Coptic Capital Letter Thethe

Coptic thethe writes a sound inside Coptic words, not a separate message. Coptic is the Egyptian language written mainly with Greek letters; signs from Demotic, an older Egyptian script, filled sounds Greek lacked. Egyptian names written with Greek letters are attested by the sixth century BCE, and common Egyptian words by about 200 BCE. Christian communities later used Coptic for religious writing and translations.

Ⲑ descends from Greek theta (Θ), but the Coptic theta’s pronunciation varies by dialect. In Sahidic, a Coptic dialect, and several others, it can stand for t followed by a breathy h sound; in Bohairic, another dialect, it represents an aspirated t—a t released with a puff of breath. The Latin-letter transliteration “th” identifies the letter but does not reliably tell you its sound.