Th is a
digraph in the
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
. It was originally introduced into Latin to transliterate Greek loan words. In modern languages that use the Latin alphabet, it represents a number of different sounds. It is the most common digraph in order of frequency in the English language.
Cluster /t.h/
![A](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/A.B.Frost_1879-12_Harper%27s_355_p160_English_th.png)
The most logical use of is to represent a consonant cluster of the phonemes and , as in English ''knighthood''. This is not a digraph, since a digraph is a pair of letters representing a single phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the separate characters.
Aspirated stop /tʰ/
The digraph was first introduced in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
to transliterate the letter
theta
Theta (, ; uppercase: Θ or ; lowercase: θ or ; grc, ''thē̂ta'' ; Modern: ''thī́ta'' ) is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 9.
Gr ...
in loans from
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 ...
. Theta was pronounced as an
aspirated stop
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of breathing, breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the Stop consonant#articulation, closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones ...
in
Classical and early
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
.
is used in academic transcription systems to represent letters in south and east Asian alphabets that have the value . According to the
Royal Thai General System of Transcription
The Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official system for rendering Thai words in the Latin alphabet. It was published by the Royal Institute of Thailand.
It is used in road signs and government publications and is the cl ...
, for example, represents a series of
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
letters with the value .
is also used to transcribe the phoneme in
Southern Bantu languages
The Southern Bantu languages are a large group of Bantu languages, largely validated in Janson (1991/92).Tore Janson (1991-92) "Southern Bantu and Makua", ''Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika'' (''SUGIA'') Vol. 12/13: 63-106, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag ...
, such as
Zulu and
Tswana
Tswana may refer to:
* Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions
* Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people
* Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...
.
Voiceless fricative /θ/
During
late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
, the Greek phoneme represented by the letter mutated from an aspirated stop to 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 ...
. This mutation affected the pronunciation of , which began to be used to represent the phoneme in some of the languages that had it.
One of the earliest languages to use the digraph this way was
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
, before the final phase of the
High German consonant shift, in which and came to be pronounced .
In early Old English of the 7th and 8th centuries, the digraph was used until the
Old English Latin alphabet The Old English Latin alphabet generally consisted of about 24 letters, and was used for writing Old English from the 8th to the 12th centuries. Of these letters, most were directly adopted from the Latin alphabet, two were modified Latin letters ( ...
adapted the
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 (
thorn
Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to:
Botany
* Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants
* ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species
Comics and literature
* Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ...
), as well as (
eth
(colloquially)
, former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule
, image = ETHZ.JPG
, image_size =
, established =
, type = Public
, budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021)
, rector = Günther Dissertori
, president = Joël Mesot
, a ...
; in Old English), a modified version of the Latin letter , to represent this sound. Later, the digraph reappeared, gradually superseding these letters in
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
.
In modern English, an example of the digraph pronounced as is the one in ''tooth''.
In
Old and
Middle Irish
Middle Irish, sometimes called Middle Gaelic ( ga, An Mheán-Ghaeilge, gd, Meadhan-Ghàidhlig), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old Engl ...
, was used for as well, but the sound eventually changed into (see below).
Other languages that use for include
Albanian and
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
, both of which treat it as a distinct letter and alphabetize it between
and
.
Voiced fricative /ð/
English also uses to represent the
voiced dental fricative
The voiced dental fricative is a consonant sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the ''th'' sound in ''father''. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is eth, or and was taken from the Old Engl ...
, as in ''father''. This unusual extension of the digraph to represent a voiced sound is caused by the fact that, in Old English, the sounds and stood in
allophonic
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
relationship to each other and so did not need to be rigorously distinguished in spelling. The letters and were used indiscriminately for both sounds, and when these were replaced by in the 15th century, it was likewise used for both sounds. (For the same reason, is used in English for both and .)
In the
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
dialect
Jèrriais, the French phoneme is realized as , and is spelled under the influence of English.
Voiceless retroflex stop /ʈ/
In the Latin alphabet for the
Javanese language
Javanese (, , ; , Aksara Jawa: , Pegon: , IPA: ) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, Indonesia. There are also pockets of Javanese speakers on the northe ...
, is used to transcribe the phoneme
voiceless retroflex stop
The voiceless retroflex plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. This consonant is found as a phoneme mostly (though not exclusively) in two areas: South Asia and Australia.
Transcription
The symbol that r ...
, which is written as in the native
Javanese script
The Javanese script (natively known as ''Aksara Jawa'', ''Hanacaraka'', ''Carakan'', and ''Dentawyanjana'') is one of Indonesia's traditional scripts developed on the island of Java. The script is primarily used to write the Javanese langu ...
.
Alveolar stop /t/
Because neither nor were native phonemes in Latin, the Greek sound represented by came to be pronounced . The spelling retained the digraph for etymological reasons. This practice was then borrowed into
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
,
French,
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
and other languages, where still appears in originally Greek words, but is pronounced . See
German orthography
German orthography is the orthography used in writing the German language, which is largely phonemic. However, it shows many instances of spellings that are historic or analogous to other spellings rather than phonemic. The pronunciation of al ...
.
Interlingua
Interlingua (; ISO 639 language codes ia, ina) is an international auxiliary language (IAL) developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). It ranks among the most widely used IALs and is t ...
also employs this pronunciation.
In early modern times, French, German and English all expanded this by analogy to words for which there is no etymological reason, but for the most part the modern spelling systems have eliminated this. Examples of unetymological in English are the name of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
from Middle English and the name ''
Anthony
Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the '' Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton, ...
'' (though the is often pronounced under the influence of the spelling) from Latin .
In English, for can also occur in loan-words from French or German, such as ''Neanderthal''. The English name ''
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
'' has initial because it was loaned from
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
.
Dental stop /t̪/
In the
transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Australian Aboriginal languages had been purely spoken languages, and had no writing system. On their arrival, Latin script became a standard for transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages, but the detail ...
represents a dental stop, .
/h/
In
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
and
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
, represents the
lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonority hierarchy, sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronic analysis, s ...
of . In most cases word-initially, it is pronounced . For example: Irish and Scottish Gaelic 'will' → 'your will'.
This use of digraphs with to indicate lenition is distinct from the other uses which derive from Latin. While it is true that the presence of digraphs with in Latin inspired the Goidelic usage, their allocation to phonemes is based entirely on the internal logic of the Goidelic languages. Lenition in
Gaelic lettering was traditionally denoted in handwriting using an
overdot
When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot is usually reserved for the '' interpunct'' ( · ), or to the glyphs "combining dot above" ( ◌̇ ) and "combining dot below" ( ◌̣ )
which may be combined with some letters of t ...
but typesetters lacked these pre-composed types and substituted a trailing . It is also a consequence of their history: the digraph initially, in Old and Middle Irish, designated the phoneme , but later sound changes complicated and obscured the grapheme–sound correspondence, so that is even found in some words like Scottish Gaelic 'sister' that never had a to begin with. This is an example of "inverted (historical) spelling": the model of words where the original interdental fricative had disappeared between vowels caused to be reinterpreted as a marker of
hiatus
Hiatus may refer to:
*Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure
* Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy
*''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes''
* Gl ...
.
Ø
The Irish and Scottish Gaelic lenited is silent in final position, as in
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
'tired'. And, rarely, it is silent in initial position, as in Scottish Gaelic 'you'.
In English, the in ''asthma'' and ''clothes'' is often silent.
ᵺ
is used for phonetic notation in some dictionaries.
See also
*
Pronunciation of English ⟨th⟩
In English, the digraph represents in most cases one of two different phonemes: the voiced dental fricative (as in ''this'') and the voiceless dental fricative (''thing''). More rarely, it can stand for (''Thailand'', ''Thomas'') or t ...
Footnotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Th (Digraph)
English th
Latin-script digraphs
Graphemes