The most versatile word in English was once a stranger to the language
In short: The word that is a grammatical chameleon, functioning as everything from a demonstrative pronoun to an intensifier. Yet, it did not exist in Old English, where the concept was expressed by the word þe. Its rise to dominance is a story of linguistic evolution, scribal abbreviations, and shifting social conventions.
The word that originated in the north of England before the 1200s, spreading rapidly across the country during the thirteenth century. Before its arrival, Old English relied on the word þe to represent the concept. By the time of the writer Ælfric of Eynsham, the form þæt had become common, eventually evolving into the modern that. Among all relative markers in English, including who, which, and what, that is considered the oldest.
The word's history is intertwined with the evolution of writing technology. In Middle English, scribes used the symbol ⟨ꝥ⟩ as an abbreviation for that, which was later replaced by ⟨þͭ⟩. As movable type printing became standard, the letter thorn (Þ) was often substituted with a y, leading to the common ye seen in historical signage. This abbreviation practice even appeared on the gravestone of William Shakespeare, where ⟨yͭ⟩ represented that.
Grammatically, that is remarkably flexible. It functions as a demonstrative pronoun, a conjunction, a relative pronoun, and an intensifier. Its usage has shifted over time; for instance, a study of British medical journals leading up to 2004 found that that was increasingly being replaced by which in restrictive clauses. Furthermore, in contemporary English, speakers often omit the word entirely in dependent clauses—a construction known as the zero form. This omission was already common in Middle English, particularly in documents reflecting spoken language like sermons.
The word also carries nuance in its pronunciation, which varies based on its role. A strong form is typically used for demonstrative pronouns, while a weak form serves as a subordinating word. In some dialects, such as Cameroonian English, the voiced dental fricative is stopped, resulting in a distinct pronunciation of [dat]. Whether as a simple pointer or a complex grammatical marker, that remains a fundamental, if ancient, pillar of the English language.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: That
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