正山小種

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Unclear how 正山 equates to lapsang, since that should be 立山 instead.”)

正山小種

1. lapsang souchong (tea plant)

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

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

Borrowed from Cantonese 立山小種／立山小种 (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.

• ラプサン・スーチョン

• IPA^(key): [ɾa̠pɯ̟ᵝsã̠ɰ̃ sɨᵝːt͡ɕõ̞ɴ]

正山小種(ラプサン・スーチョン) • (rapusan sūchon) 

1. lapsang souchong tea

This reading appears to be the most common.

The spelling is borrowed from Chinese 正山小種／正山小种 (zhèngshān xiǎozhǒng). The reading is the expected on'yomi for these characters.

• IPA^(key): [se̞ːsã̠ɰ̃ ɕo̞ːɕɨᵝ]

正(せい)山(さん)小(しょう)種(しゅ) • (seisan shōshu) 

1. lapsang souchong tea

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.