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 /ˈt/), plural tees.[1]

T
T t
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic and logographic
Language of originLatin language
Sound values
In UnicodeU+0054, U+0074
Alphabetical position20
History
Development
Time period~−700 to present
Descendants
Sisters
Other
Associated graphst(x), th, tzsch
Writing directionLeft-to-right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

It is derived from the Semitic Taw 𐤕 of the Phoenician and Paleo-Hebrew script (Aramaic and Hebrew Taw ת/𐡕/, 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

Phoenician
Taw
Western Greek
Tau
Etruscan
T
Latin
T

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 [t] 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
OrthographyPhonemes
Standard Chinese (Pinyin)//
English/t/, silent
French/t/, silent
German/t/
Portuguese/t/
Spanish/t/
Turkish/t/

English

In English, ⟨t⟩ usually denotes the voiceless alveolar plosive (International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA: /t/), 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 /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 /t/ (as in Thomas and thyme). The digraph ⟨ti⟩ often corresponds to the sound /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 /t/, the voiceless dental plosive /t̪/, or similar sounds.

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨t⟩ denotes the voiceless alveolar plosive.

Other uses

A curly T pictured in the coat of arms of the former Teisko municipality, which was consolidated to Tampere.

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

  • 𐤕 : Semitic letter Taw, from which the following symbols originally derive:
    • Τ τ : Greek letter Tau
      • Ⲧ ⲧ : Coptic letter Taw, which derives from Greek Tau
      • Т т : Cyrillic letter Te, also derived from Tau
      • 𐍄 : Gothic letter tius, which derives from Greek Tau
      • 𐌕 : 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 .

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

Other representations

Computing

Character information
PreviewTt
Unicode nameLATIN CAPITAL LETTER TLATIN SMALL LETTER TFULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER TFULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER T
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode84U+0054116U+007465332U+FF3465364U+FF54
UTF-8845411674239 188 180EF BC B4239 189 148EF BD 94
Numeric character referenceTTttTTtt
EBCDIC family227E3163A3
ASCII 1845411674
1 Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

Other

Explanatory notes

References

  • Media related to T at Wikimedia Commons
  • The dictionary definition of T at Wiktionary
  • The dictionary definition of t at Wiktionary