T
T 20th letter of the English alphabet and a letter employed in the alphabets of other w European languages, It arises ultimately from the Semitic letter taw (a name meaning mark) and entered the Greek alphabet via that of the Phoenicians. The Greek letter tau became the Roman letter T with little modification. In English t is usually a voiceless alveolar plosive consonant or stop made with the tongue tip or blade against the upper tooth ridge. It has this sound in fat and tar, although it is silent in such words as listen and castle, and in words derived from French, such as depot and debut. The combination th represents both a voiced and a voiceless dental fricative, as in then and thin respectively. The combination ti is sometimes pronounced as a voiceless palatal fricative sh, as in action and militia.
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