''Teh'' is an
Internet slang
Internet slang (also called Internet shorthand, cyber-slang, netspeak, digispeak or chatspeak) is a non-standard or unofficial form of language used by people on the Internet to communicate to one another. An example of Internet slang is "LOL" m ...
neologism most frequently used as an English
article, based on a common
typographical error of "''
the".'' ''Teh'' has subsequently developed
grammatical
In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular variety (linguistics), speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the go ...
usages distinct from ''the''.
It is not common in spoken or written English outside technical or
leetspeak circles, but when spoken, it is pronounced , , or .
Usage
''Teh'' originates from the common
typo of ''the'', as might both occur and remain uncorrected when a person was typing rapidly prior to the widespread availability of
autocorrect helper applications, and has become conventionalized in a variety of contexts.
In addition, it is a standard feature of leetspeak
and can be used ironically
or to mock someone's lack of "
techie" knowledge or skills, as an insult, or to reinforce a group's elitism;
cf.
eye dialect.
References
External links
*
Internet slang
Leet
Nonstandard spelling
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