Teh
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Tedmund
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Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/70.23.39.197|70.23.39.197]] to last version by Iridescent (using [[WP:HG|Huggle]])
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'''''Teh''''' is an English [[Article (grammar)|article]] based on a common misspelling of ''[[the]]''. Originating from a common [[typographical error]], this typo became a part of [[Internet slang]] and subsequently developed grammatical usages distinct from ''the''.<ref name="Ross">{{cite journal|last=Ross|first=Nigel|title=Writing in the Information Age| journal=English Today|volume=22|issue=3|pages=39–45|date=July 2006|doi=10.1017/S0266078406003063|accessdate=2007-07-06}}
</ref> When used in spoken language, it is sometimes pronounced {{IPA|tʰəh}} or {{IPA|tʰe}}.<ref name="LeBlanc">{{cite book|last=LeBlanc| first=Tracy Rene|title="Is there a translator in teh house?": Cultural and discourse analysis of a virtual speech community on an internet message board|publisher=University of Louisiana at Lafayette|date=May 2005|url= http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04072005-145922/unrestricted/LeBlanc_thesis.pdf|accessdate=2007-07-06}}</ref>
== As a typo ==
[[Image:Poster with mistake in The.jpg|thumb|right|320px|A compromising typo on a poster.]]
''Teh'' is one of the words in the auto-correct lists of [[spellchecker]]s in [[word processing]] applications such as [[Microsoft Word]], [[OpenOffice.org Writer]], [[Pages]], and Corel [[WordPerfect]]. T and E are typed by the left hand on adjacent fingers in [[Qwerty]], while the H is typed by the right, and in rapid typing, the T and E are often typed by the left hand in a drumming motion before the right can get the H in between the two. Overcompensating with the right hand can result in the misspelling ''hte'', which is also found in auto-correct lists.
== As slang ==
Along with ''[[pwn]]'', ''teh'' is a standard feature of [[leetspeak]].<ref name="Tavosanis">{{cite conference|first=Mirko|last= Tavosanis|title=A Causal Classification of Orthography Errors in Web Texts|booktitle=IJCAI-07 Workshop on Analytics for Noisy Unstructured Text Data (AND-07)|pages=99-106|publisher=International Association for Pattern Recognition|date=2007-01-08| location=Hyderabad, India|url=http://research.ihost.com/and2007/cd/Proceedings_files/p99.pdf|accessdate=2007-07-06}}</ref> Originating from the common typo, it has become conventionalized in a variety of contexts. It is often used ironically,<ref name="Blashki">{{cite journal|last=Blashki|first=Katherine|coauthors=Sophie Nichol|title=Game Geek's Goss: Linguistic creativity in young males within an online university forum (94/\/\3 933k'5 9055oneone)|journal=Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society|volume=3|issue=2|pages=77–86|date=2005|url=http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/ajets-test/article/viewFile/52/83|accessdate=2007-07-06}}</ref> and can be used to mock someone's lack of [[techie]] knowledge or skills, as an insult, or to reinforce a group's elitism.<ref name="LeBlanc"/>
As slang, grammatical usage of the word ''teh'' is somewhat fluid. Besides being an alternate spelling of ''the'', ''teh'' also has grammatical properties not generally applied to ''the''; in general, it is used somewhat like an intensified "the". The spelling derived from a typographical mistake seen as the symptom of excitement, much the same as the interjection of the numeral one between exclamation marks. It can be used with proper names, as in "teh John;" compare the usage of the definite article in Greek: ο Ιωαννης (o Ioannes), literally "The John". A similar usage comes from colloquial [[German language|German]], where the [[definite article]] is used as a specifier to modify the [[noun]]: "Der Johann", again literally, "The John", could be used to identify John, and not Phil, as the subject performing a certain action. In [[Latin]], the similar word ''ille'' and its declensions, which was at first an intensified article usually translated as "that", is the source of the derivations of the simple word for ''the'' and the personal pronouns (he, etc.) in the languages derived from Latin.
Furthermore, ''teh'' can be used in front of a [[verb]] in a novel form of [[gerund]], and it has the ability to turn nearly any word into an intensified noun, which can take the place of a superlative. The best-known example of this is the word ''suck''. Thus, the phrase "this sucks" can be converted into "this is teh suck" ("teh suck" being equivalent to the superlative "the suckiest"); the word ''[[pwn]]'' can be similarly converted (''teh pwn'' or ''teh pwnage''). The latter phrase is primarily used by the computer gaming community, and often intended humorously.
In [[English language|English]], ''the'' can be used as an intensifier for the [[superlative]] form of [[adjective]]s; compare "that is best" and "that is the best". ''Teh'' has a similar use as an intensifier for unmodified adjectives, generally marking a [[sarcasm|sarcastic]] tone. For example, "that is teh lame" translates as "that is the lamest". This is similar to the use of the definite article ''el'' in [[Spanish language|Spanish]]. For example, "Soy el mejor" (I am the best) and "I am teh good". This contrasts with the use of ''the'' in English to construct mass nouns ([[substantive]]s) from adjectives, as in "blessed are the meek", where ''the meek'' denotes a class of people who are meek. On the other hand, "blessed are teh humble" would refer to an intensified group or individual who is "the most humble".
==As a legitimate name==
Due to the popular slang usage of ''teh'' in certain circles, particularly among software developers, it has been adopted as the formal name (or part thereof) of software projects. For example, in the realm of web-based applications, [http://teh.appspot.com/ TEH] is a minimalist blog engine written using Google App Engine. [http://spench.net/drupal/software/tehengine TEH Engine] is a prototype 3D game engine – ''TEH'' in this case is a [[recursive acronym]] for "TEH Extremely Hardcore" (making two references: one to the slang ''teh'' and the other to [[GNU]]).
==References==
{{Wiktionary}}
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Internet slang]]