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Red Wine / Black Tea

Source: Wikipedia

Have you ever wondered what is the color of red wine in other languages? And why is the wine “red”, but the tea is “black”? This intrigued me because in Serbo-Croatian the tea is black, but unlike English and most other languages the wine is also black. That prompted me to find out the color of wine and tea in as many other languages as possible. With a little help from my friends and online translation tools (Google, Bing, and Yandex) I’ve compiled a list of 100 languages and here are the results:

 

Total
94 3 0 97
2 0 1 3
Total 96 3 1 100

A note on Spanish

I don’t speak the language, so I’ve asked two of my friends about red wine in Spanish, and here’s what I’ve found: they call it “vino tinto”, but “tinto” is not a generic word for red color (it’s “rojo”), it is only used in a few specific cases to indicate that something is red, e.g. vino tinto, Rio Tinto, etc.

A note on Korean

Red wine is called “적포도주” (jeogpodoju), where the last 3 characters denote wine (포도주, podoju). The first character 적 has many meanings (foe, target, adversary, economy, time, product, thief, chip, domicile), none of which looks like a color to me. If you speak Korean and can shed a bit more light on this, please let me know. For now, I’ll mark Korean red wine as “unknown color / no color”.

Summary

Black wine / black tea
Basque (ardo beltza / tea beltza)
Catalan (vi negre / té negre)
Serbo-Croatian (crno vino / crni čaj)

Red wine / red tea
Chinese (红酒 / 红茶)
Japanese (赤ワイン / 紅茶)

Red wine / black tea
Afrikaans (rooiwyn / swart tee)
Albanian (verë e kuqe / çaj i zi)
Amharic (ቀይ ወይን / ጥቁር ሻይ)
Arabic (نبيذ احمر / شاي أسود)
Armenian (Կարմիր գինի / Սեւ թեյ)
Azerbaijani (Qırmızı şərab / qara çay)
Belarusian (Чырвонае віно / чорны чай)
Bengali (লাল মদ / কালো চা)
Bulgarian (червено вино / черен чай)
Cebuano (pula nga bino / itom nga tsa)
Chichewa (vinyo wofiyira / tiyi)
Corsican (vinu russu / tè, neru)
Czech (červené víno / Černý čaj)
Danish (rødvin / sort te)
Dutch (rode wijn / zwarte thee)
Esperanto (ruĝa vino / nigra teo)
Estonian (punane vein / must tee)
Filipino (pulang alak / itim na tsaa)
Finnish (punaviini / musta tee)
French (vin rouge / thé noir)
Frisian (Reade wyn / swarte tee)
Galician (viño tinto / té negro)
Georgian (წითელი ღვინო / შავი ჩაი)
German (Rotwein / Schwarzer Tee)
Greek (ερυθρό κρασί / μαύρο τσάι)
Gujarati (લાલ વાઇન / કાળી ચા)
Haitian Creole (wouj diven / te nwa)
Hausa (ja ruwan inabi / baƙar shayi)
Hawaiian (waina / ʻeleʻele kī)
Hebrew (יין אדום / תה שחור)
Hindi (लाल शराब / काली चाय)
Hmong (liab caw / dub tshuaj yej)
Hungarian (vörösbor / fekete tea)
Icelandic (rauðvín / svart te)
Igbo (mmanya uhie / black tii)
Indonesian (anggur merah / teh hitam)
Irish (fíon dearg / tae dubh)
Italian (vino rosso / tè nero)
Jawanese (anggur abang / teh ireng)
Kannada (ಕೆಂಪು ವೈನ್ / ಕಪ್ಪು ಚಹಾ)
Kazakh (қызыл шарап / қара шай)
Khmer (ស្រាក្រហម / តែ​ខ្មៅ)
Kurdish (Kurmanji) (şeraba sor / çaya reş)
Kyrgyz (кызыл шарап / Кара чай)
Lao (ເຫລົ້າທີ່ເຮັດຈາກສີແດງ / ຊາ​ດໍາ)
Latin (vinum rubrum / nigrum tea)
Latvian (sarkanvīns / melnā tēja)
Lithuanian (raudonas vynas / juoda arbata)
Luxembourgish (roude Wäin / schwaarz Téi)
Macedonian (црвено вино / црн чај)
Malagasy (divay mena / dite mainty)
Malay (Wain merah / teh hitam)
Malayalam (ചുവന്ന വീഞ്ഞ് / കറുത്ത ടീ)
Maltese (inbid aħmar / te iswed)
Maori (waina whero / tea pango)
Marathi (लाल वाइन / काळा चहा)
Mongolian (улаан дарс / хар цай)
Myanmar (Burmese) (ဝိုင်နီ / အနက်ရောင်လက်ဖက်ရည်)
Nepali (रेड वाइन / कालो चिया)
Norwegian (rødvin / svart te)
Pashto (سور شراب / تور چای)
Persian (شراب قرمز / چای سیاه)
Polish (czerwone wino / czarna herbata)
Portuguese (vinho tinto / chá preto)
Punjabi (ਰੇਡ ਵਾਇਨ / ਕਾਲਾ ਚਾਹ)
Romanian (vin rosu / ceai negru)
Russian (красное вино / черный чай)
Samoan (uaina mumu / lauti uliuli)
Scots Gaelic (fìon dearg / dubh tea)
Sesotho (veine e khubelu / tee o motsho)
Shona (waini tsvuku / dema tii)
Sindhi (ڳاڙهو شراب / ڪارو چانهه)
Sinhala (රතු වයින් / කළු තේ)
Slovak (červené víno / čierny čaj)
Slovenian (rdeče vino / Črni čaj)
Somali (khamriga cas / shaah madow)
Spanish (vino tinto / té negro)
Sundanese (anggur beureum / hideung teh)
Swahili (mvinyo mwekundu / chai nyeusi)
Swedish (rödvin / svart te)
Tajik (майи сурх / чой сиёҳ)
Tamil (சிவப்பு ஒயின் / கருப்பு தேயிலை)
Telugu (ఎరుపు వైన్ / బ్లాక్ టీ)
Thai (ไวน์แดง / ชาดำ)
Turkish (kırmızı şarap / siyah çay)
Ukrainian (червоне вино / чорний чай)
Urdu (سرخ شراب / قہوہ)
Uzbek (qizil vino / qora choy)
Vietnamese (rượu vang đỏ / trà đen)
Welsh (gwin coch / te du)
Xhosa (isiselo somdiliya esibomvu / tea abamnyama)
Yiddish (רויטע וויין / שוואַרץ טיי)
Yoruba (pupa waini / dudu tii)
Zulu (iwayini elibomvu / black itiye)

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