Evolution Of English Alphabet - T

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'T' is the 20th letter of the alphabet.It came to us through Latin, from the Greek letter 'tau'. The earliest form of the letter was an x-shaped mark used for checking off items on a list. The mark was in use in ancient Egypt, but it was not a Hieroglyphic symbol any more than a check mark of today is a letter. About 1000 B.C., the Phoenicians used the sign for the letter 'T' in their alphabet because their name for a mark 'taw', started with 'T'. The Greek changed its shape to that of a modern capital 'T' for their letter 'tau'. The Romans used the same sign for their letter 'T'. The modern small 't' had the vertical stroke raised above the crossbar because the curved small 't' of the early Middle Ages looked too much like a 'C'. 'T' is the second most commonly used letter in English.