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Th is adigraph in theLatin script. It was originally introduced into Latin to transliterate Greek loan words. In modern languages that use the Latin alphabet, it represents a number of different sounds. It is the most common digraph in order of frequency in the English language.[1]
The digraph⟨th⟩ was first introduced inLatin to transliterate the lettertheta⟨Θ, θ⟩ in loans fromGreek. Theta was pronounced as anaspirated stop/tʰ/ inClassical and earlyKoine Greek.[2]
⟨th⟩ is used in academic transcription systems to represent letters in south and east Asian alphabets that have the value/tʰ/. According to theRoyal Thai General System of Transcription, for example,⟨th⟩ represents a series ofThai letters with the value/tʰ/.[3]
⟨th⟩ is also used to transcribe the phoneme/tʰ/ inSouthern Bantu languages, such asZulu andTswana.
Duringlate antiquity, the Greek phoneme represented by the letter⟨θ⟩ mutated from an aspirated stop/tʰ/ to adental fricative/θ/. This mutation affected the pronunciation of⟨th⟩, which began to be used to represent the phoneme/θ/ in some of the languages that had it.
One of the earliest languages to use the digraph this way wasOld High German, before the final phase of theHigh German consonant shift, in which/θ/ and/ð/ came to be pronounced/d/.
In early Old English of the 7th and 8th centuries, the digraph⟨th⟩ was used until theOld English Latin alphabet adapted therunic letter⟨þ⟩ (thorn), as well as⟨ð⟩ (eth;ðæt in Old English), a modified version of the Latin letter⟨d⟩, to represent this sound. Later, the digraph reappeared, gradually superseding these letters inMiddle English.
In modern English, an example of the⟨th⟩ digraph pronounced as/θ/ is the one intooth.
InOld andMiddle Irish,⟨th⟩ was used for/θ/ as well, but the sound eventually changed into[h] (see below).
Other languages that use⟨th⟩ for/θ/ includeAlbanian andWelsh, both of which treat it as a distinct letter and alphabetize it between⟨t⟩ and⟨u⟩.
English also uses⟨th⟩ to represent thevoiced dental fricative/ð/, as infather. This unusual extension of the digraph to represent a voiced sound is caused by the fact that, in Old English, the sounds[θ] and[ð] stood inallophonic relationship to each other and so did not need to be rigorously distinguished in spelling. The letters⟨þ⟩ and⟨ð⟩ were used indiscriminately for both sounds, and when these were replaced by⟨th⟩ in the 15th century, it was likewise used for both sounds. (For the same reason,⟨s⟩ is used in English for both/s/ and/z/.)
In theNorman dialectJèrriais, the French phoneme/ʁ/ is realized as/ð/, and is spelled⟨th⟩ under the influence of English.
In the Latin alphabet for theJavanese language,⟨th⟩ is used to transcribe the phonemevoiceless retroflex stopʈ, which is written asꦛ in the nativeJavanese script.
Because neither/tʰ/ nor/θ/ were native phonemes in Latin, the Greek sound represented by⟨th⟩ came to be pronounced/t/. The spelling retained the digraph for etymological reasons. This practice was then borrowed intoGerman,French,Dutch and other languages, where⟨th⟩ still appears in originally Greek words, but is pronounced/t/. SeeGerman orthography.Interlingua also employs this pronunciation.
In early modern times, French, German and English all expanded this by analogy to words for which there is no etymological reason, but for the most part the modern spelling systems have eliminated this. Examples of unetymological⟨th⟩ in English are the name of theRiver Thames from Middle EnglishTemese and the nameAnthony (though the⟨th⟩ is often pronounced/θ/ under the influence of the spelling[4]) from LatinAntonius.
In English,⟨th⟩ for/t/ can also occur in loan-words from French or German, such asNeanderthal. The English nameThomas has initial/t/ because it was loaned fromNorman.
In thetranscription of Australian Aboriginal languages⟨th⟩ represents a dental stop,/t̪/.[5]
InIrish andScottish Gaelic,⟨th⟩ represents thelenition of⟨t⟩. In most cases word-initially, it is pronounced/h/. For example: Irish and Scottish Gaelictoil[tɛlʲ] 'will' →do thoil[dəhɛlʲ] 'your will'.
This use of digraphs with⟨h⟩ to indicate lenition is distinct from the other uses which derive from Latin. While it is true that the presence of digraphs with⟨h⟩ in Latin inspired the Goidelic usage, their allocation to phonemes is based entirely on the internal logic of the Goidelic languages. Lenition inGaelic lettering was traditionally denoted in handwriting using anoverdot but typesetters lacked these pre-composed types and substituted a trailing⟨h⟩. It is also a consequence of their history: the digraph initially, in Old and Middle Irish, designated the phoneme/θ/, but later sound changes complicated and obscured the grapheme–sound correspondence, so that⟨th⟩ is even found in some words like Scottish Gaelicpiuthar 'sister' that never had a/θ/ to begin with. This is an example of "inverted (historical) spelling": the model of words where the original interdental fricative had disappeared between vowels caused⟨th⟩ to be reinterpreted as a marker ofhiatus.
The Irish and Scottish Gaelic lenited/t/ is silent in final position, as inScottish Gaelicsgith/skiː/ 'tired'. And, rarely, it is silent in initial position, as in Scottish Gaelicthu/uː/ 'you'.
In English, the⟨th⟩ inasthma andclothes[6] is often silent.
U+1D7A ᵺLATIN SMALL LETTER TH WITH STRIKETHROUGH is used for phonetic notation in some dictionaries.[7]