vulg. te, The fourth letter of the Turkish, as of the Persian alphabet; but the third of the Arabic. It is called also, in order to certainly distinguish it from ب , ث and ی which it somewhat resembles, تاء مثنات فوقانیە tâ-i müsnâti-fevkaniye the superior doubly dotted t.It is the twenty second letter in the ابجد series, with the value in chronograms, of four hundred. It is of the class of soft letters, ط being the corresponding letter of the harsh class. Its sound is that of the ordinary English t. It is often changed for a ط, through ignorance or fancy, but in Persian and Arabic words no such arbitrary change is permitted. In Arabic grammar, there are rules by which a permuta tive letter ت takes the place of an initial radicalو ، ا or ی, in derivatives of the eighth form ( افتعالifti’âl); as, اتخاذ from احد , اتحاد from وحد , and اتسار from یسر. In the same eighth form, when the first radical is a ت, the two letters ت, one radical and the other servile, brought together by grammar, coalesce into one in writing, under a teshdid; as, اتباع ittibâ, from تبع . The participles of these words follow the same rule; whence متخذ müttehiz, from اتخاذ , متحد müttehid, from اتحاد , etc. When the first radical is ط، ض، ص or ظ, the servile ت of the eighth form is changed into ط ; as, اصطلاح and مصطلح for اصتلاح and مصتلح etc.; but in the case of roots beginning with ط or ظ,. this radical and the permutative servile coalesce into one under a teshdid; as, اطلاع ittilâ‘, for اطتلاع and اظهار izzihâr, for اظتهار . Again, when the first radical letter is د or ذ in the eighth form the servile ت changes into د or ذ as may be, and coalesces with the radical under a teshdid; as, ادعا and مدعی for ادتعا and مدتعی and اذخار and مذخر for اذتخار and مذتخر . When the first radical is ز , the servile ت of the eighth form changes into د; as, ازدواج and مزدوج for ازتواج and مزتوج.In Arabic nouns, substantive and adjective, of certain feminine forms, the letter ت as a servile final letter indicative of the feminine gender, and sometimes, in substantives, indicative of unity, assumes the forms; ة ; the former used as a separately written letter, the latter joined to the character that precedes it; as, قدرة and قدرت، دولة and دولت etc.These Arabic words are used in Persian and Turkish as adjectives or substantives of the feminine gender. Such adjectives, in Persian and Turkish, are pronounced as in Arabic, and are written without dots to the last letter; as, مرغوبە mergûbe, فائقە fâ’ika, etc. But, with substantives, Persians and Turks do not follow the same rule in all cases, and Persians do not adopt the same rule as the Turks. The majority of such substantives, perhaps, are treated like the feminine adjectives, the final dots disappear, and the final letter becomes a virtual vowel, both in Persian and in Turkish; as, خلیفە halife, شرفە şürfe, vulg. şerife, منارە menâre, vulg. minâre; etc. None of these words should be transliterated with a final h, since many Eastern words really end in aspirated h, as, صلح sulh, شره şereh, etc. As it is not usual to pronounce in English a final letter e in words of more than one syllable, the best substitute is, perhaps, an a. The substantives above given would then be transliterated khalifa, shurfa or sherefa, menara or minara, etc. This recommendation is not without a grave imperfection; but, owing to the defects of English orthography a better cannot be suggested.Some of these Arabic feminine substantives, however, are not so treated. Instead of their final letter losing its dots and becoming a virtual final vowel, it is changed, among the Persians and Turks (not the Arabs) into an ordinary ت ; as, قدرت kudret, دولت devlet, for the Arabic قدرة and دولة etc. In this matter the Persians and Turks do not always follow the same practice; a Persian sometimes uses such a word as دولە devle, vulg. Pers. dola, where a Turk uses دولت devlet.In a very few Turkish words where ت is the final letter of the root or of the uninflected form, it changes into, by inflexion, when immediately followed by a vowel in pronunciation; as, درت dürt, دردڭ dördın, دردە dörde, ایتمك itmek, ایدر ider, كوتمك gütmek, كودر güder. In most cases, however, it remains unchanged; as, قاتمق katmak,قاتار katar; even ایتمك itmek (in another sense), ایتر iter, etc.In some similar cases, where the final letter is really a ت , the word is written with د , even in the nominative; thus, قورت , is often written قورد , because it becomes قوردك قوردە، etc., in its cases. And so of many others.The letter ت of Turkish words, from want of a generally established standard of orthography, is, in other positions as well as final, at times interchanged with د , and at times with ط , according to the fancy of the writer, his locality, or his epoch. Thus we find the word تارلا tarla, sometimes written طرلا we see بلوت and بلوط for bulut. These are declined بلودە، بلودك etc.; but بلوتلر، بلوتدە etc., when the ت, ends a syllable. We have also the variants پاتلیجان، پاطلیجان بادلیجان، and تمغا varying with دامغە ; etc.The letter ت also serves to form the causative verbal root (imperative sing.) of verbs whose simple verbal root ends in a vowel (as, اراتمق، ارات from ارامق، ارا , etc.), of some verbs whose simple root ends in ق، ل، ر، .or ك (as. باغرتمق، باغرت from باغرمق، باغر ; اینجلتمك، اینجلت from اینجلمك ;اقتمق، اقت from اقمق and اوركورتمك from اوركورمك etc.), It is also used to form the secondary causative verbal root (imperative sing.) of causative forms whose imperative ends in در (as واردرمق، واردرتمق etc.).Besides the eighth form of Arabic derivatives, the letter ت, as an initial, aids in forming other derivatives not necessary to mention in this place.In Persian a final ت sometimes indicates the singular pronoun of the second person, sometimes possessive when joined to a noun; as, كفتمت, I said unto thee, پدرت thy father.
