T, the German Kurrent letter t

History

The letter T occupies the 20th position in the German alphabet. Phonetically, it represents a voiceless alveolar plosive /t/, aspirated in German syllable onsets.

Lowercase t in Kurrent features an ascender that rises halfway into the upper zone, descends to the baseline with an upward exit hook, and is crossed with a sharp horizontal bar near the top. Capital T is an imposing letter with a broad horizontal roof and a central vertical downstroke with decorative base loops.

The letter t is vital in vital statistics records: 'Taufe' (baptism), 'Trauung' (wedding), 'Tod' (death), and 'Tag' (day). Its horizontal crossbar serves as a clear visual anchor on every handwritten page.

T is the seventh most frequent letter in German text, at about 6.2% of all letters.^[1] Standard German aspirates it in most positions, but in some southern and eastern dialects the voiceless consonants are not aspirated and the voiced ones are weakened, so t and d are hard to tell apart by ear.^[2]