Chinese

		the "lineal mountains"	subvariety
trad. (正山小種)		正山	小種
simp. (正山小种)		正山	小种

Noun

正山小種

1. lapsang souchong (tea plant)

Synonyms

• 拉普山小種／拉普山小种 (Lāpǔ shān xiǎozhǒng)
• 立山小種／立山小种 (Lì shān xiǎozhǒng)

See also

• 正山小種 on the Chinese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^zh

Japanese

正山小種 (rapusan sūchon, seisan shōshu): loose lapsang souchong tea.

Etymology 1

Borrowing from Cantonese 立山小種 ‎(laap⁶ saan¹ siu² zung², literally “sub-variety from Lapu Mountain”).

The spelling was apparently changed prior to borrowing into Japanese, replacing the 立 ‎(laap⁶) character with the 正 ‎(zeng³) character while keeping the pronunciation unchanged.

The reading is an approximation of modern Cantonese, and is thus neither on'yomi nor kun'yomi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɾ̠a̠pɯᵝsã̠n sɯᵝːt͡ɕõ̞ɴ]

Alternative forms

• ラプサン・スーチョン

Noun

正山小種 ‎(katakana ラプサン・スーチョン, romaji rapusan sūchon)

1. lapsang souchong tea

Usage notes

This reading appears to be the most common.

Etymology 2

The spelling is a borrowing from Chinese 正山小種. The reading is the expected on'yomi for these characters.

Pronunciation

• On'yomi
• IPA^(key): [se̞ːsã̠n ɕo̞ːɕɯᵝ]

Noun

正山小種 ‎(hiragana せいさんしょうしゅ, romaji seisan shōshu)

1. lapsang souchong tea

Usage notes

This reading appears to be substantially less common than rapusan sūchon above. However, it is also the most obvious reading from a Japanese perspective, using the standard Japanese pronunciation of the characters.