Gol he, also calledchoṭī he, is one of the two variants of theArabic letter he/hāʾ (ه) that are in use in theUrdu alphabet, the other variant being thedo-cas͟hmī he (ھ), also calledhā-'e-mak͟hlūt.[1] The letter is named for its shape in the isolated form,gol meaning "round" inHindustani, to distinguish it from thedo-cas͟hmī he, which is really a calligraphic variant of the "two-eyed" regular he in the medial position (ﻬ). Its various non-isolated forms originated in theNastaʿlīq script orcalligraphic hand,[2][3] though various zigzag (medial) and hook (final) forms of hāʾ have existed before the script was developed.[4]
The letterہ (encoded at U+06C1) replaces the regularheه (encoded at U+0647) inUrdu (as well as thePunjabiShahmukhi alphabet) for thevoiced glottal fricative[ɦ] but is usually pronounced[ɑː] in the word-final position (exception include certain two-letter words such asوہ/ʋoː/ orکہ/keː/) while thedo-cas͟hmī heھ is used in digraphs foraspiration andbreathy voice and hence never used word-initially.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naskh glyph form: (Help) | ہ | ـہ | ـہـ | ہـ |
| Nastaʿlīq glyph form: | ہ | ــــہ | ــــہــــ | ہــــ |
For comparison, thedo-cas͟hmī he (not used word-initially) and the regular Arabic letter:
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naskh glyph form: (Help) | ھ | ـھ | ـھـ | ھـ |
| Nastaʿlīq glyph form: | ھ | ــــھ | ــــھــــ | ھــــ |
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naskh glyph form: (Help) | ه | ـه | ـهـ | هـ |
| Nastaʿlīq glyph form: | ه | ــــه | ــــهــــ | هــــ |
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