Heth, sometimes written Chet or Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ḥēt, Hebrew ḥēt, Aramaic ḥēṯ, Syriac ḥēṯ ܚ, and Arabic ḥāʾ .
Heth originally represented a voiceless fricative, either pharyngeal pronounced as //ħ//, or velar pronounced as //x//. In Arabic, two corresponding letters were created for both phonemic sounds: unmodified represents pronounced as //ħ//, while represents pronounced as //x//.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek eta Greek, Modern (1453-);: 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] The Phoenician letter also gave rise to the archaic Greek letter heta, as well as a variant of Cyrillic letter I, short I.
The shape of the letter Ḥet ultimately goes back either to the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'courtyard' (ḥwt):
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.
See also: خ. The letter is named Arabic: 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 Arabic: خ ḫāʾ and Arabic: ج ǧīm.
In Arabic, is similar to the English pronounced as /link/, but it is much "raspier",[4] IPA: pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/. (Pharyngeal H)
In Persian, it is pronounced as /link/, like (Persian: [[ه]]) and the English h.
Hebrew spelling:
In Modern Israeli Hebrew (and Ashkenazi Hebrew, although not under strict pronunciation), the letter Ḥet usually has the sound value of a voiceless uvular fricative (pronounced as //χ//), as the historical phonemes of the letters (pronounced as //ħ//) and (pronounced as //x//) merged, both becoming the voiceless uvular fricative (pronounced as //χ//). In more rare Ashkenazi phonologies, it is pronounced as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative (pronounced as //ħ//).
The (pronounced as //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 (Arabic: ح) correctly as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative pronounced as //ħ// is often used as a shibboleth to distinguish Arabic-speakers from non-Arabic-speakers; in particular, pronunciation of the letter as pronounced as /link/ 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 pronounced as //-aħ// rather than pronounced as //-ħa//. For example: Hebrew: פָּתוּחַ (pronounced as //ˌpaˈtuaħ//), and Hebrew: תַּפּוּחַ (pronounced as //ˌtaˈpuaħ//).
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 pronounced as //h//. Thus Hebrew: challah (Hebrew: חלה), pronounced by native Hebrew speakers as pronounced as //χala// or pronounced as //ħala// is pronounced pronounced as //halə// by most English speakers, who cannot often perceive the difference between pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/.
In gematria, Ḥet represents the number eight.
In chat rooms, online forums, and social networking the letter Ḥet repeated (Hebrew: rtl=yes|חחחחחחחחחח) denotes laughter, just as in English, in the saying 'Haha'.