seems to prove that "hv" was the original pronunciation but the Indoeuropean languages changed it to "f" or "ff". Am I wrong?


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## Revontuli

Exactly Hakro. But I really would like to know why it changed to ''f/ff'' in Indoeuropean languages,that's interesting.It needs some research and I'm really so willing to do that

Do you have any idea about this?


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## Hakro

Revontuli said:


> It needs some research and I'm really so willing to do that.


I have no idea about it. Maybe someone else has? If you are willing to do the research, please do it! I'll send you a rose if you find it out.

Hakro


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## Revontuli

If anyone really does,we'd really like to hear his/her explanation.

But being selfish,I hope there's nobody who knows. I'm really willing to find it out myself and I'm starting for my research from tomorrow on. I'll be searching books and tracing the professors at school.

I'm so impatient to learn every detail.


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## Outsider

> *coffee*
> 
> 1598, from It. _caffe_, from Turk. _kahveh_, from Arabic _qahwah_ "coffee," said originally to have meant "wine," but perhaps rather from Kaffa region of Ethiopia, a home of the plant (Coffee in Kaffa is called _buno_). Much initial diversity of spelling, including _chaoua_.
> 
> Online Etymology Dictionary


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## Anielstwo

In Polish: kawa (pron: kava)
In Norwegian: Kaffe, som dialects kaffi


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## 2PieRad

咖啡-ka1 fei1 in Mandarin. It seems to have been translated phonetically.


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## Katuka

jazyk said:


> In Portuguese: café. In Brazil we very often use it in the diminutive form, _um cafezinho_, which gives it an affectionate tone.


 Yes, and "pretinho", too.


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## Juri

Italian _caffe'_, Slovenian _kava_, Croate _kafa._


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## Gavril

Armenian: սուրճ (pronounced "surch" in Eastern Armenian, "surj" in Western)
Amharic: ቡና (_buna_)

According to Wiktionary, the Armenian term is onomatopoeic, based on the sound of coffee being sipped. I'm not sure about the origin of the Amharic word.


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## AutumnOwl

Revontuli said:


> Hi Hakro,
> 
> We have many words from Arabic and ''kahve'' is one of them. And here is the etymology of ''kahve'' from Wikipedia:
> 
> '' The term was introduced to Europe via the Ottoman Turkish *''kahveh*'' which is in turn derived from the Arabic '_'qahweh''_.The origin of the Arabic term is uncertain; it is either derived from the name of the Kaffa region in western Ethiopia, where coffee was cultivated, or by a truncation of _qahwat al-būnn_, meaning "wine of the bean" in Arabic ''


I would say that the word kahvi in Finnish didn't come to Finland directly from the Turkish word, but that it took the long way: Turkish _Kahveh,_ Italian _Caffe_, German _Kaffee_, Swedish _Kaffe_ and finally Finnish _Kahvi,_ the same way the drink itself found its way to Finland. That the spelling is similar is probably due to the fact that neither Finnish nor Turkish have the double-f spelling, the way Swedish, German and Italian have.


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## Selyd

In Ukrainian:
кава (кáва) - /kawa/.
Not literary  кохве, кохвій (кóхве, кóхвій) - /kochwe, kochwiy/.


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## Gavril

AutumnOwl said:


> I would say that the word kahvi in Finnish didn't come to Finland directly from the Turkish word, but that it took the long way: Turkish _Kahveh,_ Italian _Caffe_, German _Kaffee_, Swedish _Kaffe_ and finally Finnish _Kahvi,_ the same way the drink itself found its way to Finland. That the spelling is similar is probably due to the fact that neither Finnish nor Turkish have the double-f spelling, the way Swedish, German and Italian have.



Isn't it more likely that the double-_f _spelling is due to the lack of the sound cluster [hv] in Italian, or whichever European language first adopted the Turkish term _kahveh_?


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## apmoy70

In Greek it's «καφές» [ka'fes] (masc.)


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## franknagy

Old word for coffee used to be: "feketeleves" = black soup.
*"Hátra van még a feketeleves." *= The worst thing is still coming.
_The last drink of Sultan Soliman's lunch was the coffee. The lord retained by these sentence were arrected and imprisoned in the "Seven Towers" of Istanbul._


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## Alderamin

Katuka said:


> Yes, and "pretinho", too.



And beyond "Café" used in Portugal too, the Southern "Bica" and the Northern "Cimbalino".


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## Youngfun

In Italy, in Trieste they have a completely different coffee glossary: coffee is called _"nero"_ while cappuccino is called "_caffè latte_".

In Australia, espresso is called "_short black_", and Americano is called "_long black_"*.

*Technically there is a slight different: in the Americano you first put coffee in the cup, than add hot water on it. In the long black you first put hot water then pour espresso on it.
The long black doesn't lose the espresso cream and _aroma_.

In my Chinese dialect, 咖啡 is pronounced /kʰæ fi/ and this is the  "modern" pronunciation. However many people, especially those of the  older generations like my uncle, pronounce it /kʰo fi/, that clearly  resembles to the English "coffee".

Here's a thread about the etymology of coffee.


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## Ghabi

Moderator's Note: Dear all, there is also this thread for the same topic: coffee, which has been closed to avoid repetitions. Please try to read that one too, if you want to contribute to this one. Thank you.


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