# Heth

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 ultimately goes back either to the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'courtyard' (ḥwt):
(compare Hebrew: 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 Hebrew: 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

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:
| 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 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 chet

Orthographic variants :
| Various print fonts | Various print fonts | Various print fonts | Cursive Hebrew | Rashi script |
| Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | Cursive Hebrew | Rashi script |
| ח | ח | ח | | |

### Pronunciation

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

| Position in word | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
| Glyph form: (Help) | ܚ‎‎ | ـܚ‎‎ | ـܚ‎ـ‎ | ܚ‎ـ‎ |

## Character encodings

Character information :
| Preview | ח | ח | ح | ح | ܚ | ܚ | ࠇ | ࠇ |
| Unicode name | HEBREW LETTER HET | HEBREW LETTER HET | ARABIC LETTER HAH | ARABIC LETTER HAH | SYRIAC LETTER HETH | SYRIAC LETTER HETH | SAMARITAN LETTER IT | 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 | &#1495; | &#x5D7; | &#1581; | &#x62D; | &#1818; | &#x71A; | &#2055; | &#x807; |
Character information :
| Preview | 𐎈 | 𐎈 | 𐡇 | 𐡇 | 𐤇 | 𐤇 |
| Unicode name | UGARITIC LETTER HOTA | UGARITIC LETTER HOTA | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER HETH | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER HETH | PHOENICIAN LETTER HET | 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 | &#66440; | &#x10388; | &#67655; | &#x10847; | &#67847; | &#x10907; |