Heth
| Heth | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Phonemic representation: | ħ / χ / x | ||||||||||
| Position in alphabet: | 8 | ||||||||||
| Numerical value: | 8 | ||||||||||
Ḥet or H̱et (also spelled Khet, Kheth, Chet, Cheth, Het, or Heth) is the eighth letter of many Semitic abjads (alphabets), including Phoenician 
, Syriac ܚ, Hebrew ח, Arabic ح. In Berber (a non-Semitic language) it is rendered as ⵃ or Ḥ. Universally, Heth is usually represented in the Latin alphabet by ḥ.
Heth originally represented a voiceless fricative, either pharyngeal /ħ/, or velar /x/ (the two Proto-Semitic phonemes having merged in Canaanite). In Arabic, two corresponding letters were created for both phonemic sounds: unmodified ḥāʾ ح represents /ħ/, while ḫāʾ خ represents /x/.
In modern Israeli Hebrew, the historical phonemes of the letters Ḥet ח (/ħ/) and Khaf כ (/x/) merged, both becoming the voiceless uvular fricative ([χ]).
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Eta Η, Etruscan 
𐌇, Latin H and Cyrillic И. While H is a consonant in the Latin alphabet, the Greek and Cyrillic equivalents represent vowel sounds.
Origins
The letter shape ultimately goes back to a hieroglyph for "courtyard",
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The corresponding South Arabian letters are 
ḥ and 
ḫ, corresponding to Ge'ez Ḥauṭ ሐ and Ḫarm ኀ.
Hebrew Ḥet
| Orthographic variants | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various Print Fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi Script | ||
| Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | ||
| ח | ח | ח |  |
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Hebrew spelling: חֵית
Pronunciation
In Modern Israeli Hebrew, the letter Ḥet usually has the sound value of a voiceless uvular fricative (/χ/), as in Ashkenazi Hebrew. In other phonologies, it is pronounced as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative (/ħ/) and is still among Mizrahim (especially among the older generation and popular Mizrahi singers), in accordance with oriental Jewish traditions.
The ability to pronounce the Arabic letter ḥāʾ (ح) correctly as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ is often used as a shibboleth to distinguish Arabic-speakers from non-Arabic-speakers; in particular, pronunciation of the letter as /x/ is seen as a hallmark of Ashkenazi Jews and Greeks.
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 /-aχ/ rather than /-χa/. For example: פתוח (/ˌpaˈtuaχ/), and תפוח (/ˌtaˈpuaχ/).
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 /h/. Thus challah (חלה), pronounced by native Hebrew speakers as /χala/ or /ħala/ is pronounced /halə/ by most English speakers, who cannot often perceive the difference between [h] and [ħ].
Significance
In gematria, Ḥet represents the number eight.
In chat rooms, online forums, and social networking the letter Ḥet repeated (חחחחחחחחחח) denotes laughter, similar to the English LOL.
Arabic ḥāʾ
The letter is named حاء 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: | ح | ـح | ـحـ | حـ |
Pronunciation
In Arabic, the ḥāʾ is similar to the English H, but is much "raspier",[1] IPA: [ħ]~[ʜ].
In Persian, it is [h], exactly as ⟨ه⟩.
Character encodings
| Character | ח | ح | ܚ | ࠇ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | HEBREW LETTER HET | ARABIC LETTER HAH | SYRIAC LETTER HETH | SAMARITAN LETTER IT | ||||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | 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 |
| Character | Έ | ࡇ | इ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | UGARITIC LETTER HOTA | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER HETH | PHOENICIAN LETTER HET | |||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | 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 : Latin letter H with stroke
References
- ↑ Bouchentouf, Amine (2006). Arabic for Dummies. Wiley Publishing, Inc. p. 15.
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