T Explained

T
Letter:	T t
Script:	Latin script
Type:	Alphabet
Typedesc:	ic and logographic
Language:	Latin language
Unicode:	U+0054, U+0074
Alphanumber:	20
Fam1:	Z9
Fam5:	‬
Fam6:	Ττ
Usageperiod:	~−700 to present
Associates:	t(x), th, tzsch
Direction:	Left-to-right

T, or t, is the twentieth letter of the Latin alphabet, 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.^[1]

It is derived from the Semitic Taw of the Phoenician and Paleo-Hebrew script (Aramaic and Hebrew Taw ת//, Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic ت Tāʼ) via the Greek letter τ (tau). In English, it is most commonly used to represent the voiceless alveolar plosive, a sound it also denotes in the International Phonetic Alphabet. It is the most commonly used consonant and the second-most commonly used letter in English-language texts.^[2]

History

Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets. The sound value of Semitic Taw, the Greek alphabet Tαυ (Tau), Old Italic and Latin T has remained fairly constant, representing pronounced as /link/ in each of these, and it has also kept its original basic shape in most of these alphabets.

Use in writing systems

Pronunciation of (t) by language! Orthography! Phonemes

(Pinyin)	pronounced as /link/
English	pronounced as /link/, silent
French	pronounced as /link/, silent
German	pronounced as /link/
Portuguese	pronounced as /link/
Spanish	pronounced as /link/
Turkish	pronounced as /link/

English

In English, (t) usually denotes the voiceless alveolar plosive (International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA: pronounced as /link/), as in tart, tee, or ties, often with aspiration at the beginnings of words or before stressed vowels. The letter (t) corresponds to the affricate pronounced as //t͡ʃ// in some words as a result of yod-coalescence (for example, in words ending in -"ture", such as future).

A common digraph is (th), which usually represents a dental fricative, but occasionally represents pronounced as //t// (as in Thomas and thyme). The digraph (ti) often corresponds to the sound pronounced as //ʃ// (a voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant) word-medially when followed by a vowel, as in nation, ratio, negotiation, and Croatia.

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 of other languages, (t) is often used for pronounced as //t//, the voiceless dental plosive pronounced as //t̪//, or similar sounds.

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, (IPA|t) denotes the voiceless alveolar plosive.

Other uses

See main article: article and T (disambiguation).

• Unit prefix T, meaning 1,000,000,000,000 times.

Related characters

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

• T with diacritics: Ť ť Ṫ ṫ ẗ Ţ ţ Ṭ ṭ Ʈ ʈ Ț ț ƫ Ṱ ṱ Ṯ ṯ Ŧ ŧ Ⱦ ⱦ Ƭ ƭ ᵵ^[3] ᶵ^[4]
• Ꞇ ꞇ : Insular T, also used by William Pryce to designate the voiceless dental fricative [θ]^[5]
• ᫎ : Combining small insular t was used in the Ormulum^[6]
• pronounced as /link/ : Turned small t is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
• : Modifier letter small t with retroflex hook is a superscript IPA letter^[7]
• : Latin small letter t with hook and retroflex hook is a symbol for a voiceless retroflex implosive^{[8] [9]}
• : Latin small turned t with curl is a click letter^[10]
• Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to T:^[11]
  • • • • • • • • ₜ : Subscript small t was used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902^[12]
• ȶ : T with curl is used in Sino-Tibetanist linguistics^[13]
• Ʇ ʇ : Turned capital T and turned small t were used in transcriptions of the Dakota language in publications of the American Board of Ethnology in the late 19th century.^[14]
• : Small t with mid-height left hook was used by the British and Foreign Bible Society in the early 20th century for romanization of the Malayalam language.^[15]

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

• : Semitic letter Taw, from which the following symbols originally derive:
  • Τ τ : Greek letter Tau
    • : Coptic letter Taw, which derives from Greek Tau
    • Т т : Cyrillic letter Te, also derived from Tau
    • : Gothic letter tius, which derives from Greek Tau
    • : Old Italic T, which derives from Greek Tau, and is the ancestor of modern Latin T
      • : Runic letter teiwaz, which probably derives from old Italic T
• ፐ : One of the 26 consonantal letters of the Ge'ez script. The Ge'ez abugida developed under the influence of Christian scripture by adding obligatory vocalic diacritics to the consonantal letters. Pesa ፐ is based on Tawe ተ.

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

• ™ : Trademark symbol
• ₮ : Mongolian tögrög
• ₸ : Kazakhstani tenge
• ৳ : Bangladeshi taka

Other representations

Computing

Other

Notes and References

1. "T", Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "tee", op. cit.
2. Web site: Relative Frequencies of Letters in General English Plain text . Lewand . Robert . Cryptographical Mathematics . . 2008-06-25 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080708193159/http://pages.central.edu/emp/LintonT/classes/spring01/cryptography/letterfreq.html . 2008-07-08 .
3. Web site: L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS. 2003-09-30. Peter. Constable. 2018-03-24. 2017-10-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20171011013938/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf. live.
4. Web site: L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS. 2004-04-19. Peter. Constable. 2018-03-24. 2017-10-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014355/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf. live.
5. Web site: L2/06-266: Proposal to add Latin letters and a Greek symbol to the UCS. 2006-08-06. Michael. Everson. 2018-03-24. 2013-08-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20130819182322/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06266-n3122-insular.pdf. live.
6. Web site: L2/20-268: Revised proposal to add ten characters for Middle English to the UCS. 2020-10-05. Michael. Everson. Andrew. West. 2022-10-13. 2020-10-24. https://web.archive.org/web/20201024033958/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20268-n5145-ormulum.pdf. live.
7. Web site: L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic. 2020-11-08. Kirk. Miller. Michael. Ashby. 2022-10-13. 2021-07-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20210730010133/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20252r-mod-ipa-a.pdf. live.
8. Web site: L2/20-125R: Unicode request for expected IPA retroflex letters and similar letters with hooks. 2020-07-11. Kirk. Miller. 2022-10-13. 2022-10-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20221008020733/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20125r-ipa-retroflex.pdf. live.
9. Web site: L2/21-021: Reference doc numbers for L2/20-266R "Consolidated code chart of proposed phonetic characters" and IPA etc. code point and name changes. 2020-12-07. Deborah. Anderson. 2022-10-13. 2021-01-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20210108092102/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21021-consolidated-ipa.pdf. live.
10. Web site: L2/20-115R: Unicode request for additional phonetic click letters. 2020-07-10. Kirk. Miller. Bonny. Sands. 2022-10-13. 2022-10-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20221008020935/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20115r-click-letters.pdf. live.
11. Web site: L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS. 2002-03-20. Michael. Everson. Michael Everson. etal. 2018-03-24. 2018-02-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20180219081033/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf. live.
12. Web site: L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet. 2009-01-27. Klaas. Ruppel. Tero. Aalto. Michael. Everson. 2018-03-24. 2017-10-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014359/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf. live.
13. Web site: L2/01-347: Proposal to add six phonetic characters to the UCS. 2001-09-20. Richard. Cook. Michael. Everson. 2018-03-24. 2017-10-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014401/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01347-n2366r.pdf. live.
14. Web site: L2/12-270: Proposal for the addition of ten Latin characters to the UCS. 2012-07-26. Michael. Everson. Denis. Jacquerye. Chris. Lilley. Chris Lilley (computer scientist). 2018-03-24. 2019-03-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20190330042809/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2012/12270-n4297-beta-etc.pdf. live.
15. Web site: L2/21-156: Unicode request for legacy Malayalam. 2021-07-16. Kirk. Miller. Neil. Rees. 2022-10-13. 2021-09-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20210907191404/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21156-legacy-malayalam.pdf. live.