Thursday, October 9, 2014

Secret Origins: T

T time!

Don’t you judge me.

T is one of the more stable symbols. If you look at the alphabet gif, you’ll see it’s always pretty much two intersecting lines. It’s funny because some versions of T are, well, on a slant. Latin’s parent alphabet, Etruscan, has similar weirdness with T, with some versions tilty and some with only one arm. I guess when there’s no computerized fonts (or even a printing press), it all depends on whoever’s writing it.

T is much more stable in Greek, where it’s always a T or in lowercase, τ. I guess when something’s not broke, you don’t fix it : ). The Phoenician consonant alphabet that gave birth to the Greek had a bit more variations, using a simple cross that looked like a + sign as well as another tilty T. Whatever it looked like, the symbol was called teth and it meant “mark”, as it was in the proto Sinaitic it was taken from.

Well, that was an easy one.

TL;DR: T’s pretty much always been T :P.

Sources

9 comments:

  1. The etruscan style's quite peculiar to look at.

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  2. It is pretty simple, writing-wise. Did you already do I? Because I would think that would be just as stable.

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  3. Just checked, and indeed you've done I. And I was wrong. Not surprising, really.

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  4. Teen Titans!

    That comment is totally the fault of my kids.

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  5. Interesting stuff. They say you learn something new everyday, and I just did. :) Thanks for the info.

    Have a great weekend!

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  6. How interesting. I never knew that....

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  7. Hi Jeanne - these posts on our language and its letters are fascinating to see how they've developed through the eras.

    Cheers Hilary

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