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

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

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek eta , Etruscan , Latin H, and Cyrillic 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 or Kh in English.

Origins

The shape of the letter Ḥet probably goes back either to the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'courtyard' (ḥwt): (compare of identical meaning, which begins with Ḥet). or to the one for 'thread, wick' representing a wick of twisted flax: (ḥ) (compare of identical meaning, which begins with 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 or Kh is also used.

Arabic ḥāʾ

The letter is named 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 ḫāʾ and ǧīm. In Maltese, the corresponding letter to is .

Pronunciation

In Arabic, is pharyngeal H (similar to the English , but much "raspier").

In Persian, Urdu, Punjabi, etc., it is , like and the English h.

Hebrew ḥēṯ

Pronunciation

In Modern Israeli Hebrew (and Ashkenazi Hebrew, although not under strict pronunciation), the letter Ḥēṯ () 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 singers, especially Yemenites), in accordance with oriental Jewish traditions (see, e.g., Mizrahi Hebrew and Yemenite Hebrew).

The ability to pronounce the Arabic letter () 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 Greek Jews.

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

Variations

Ḥēṯ, 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 (), pronounced by native Hebrew speakers as or is pronounced by most English speakers, who cannot often perceive the difference between and .

Significance

In gematria, Ḥet represents the number eight.

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

Syriac ḥēṯ

Character encodings

See also

• Ħ, ħ : H with stroke

References

External links