T is the 20th letter of the alphabet used for the modern English language. It is also used in a number of other languages, including French, German, and Spanish. See Alphabet .
The sound of T occurs in words like top, water, hot, and bottle. The letter combination of –tion may be pronounced shuhn, as in nation, or chuhn, as in question.
Scholars believe the letter T evolved from an Egyptian hieroglyph (pictorial symbol) of a cross shape. Hieroglyphs were adapted to be used for a Semitic language by around 1500 B.C. The alphabet for this Semitic language—the earliest known alphabet—is called Proto-Sinaitic. By 1100 B.C., an alphabet for another Semitic language, Phoenician, had evolved from Proto-Sinaitic. See Semitic languages .
The Phoenician letter that can be traced to the Egyptian cross-shaped hieroglyph is the 22nd letter of the Phoenician alphabet, taw. The Phoenicians used the letter to represent the beginning T sound of taw, which was their word for mark.
Around 800 B.C., when the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet, taw became tau, which was used for the same T sound. The Etruscans adopted the Greek alphabet in about 700 B.C. By around 650 B.C., the Romans adopted the alphabet from the Etruscans. Both the Etruscans and the Romans continued to use the letter that evolved from tau for the sound of T.
