Lemanensis wrote:Saim wrote:מישהו ידע למה כותבים "תאוריה" ב"ת"? חשבתי שההוראה זו שכותבים את המילים מיונית ולטינית תמיד ב"ט" (טלפון, טסטוסטרון, לטיני...).
ת = th
ט = t
אז תיאטרון
תאוריהand it also explains why some words are transcribed from Hebrew with th, such as names of hospitals in the USA (Beth for בית)
The ironic thing is that Greek "th" (theta) takes the place of Hebrew ט (tet) and Greek "t" (tau) the place of Hebrew ת (tav) in the alphabetical order and in naming.
Alpha beta gamma delta epsilon zeta êta
theta iota kappa... rhô sigma
tauAleph bet gimmel dalet hey (vav) zayin khet
tet yod kaf... resh shin
tavThe same goes for the other Greek aspirate : k ק / kh כ.
The reason of this crossover is that when Greeks took their alphabet from the Phoenician alphabet, they took the plain consonants for their plain consonants (tav for tau, kaf for kappa, pey for pi), and the emphatic consonants for their aspirated consonants (
tet for
theta).
Later, Hebrew's plain series started lenition while the emphatic series lost its emphasis. In the same time, the Greek aspirates became fricative.
tav - tau /
tet
theta
θ - t / t -
θResulting in Hebrew plain now matching the Greek aspirate, and the Hebrew emphatic matching the Greek plain.