Chet | ||||||||||
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Phonemic representation | χ, x, ħ | |||||||||
Position in alphabet | 8 | |||||||||
Numerical value | 8 | |||||||||
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician | ||||||||||
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Chet or Chet is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Ḥēt 𐤇 , Hebrew Ḥēth ח, Aramaic Ḥēth
, Syriac Ḥēṯ ܚ, Arabic Ḥā' ح, Maltese Ħ, ħ.
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.
Origins
The shape of the letter Chet ultimately goes back either to the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'courtyard':
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(compare Hebrew חָצֵר ḥatser of identical meaning, which begins with Ḥet) or to the one for 'thread, wick' representing a wick of twisted flax[1][2]:
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(compare Hebrew חוּט ḥut of identical meaning, which begins with Chet).
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 cḥ, ch 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 حَاءْ 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: (Help) |
ح | ـح | ـحـ | حـ |
This form is used to denote two letters, the second being خ ḫāʾ.
Pronunciation
In Arabic, ḥāʾ is similar to the English [h], but it is much "raspier",[3] IPA: [ħ]~[ʜ]. (Pharyngeal H)
In Persian, it is [h], like ⟨ه⟩ and the English h.
Hebrew Chet
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 (and Ashkenazi Hebrew, although not under strict pronunciation), the letter Chet (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 phonologies, it is pronounced as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative (/ħ/) 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 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 Greek Jews.
Chet 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: פתוח (/ˌpaˈtuaħ/), and תפוח (/ˌtaˈpuaħ/).
Variations
Chet, 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, Chet 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
Preview | ח | ح | ܚ | ࠇ | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | HEBREW LETTER CHET | ARABIC LETTER HAH | SYRIAC LETTER HETH | SAMARITAN LETTER HIT | ||||
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 |
Preview | 𐎈 | 𐡇 | 𐤇 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | UGARITIC LETTER HOTA | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER HETH | PHOENICIAN LETTER CHET | |||
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 : H with stroke
References
- ^ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%F0%93%8E%9B
- ^ http://vincent.euverte.free.fr/Rosette/Rosette_410.php?Hiero=V28&Lang=E
- ^ Bouchentouf, Amine (2006). Arabic for Dummies. Wiley Publishing, Inc. p. 15.