Heth
И |
---|
Heth, sometimes written Chet or Ḥet, is the eighth
ḥāʾ ح.Heth originally represented a voiceless fricative, either
خ represents /x/.The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek eta Η, 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.[1]
Origins
The shape of the letter Ḥet ultimately goes back either to the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'courtyard' (ḥwt):
|
(compare Hebrew חָצֵר ḥatser of identical meaning, which begins with Ḥet).
or to the one for 'thread, wick' representing a wick of twisted flax: (ḥ)[2][3]
|
(compare Hebrew חוּט ḥut of identical meaning, which begins with Ḥet).
Possibly named ḥasir in the Proto-Sinaitic script.
The corresponding
This letter is usually transcribed as ḥ, h with a dot underneath. In some romanization systems, a (capital) Ch is also used. The latter method has the advantage of being easy to type on a computer.
Arabic ḥāʾ
The letter is named حَاءْ ḥāʾ and is the sixth letter of the alphabet. Its shape varies depending on its position in the word:
Position in word | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
---|---|---|---|---|
Glyph form: (Help) |
ح | ـح | ـحـ | حـ |
This form is used to denote three letters, the other two being خ
Pronunciation
In Arabic, ḥāʾ is similar to the
In Persian, it is [
Hebrew chet
Orthographic variants | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Various print fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi script | ||
Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced
| ||
ח | ח | ח |
Hebrew spelling: חֵית
Pronunciation
In Modern Israeli Hebrew (and Ashkenazi Hebrew, although not under strict pronunciation), the letter Ḥet (חֵית) usually has the sound value of a voiceless uvular fricative (/χ/), as the historical phonemes of the letters Ḥet ח (/ħ/) and Khaf כ (/x/) merged, both becoming the voiceless uvular fricative (/χ/). In more rare Ashkenazi phonologies, it is pronounced as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative (/ħ/).
The (/ħ/) pronunciation is still common among
The ability to pronounce the Arabic letter ḥāʾ (ح) correctly as a
Ḥet 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 /-aħ/ rather than /-ħa/. For example: פָּתוּחַ (/ˌpaˈtuaħ/), and תַּפּוּחַ (/ˌtaˈpuaħ/).
Variations
Ḥet, along with
Significance
In gematria, Ḥet represents the number eight.
In
Character encodings
Preview | ח | ح | ܚ | ࠇ | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | HEBREW LETTER HET | ARABIC LETTER HAH | SYRIAC LETTER HETH | SAMARITAN LETTER IT | ||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 1495 | U+05D7 | 1581 | U+062D | 1818 | U+071A | 2055 | U+0807 |
UTF-8 | 215 151 | D7 97 | 216 173 | D8 AD | 220 154 | DC 9A | 224 160 135 | E0 A0 87 |
Numeric character reference | ח |
ח |
ح |
ح |
ܚ |
ܚ |
ࠇ |
ࠇ |
Preview | 𐎈 | 𐡇 | 𐤇 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | UGARITIC LETTER HOTA | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER HETH | PHOENICIAN LETTER HET | |||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 66440 | U+10388 | 67655 | U+10847 | 67847 | U+10907 |
UTF-8 | 240 144 142 136 | F0 90 8E 88 | 240 144 161 135 | F0 90 A1 87 | 240 144 164 135 | F0 90 A4 87 |
UTF-16 | 55296 57224 | D800 DF88 | 55298 56391 | D802 DC47 | 55298 56583 | D802 DD07 |
Numeric character reference | 𐎈 |
𐎈 |
𐡇 |
𐡇 |
𐤇 |
𐤇 |
See also
- Ħ, ħ : H with stroke
References
- ^ "Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar".
- ^ "𓎛 - Wiktionary".
- ^ "Rosette V-1.3 (6/11/05)".
- ^ Bouchentouf, Amine (2006). Arabic for Dummies. Wiley Publishing, Inc. p. 15.