Heth

 ( Phoenician Alphabet ) 

Heth, sometimes written Chet or Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ḥēt 𐤇, Hebrew alphabet ḥēt , Aramaic alphabet ḥēṯ 𐡇, Syriac alphabet ḥēṯ ܚ, and Arabic alphabet ḥāʾ . It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪂‎‎‎, South Arabian 𐩢, and Ge'ez ሐ.

Heth originally represented a voiceless fricative, either pharyngeal , or velar . In Arabic, two corresponding letters were created for both phonemic sounds: unmodified ح represents , while خ represents .

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek alphabet eta Η, Etruscan , Latin alphabet H, and Cyrillic script И. While H is a consonant in the Latin alphabet, the Greek and Cyrillic equivalents represent vowel sounds, though the letter was originally a consonant in Greek and this usage later evolved into the rough breathing character. The Phoenician letter also gave rise to the archaic Greek letter heta, as well as a variant of Cyrillic letter I, short I. The Arabic letter (ح) is sometimes transliterated as Ch in English.

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Origins The shape of the letter Ḥet probably goes back either to the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'courtyard' ( ḥwt): O6 (compare of identical meaning, which Acrophony Ḥet). or to the one for 'thread, wick' representing a wick of twisted flax: ( ḥ) V28 (compare of identical meaning, which Acrophony Ḥet). Possibly named in the Proto-Sinaitic script.

The corresponding South Arabian letters are ḥ and ḫ, corresponding to the Ge'ez letters ሐ and ኀ.

This letter is usually transcribed as ḥ, h with a dot underneath. In some romanization systems, a (capital) Ch is also used.

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Arabic ḥāʾ The letter is named حَاءْ and is the sixth letter of the alphabet. Its shape varies depending on its position in the word, and its initial and medial form resembles a bird's beak:

This form is used to denote three letters, the other two being خ ḫāʾ and ج ǧīm. In Maltese, the corresponding letter to ح is ħ.

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Pronunciation In Arabic, is similar to the English language , but it is much "raspier", IPA: ~. (Pharyngeal H)

In Persian, it is , like and the English h.

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Hebrew het

ח	ח	ח

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Pronunciation In Modern Hebrew (and Ashkenazi Hebrew, although not under strict pronunciation), the letter Ḥet () usually has the sound value of a voiceless uvular fricative (), as the historical phonemes of the letters () and () merged, both becoming the voiceless uvular fricative (). In more rare Ashkenazi phonologies, it is pronounced as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative ().

The () pronunciation is still common among Israeli Arabs and Mizrahi Jews (particularly among the older generation and popular Mizrahi music, especially Yemenite Jews), in accordance with oriental Jewish traditions (see, e.g., Mizrahi Hebrew and Yemenite Hebrew).

The ability to pronounce the Arabic letter (ح) correctly as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative is often used as a shibboleth to distinguish Arabic-speakers from non-Arabic-speakers; in particular, pronunciation of the letter as is seen as a hallmark of Ashkenazi and Romaniote Jews.

Ḥet is one of the few Hebrew consonants that can take a vowel at the end of a word. This occurs when patach comes under the Ḥet at the end of the word. The combination is then pronounced rather than . For example: פָּתוּחַ (), and תַּפּוּחַ ().

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Variations Ḥet, along with Aleph, Ayin, Resh, and He, cannot receive a dagesh. As pharyngeal fricatives are difficult for most English speakers to pronounce, loanwords are usually Anglicized to have . Thus challah (חלה), pronounced by native Hebrew speakers as or is pronounced by most English speakers, who cannot often perceive the difference between and .

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Significance In gematria, Ḥet represents the number eight.

In chat rooms, Internet forum, and social networking the letter Ḥet repeated (חחחחחחחחחח) denotes laughter, just as in English, in the saying 'Haha'.

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Syriac cheth

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Character encodings

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See also

• Ħ, ħ : H with stroke

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External links

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