Heth, sometimes written Chet, but more accurately Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Ḥēt 𐤇 10px, Hebrew Ḥēth , Aramaic Ḥēth  10 px, Syriac Ḥēṯ ܚ, Arabic Ḥā' , Maltese Ħ, ħ.
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 14px|H, Latin H, and Cyrillic И.
While H is a consonant in the Latin alphabet, the Greek and Cyrillic equivalents represent vowel sounds.
Origins
The shape of the letter Ḥet ultimately goes back either to the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'courtyard': O6 (compare Hebrew חָצֵר ḥatser of identical meaning, which begins with Ḥet) or to the one for 'thread, wick' representing a wick of twisted flax:https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%93%8E%9B V28 (compare Hebrew חוּט ḥut of identical meaning, which begins with Ḥet).
Possibly named  in the Proto-Sinaitic script.
The corresponding South Arabian letters are  14px|ḥ ḥ and  14px|ḫ 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.
The latter method has the advantage of being easy to type on a computer.
Arabic ḥāʾ
The letter is named   and is the sixth letter of the alphabet.
Its shape varies depending on its position in the word:
This form is used to denote two letters, the second being  ḫāʾ.
Pronunciation
In Arabic,  is similar to the English , but it is much "raspier", IPA: ~. (Pharyngeal H)
In Persian, it is , like  and the English h.
Hebrew Chet
Hebrew spelling: Pronunciation
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 (), as the historical phonemes of the letters  ח () and  כ () merged, both becoming the voiceless uvular fricative ().
In more rare phonologies, it is pronounced as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative () and is still among Mizrahi Jews (especially among the older generation and popular Mizrahi singers, mostly Yemenite Jews), 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 Jews 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  rather than .
For example:  (), and  ().
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 .
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 (חחחחחחחחחח) denotes laughter, just as in English, in the saying 'Haha'.
Character encodings
See also
Ħ, ħ : H with stroke
References
External links
