An Australian businessman has invented a new, 27th, letter for the English alphabet. It is a symbol to replace the word "the". It looks like a combination of a capital "T" and a lower case "h" (Ћ). However, the "new" letter looks the same as a letter from the Serbian language. Paul Mathis believes many people will like his idea. It is already available for download on Apple's iTunes. Mathis is hoping mobile phone, tablet and computer makers will add the letter to their keyboards. He invested $35,000 in his app, but so far Apple has shown little interest. He told the "Sydney Morning Herald": "Is this going to change the world? Not really. But is it something that might be useful for people? I think so."

Mr Mathis believes the new character is useful because it replaces the most common word in the English language – "the". He said it will save people time when they type because they only need to use one key instead of the three needed for each letter of the word "the". He argued that other words have their own character. He pointed out that the word "and" has its own symbol – the ampersand (&) and that is only the fifth most common word. Mathis also says his new symbol will help "in the texting space" such as Twitter or texts where there is a limited number of characters. Not everyone agrees with Mathis. Computer experts don't think manufacturers will change their keyboards or operating systems.