T, or t, is the twentieth
letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
in the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
, used in the
modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is
''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is derived from the Semitic
Taw 饜 of the
Phoenician and
Paleo-Hebrew
The Paleo-Hebrew script ( he, 讛讻转讘 讛注讘专讬 讛拽讚讜诐), also Palaeo-Hebrew, Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew, is the writing system found in Canaanite inscriptions from the region of biblical Israel and Judah. It is considered to be the script ...
script (
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, 軔塥堋軡軔, Ar膩m膩y膩; oar, 饜饜饜饜饜; arc, 饜饜饜饜饜; tmr, 讗植专指诪执讬转), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
and
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
Taw 转/饜/
![Taw](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Taw.svg)
,
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
Taw 墁, and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
鬲
T膩始
Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician T膩w , Hebrew Tav , Aramaic Taw , Syriac Taw 墁, and Arabic 鬲 T膩始 (22nd in abjadi order, 3rd in modern order). In Arabic, it is also gives r ...
) via the Greek letter
蟿 (
tau
Tau (uppercase 韦, lowercase 蟿, or \boldsymbol\tau; el, 蟿伪蠀 ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless dental or alveolar plosive . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 300.
The name in English ...
). In English, it is most commonly used to represent the
voiceless alveolar plosive
The voiceless alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of consonantal sounds used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postal ...
, a sound it also denotes in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
. It is the most commonly used
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
and the second most commonly used letter in English-language texts.
History
''
Taw'' was the last letter of the Western
Semitic and
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet ( he, wikt:讗诇驻讘讬转, 讗指诇侄祝志讘值旨讬转 注执讘职专执讬, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew languag ...
s. The sound value of Semitic ''Taw'',
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as we ...
T伪蠀 (''Tau''),
Old Italic and Latin T has remained fairly constant, representing in each of these; and it has also kept its original basic shape in most of these alphabets.
Use in writing systems
English
In English, usually denotes the
voiceless alveolar plosive
The voiceless alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of consonantal sounds used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postal ...
(
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
and
X-SAMPA
The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA) is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at University College London. It is designed to unify the individual language SAMPA alphabets, and ...
: ), as in ''tart'', ''tee'', or ''ties'', often with
aspiration at the beginnings of words or before
stressed vowels.
The digraph often corresponds to the sound (a
voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant
A voiceless postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Association uses the term ''voiceless postalveolar fricative'' only for the sound , but it also describes the voiceless ...
) word-medially when followed by a vowel, as in ''nation'', ''ratio'', ''negotiation,'' and ''Croatia''.
The letter corresponds to the affricate in some words as a result of
yod-coalescence
The phonological history of the English language includes various changes in the phonology of consonant clusters.
H-cluster reductions
The H-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, inv ...
(for example, in words ending in "-ture", such as ''future'').
A common
digraph is , which usually represents a
dental fricative
The dental fricative or interdental fricative is a fricative consonant pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the teeth. There are several types (those used in English being written as ''th''):
*Voiced dental fricative - as in the English ...
, but occasionally represents (as in ''Thomas'' and ''thyme''.)
In a few words of modern French origin, the letter T is silent at the end of a word; these include ''croquet'' and ''debut''.
Other languages
In the
orthographies
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
of other languages, is often used for , the
voiceless dental plosive
The voiceless alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of consonantal sounds used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalv ...
, or similar sounds.
Other systems
In the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
, denotes the
voiceless alveolar plosive
The voiceless alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of consonantal sounds used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postal ...
.
Related characters
Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
![Teisko](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Teisko.vaakuna.svg)
*T with
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
s:
扭 钮 峁 峁 岷
岷 is a modified letter of the Latin alphabet, derived from the letter T with a double dot on it. It is used in the ISO 233 transliteration of Arabic to represent ''t膩始 marb奴峁璦'' (锖, 锖), and also in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet to rep ...
泞 牛 峁 峁 飘 蕡 葰 葲 偏 峁 峁 峁 峁 纽 脓 染 獗 片 骗 岬
Latin small letter T with middle tilde ( 岬 ) is a letter of the Latin script. At present there is no uppercase version encoded in Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology st ...
岫
The palatal hook () is a type of hook diacritic formerly used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent palatalized consonants. It is a small, leftwards-facing hook joined to the bottom-right side of a letter, and is distinguished from ...
*隇 隇 :
Insular T, also used by
William Pryce
William Pryce (baptised 1735鈥1790) was a British medical man, known as an antiquary, a promoter of the Cornish language and a writer on mining in Cornwall.
Life
He was the son of Dr. Samuel Pryce of Redruth in Cornwall, and Catherine Hill; ...
to designate the voiceless dental fricative
ref name=Insular>
*岖 : Combining small insular t was used in the
Ormulum
The ''Ormulum'' or ''Orrmulum'' is a twelfth-century work of biblical exegesis, written by an Augustinian canon named Orm (or Ormin) and consisting of just under 19,000 lines of early Middle English verse. Because of the unique phonemic orthog ...
* : Turned small t is used in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
(IPA)
*饜灟 : Modifier letter small t with retroflex hook is a
superscript IPA letter
*饾級 : Latin small letter t with hook and retroflex hook is a symbol for a
voiceless retroflex implosive
A voiceless retroflex implosive is a rare consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. There is no official symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound, but or may be used, or the old convention ().
Features
...
*饾紞 : Latin small turned t with curl is a
click letter
Various letters have been used to write the click consonants of southern Africa. The precursors of the current IPA letters, , were created by Karl Richard Lepsius and used by Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd, who added .
Also influential were Daniel ...
*
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet
The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) or Finno-Ugric transcription system is a phonetic transcription or notational system used predominantly for the transcription and reconstruction of Uralic languages. It was first published in 1901 by Eemil Nesto ...
-specific symbols related to T:
**
**
**
**
*鈧 : Subscript small t was used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902
*
榷 : T with curl is used in Sino-Tibetanist linguistics
*隇 蕠 : Turned capital T and turned small t were used in transcriptions of the
Dakota language
Dakota (''Dakh贸tiyapi, Dak葻贸tiyapi''), also referred to as Dakhota, is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Sioux tribes. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language. It is critically endan ...
in publications of the American Board of Ethnology in the late 19th century
*饾吉 : Small t with mid-height left hook was used by the
British and Foreign Bible Society
The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world.
The Soc ...
in the early 20th century for
romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
of the
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mah茅 district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
language.
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
*饜 :
Semitic letter
Taw, from which the following symbols originally derive
**韦 蟿 :
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
letter
Tau
Tau (uppercase 韦, lowercase 蟿, or \boldsymbol\tau; el, 蟿伪蠀 ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless dental or alveolar plosive . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 300.
The name in English ...
*** :
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
letter Taw, which derives from Greek Tau
***孝 褌 :
Cyrillic
, bg, 泻懈褉懈谢懈褑邪 , mk, 泻懈褉懈谢懈褑邪 , russian: 泻懈褉懈谢谢懈褑邪 , sr, 褯懈褉懈谢懈褑邪, uk, 泻懈褉懈谢懈褑褟
, fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs
, fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic
, fam3 = Phoenician
, fam4 = G ...
letter
Te, also derived from Tau
*** :
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
letter tius, which derives from Greek Tau
***饜寱 :
Old Italic T, which derives from Greek Tau, and is the ancestor of modern Latin T
**** :
Runic
Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...
letter
teiwaz, which probably derives from old Italic T
*釐 : One of the 26 consonantal letters of
Ge'ez script. The Ge'ez
abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...
developed under the influence of Christian scripture by adding obligatory vocalic diacritics to the consonantal letters. Pesa 釐 is based on Tawe
釅.
Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations
*鈩 :
Trademark symbol
The trademark symbol is a symbol to indicate that the preceding mark is a trademark, specifically an unregistered trademark. It complements the registered trademark symbol which is reserved for trademarks registered with an appropriate gov ...
*鈧 :
Mongolian t枚gr枚g
The t枚gr枚g or tugrik (Mongolian Cyrillic: , Mongolian script: , transcription: ; sign: 鈧; code: MNT) is the official currency of Mongolia. It was historically subdivided into 100 ( / ). Currently, the lowest denomination in regular use is th ...
*鈧 :
Kazakhstani tenge
The tenge ( or ; kk, 褌械遥谐械, te帽ge, ; sign: 鈧 ; code: KZT) is the currency of Kazakhstan. It is divided into 100 tiyn ( kk, 褌懈褘薪, t谋y谋n also transliterated as ''tiyin'').
History
After the breakup of the Soviet Union in December ...
*唰 :
Bangladeshi taka
The Bangladeshi taka ( bn, 唳熰唳曕, currency sign, sign: , ISO 4217, code: BDT, Short form (linguistics), short form: Tk) is the currency of the Bangladesh, People's Republic of Bangladesh. In Unicode, it is encoded at .
Issuance of ban ...
Computing codes
:
1
Other representations
Explanatory notes
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Authority control
ISO basic Latin letters
Cross symbols