Ћ
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Ћ is a logogram, which has been nicknamed "The Tap",[1] created by Paul Mathis.
Creation
Ћ was created by an Australian named Paul Mathis.[1] Mathis' decision to abbreviate 'the' into 'The Tap' came from the fact that the word 'The', despite being the most used word in the English language (British English),[2] and indeed, in American English,[3], 'the' had no symbol, unlike 'and' (which has the ampersand), which Mathis cited as being the fifth most used letter in the English language,[1] claiming that it is in 80% of all paragraphs.[4] Mathis said that he created 40 versions, before deciding on Ћ, as "it is the only one of them that is instantly recognizable as the word 'the'.[1]
Design
The design is the same as Tshe, but Mathis says that this was a co-incidence, and that he only discovered Tshe after his creation of the letter.[5]
Nickname
The nickname for Ћ is 'The Tap', which is due to its shape looking like a bathroom tap.[1]
Usage
App
Mathis has put $72,000 in a mobile app which features a keyboard that contains Ћ. At present, the design has been promoted by Google Play,[6] but rejected by Apple Inc..[7][8] Mathis wants to sell the app on the iTunes store, as he believes that would draw attention to his cause.[9] However, despite Apple's snub, he has found an alternate method to use 'The Tap'.[10]
Mathis designed the symbol with texting and Twitter in mind. He said "The main functionality of this [the symbol] is in the texting space".[5]
Criticism
Mathis has been criticized for creating a letter which is too similar, indeed, identical to Tshe, a letter in the Serbian alphabet. It has also been criticized for having the same meaning as the Old English letter Thorn (þe), which can also mean the.[11]
References
- ^ a b c d e "Ћ letter changing how we type". BBC News. 11 July 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ "The OEC: Facts about the language". Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ "Word frequency data". Corpus of Contemporary American English. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ Kennedy, John (11 July 2013). "One man's crusade to create a symbol for 'The'". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ a b Quinn, Karl (5 July 2013). "What Th? One man's quest for a symbol solution". The Age. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ "THE Keyboard Top 15". Google Play. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ "Restaurateur invents new symbol for the word 'the'". ITV News. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ "The New The". The Globe and Mail. 9 July 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ Alexander, Harriet (9 July 2013). "New letter for 'The' - Ћ - invented". The Telegraph. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ Subramanian, Courtney (11 July 2013). "Why The Deserves a Symbol All Of Its Own". Time. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
- ^ Howse, Christopher (10 July 2013). "Paul Mathis's new letter: The the or not the the, that is the question". The Telegraph. Retrieved 11 July 2013.