So now Turkish as well? And how do Turkish and Indians call reglar tea? Lets say simple black lipton? Also chai! Because in 100% of cases chai = tea.
Misinformed/ignorant/etc and marketing people introduced the idea of a different meaning and it spread. But it is 100% wrong, chai = tea. Period.
Here it is:
Dutch and Portuguese started importing tea from China.
There are different languages there.
Portuguese imported it from Canton, where they called THE SAME THING cha.
Dutch imported it from Fujian, where they called THE SAME THING te.
These 20 Fascinating Etymology Maps Show The Origin Of Words In Various Languages | NekoPlaza
So in those countries where Dutch exported, THE SAME THING was called variations of te.
In those countries where Portuguese exported, THE SAME THING was called variations of chai.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea
It is 100% THE SAME THING.
Different languages (origins Cantonese - cha and Amoy - te).
The fact that somebody took popular tea style/recipe from India nor where ever and decided to call it chai in English language and it spread, does not make it true.
Same sense would be to call Russian, Slovakian, Turkish, Bulgarian, etc style tea chai in English, just because in their language it is called chai...
Same thing would be call Spanish or Mexican beer cerveza (in English language) just because beer = cerveza in their languages.
Or Indians in hindu should call lipton tea - te or something, but they do not. They call it chai, because chai and tea are merely translations of each other.
Or Cantonese should call tea from Fujian te and Fujian people should call tea from Canton cha, buit they do not, because they are merely different language translations from each other.