H
disambiguation).
← Zayin Heth Teth →
Phoenician Heth
Hebrew
ח
Aramaic Heth
Syriac
ܚ
Arabic
Phonemic representation χ, x, ħ
Position in alphabet 8
Numerical value 8
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Greek Η
Latin H
Cyrillic И
Heth, sometimes written Chet, but more accurately 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 .
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 represents /ħ/, while ḫāʾ represents /x/.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek eta Η, Etruscan H, 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]
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'.