ح

هذا المقال هو عن the Semitic letter. إذا كنت تريد الاستخدامات الأخرى، انظر ح (توضيح).

← Zayin Heth Teth →
الفينيقية Heth العبرية ח الآرامية Heth السريانية ܚ العربية ح
تمثيل المقطع الصوتي	ħ, (χ, x)
الموقع في الأبجدية	8
القيمة الحسابية	8
المشتقات الأبجدية للفينيقي
اليونانية Η, Ͱ اللاتينية H السيريلية И, Һ

Heth, sometimes written Chet or Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ḥēt 𐤇, Hebrew ḥēt ח, Aramaic ḥēṯ 𐡇, Syriac ḥēṯ ܚ, and Arabic ḥāʾ ح. 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 /ħ/, or velar /x/. In Arabic, two corresponding letters were created for both phonemic sounds: unmodified ḥāʾ ح represents /ħ/, while ḫāʾ 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. 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.

 Origins

The shape of the letter Ḥet probably goes back either to the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'courtyard' (ḥwt):

(compare عبرية: חָצֵר, romanized: ḥaṣēr of identical meaning, which begins with Ḥet).
or to the one for 'thread, wick' representing a wick of twisted flax: (ḥ)

(compare عبرية: חוּט, romanized: ḥuṭ of identical meaning, which begins with Ḥet).

Possibly named ḥasir in the Proto-Sinaitic script.

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

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

 Arabic ḥāʾ

انظر أيضاً: خ

Ḥāʾ حاء
ح
الاستخدام
نظام الكتابة	Arabic script
النوع	Abjad
لغة المنشأ	Arabic language
القيم الصوتية	ħ
الموقع الأبجدي	6
التاريخ
التطور	𐤇 𐡇‎ 𐢊 ح

The letter is named حَاءْ ḥāʾ 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:

الموقع في الكلمة:	منعزل	نهائي	بالوسط	ابتدائي
گليف من: (مساعدة)	ح‎	ـح‎	ـحـ‎	حـ‎

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.

 Pronunciation

In Arabic, ḥāʾ is similar to the English [h], but it is much "raspier", IPA: [ħ]~[ʜ]. (Pharyngeal H)

In Persian, it is [h], like ⟨ه⟩ and the English h.

 Hebrew het

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
ח	ח	ח		ملف:Het (Rashi-script - Hebrew letter).svg

 Pronunciation

In Modern Israeli Hebrew (and Ashkenazi Hebrew, although not under strict pronunciation), the letter Ḥet (عبرية: 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 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 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 and Greek Jews.

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 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, just as in English, in the saying 'Haha'.

 Syriac cheth

الموقع في الكلمة:	منعزل	نهائي	بالوسط	ابتدائي
گليف من: (مساعدة)	ܚ‎‎	ـܚ‎‎	ـܚ‎ـ‎	ܚ‎ـ‎

 Character encodings

الحرف	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
يونيكود	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

الحرف	𐎈		𐡇		𐤇
Unicode name	UGARITIC LETTER HOTA		IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER HETH		PHOENICIAN LETTER HET
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
يونيكود	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
Numeric character reference	𐎈	𐎈	𐡇	𐡇	𐤇	𐤇

 See also

• Ħ, ħ : H with stroke