Additional letter of the Latin alphabet
Latin theta (uppercase: ϴ , lowercase: θ ) is an additional letter of the Latin script , based on the lowercase letter theta from the Greek alphabet . It is used in Cypriot Arabic , Gros Ventre , Comox , Fox , Thompson , Tuscarora , Halkomelem , Wakhi , Yavapai , Havasupai–Hualapai , and Romani .[ 1] It also historically was used in the Lepsius Standard Alphabet .
Usage
The letter appears in the International Standard Alphabet of the Romani language , where it represents the voiceless alveolar plosive ([t]) when placed after a vowel , and the voiced alveolar plosive ([d]) when placed after a nasal consonant .[ 1]
In the Gros Ventre , Fox , and Comox languages, it represents the voiceless dental fricative ([θ]) sound.
It was used in the Lepsius Standard Alphabet created for transcription of Egyptian hieroglyphs and African languages . In it, it represented the voiceless dental fricative ([θ]) sound, before being replaced by the letter Ṯ .
Latin theta is also found in Cypriot Arabic and the Latin script for the Wakhi language .[ 2]
Unicode
As of 2024, the Latin thetas are not separately encoded in the Unicode standard. U+03F4 ϴ GREEK CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL appears identical to the capital version. U+03B8 θ GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA appears identical to the lowercase version.
See also
References
Bibliography
Hancock, Ian. A Handbook of Vlax Romani . Columbus. Slavica Publishers. 1995. ISBN 0-89357-258-6.