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Heth, sometimes writtenChet orḤet, is the eighthletter of theSemitic abjads, includingPhoenicianḥēt 𐤇,Hebrewḥētח‎,Aramaicḥēṯ 𐡇,Syriacḥēṯ ܚ, andArabicḥāʾح‎. It is also related to theAncient North Arabian 𐪂‎‎‎,South Arabian𐩢, andGe'ezሐ.

Heth originally represented a voiceless fricative, eitherpharyngeal/ħ/, orvelar/x/. In Arabic, two corresponding letters were created for both phonemic sounds: unmodifiedḥāʾح represents/ħ/, whileḫāʾخ represents/x/.

The Phoenician letter gave rise to theGreeketaΗ,Etruscan,LatinH, andCyrillicИ. While H is a consonant in the Latin alphabet, the Greek and Cyrillic equivalents representvowel sounds, though the letter was originally a consonant in Greek and this usage later evolved into therough breathing character.^[1] The Phoenician letter also gave rise to the archaic Greek letterheta, as well as a variant of Cyrillic letterI,short I. The Arabic letter (ح) is sometimes transliterated asCh in English.

The shape of the letter Ḥet probably goes back either to theEgyptian hieroglyph for 'courtyard' (ḥwt):

(compare Hebrew:חָצֵר,romanized: ḥaṣēr of identical meaning, whichbegins with Ḥet).
or to the one for 'thread, wick' representing a wick of twisted flax: (ḥ)^[2][3]

(compare Hebrew:חוּט,romanized: ḥuṭ of identical meaning, whichbegins with Ḥet).

Possibly namedḥasir in theProto-Sinaitic script.

The correspondingSouth Arabian letters are ḥ and ḫ, corresponding to theGe'ez lettersḤawṭ ሐ andḪarm ኀ.

This letter is usually transcribed asḥ, h with a dot underneath. In some romanization systems, a (capital) Ch is also used.

The letter is namedحَاءْḥāʾ 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:

This form is used to denote three letters, the other two beingخḫāʾ andجǧīm. In Maltese, the corresponding letter toح isħ.

In Arabic,ḥāʾ is similar to theEnglish[h], but it is much "raspier",^[4] IPA:[ħ]~[ʜ]. (Pharyngeal H)

In Persian, it is[h], like⟨ه⟩ and the Englishh.

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

InModern Israeli Hebrew (andAshkenazi Hebrew, although not under strict pronunciation), the letter Ḥet (Hebrew:חֵית) usually has the sound value of avoiceless uvular fricative (/χ/), as the historical phonemes of the lettersḤetח‎ (/ħ/) andKhafכ‎ (/x/) merged, both becoming the voiceless uvular fricative (/χ/). In more rare Ashkenazi phonologies, it is pronounced as avoiceless pharyngeal fricative (/ħ/).

The (/ħ/) pronunciation is still common amongIsraeli Arabs andMizrahi Jews (particularly among the older generation and popularMizrahi singers, especiallyYemenites), in accordance with oriental Jewish traditions (see, e.g.,Mizrahi Hebrew andYemenite Hebrew).

The ability to pronounce the Arabic letterḥāʾ (ح) correctly as avoiceless pharyngeal fricative/ħ/ is often used as ashibboleth to distinguishArabic-speakers from non-Arabic-speakers; in particular, pronunciation of the letter as/x/ is seen as a hallmark ofAshkenazi andGreek Jews.^{[citation needed]}

Ḥet is one of the few Hebrew consonants that can take a vowel at the end of a word. This occurs whenpatach gnuva comes under the Ḥet at the end of the word. The combination is then pronounced/-aħ/ rather than/-ħa/. For example:פָּתוּחַ (/ˌpaˈtuaħ/), andתַּפּוּחַ (/ˌtaˈpuaħ/).

Ḥet, along withAleph,Ayin,Resh, andHe, cannot receive adagesh. As pharyngeal fricatives are difficult for most English speakers to pronounce, loanwords are usually Anglicized to have/h/. Thuschallah (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].

Ingematria, Ḥet represents the number eight.

Inchat rooms,online forums, andsocial networking the letter Ḥet repeated (חחחחחחחחחח) denotes laughter, just as in English, in the saying 'Haha'.

• Ħ, ħ :H with stroke

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHeth (letter).

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• Urdu letters

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