Ĥ

Ĥ, or ĥ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing a voiceless velar fricative [x] or voiceless uvular fricative [χ].

In the case of the minuscule, some fonts place the circumflex over the riser of the base letter h, others over the shoulder, and others centred above the entire letter.

ĥ in the fonts Code2000, Sylfaen, Pragmatika Esperanto

Ĥ is falling out of use among some Esperanto speakers, being generally replaced by the letter k. However, several words are still commonly used with ĥ, particularly ones in which there is another word that uses "k" in that context. For example, eĥo ("echo") or ĥoro ("chorus") are distinguished from eko ("beginning") and koro ("heart"). Other examples include proper nouns such as Ĉeĥujo "Czech Republic" and Liĥtenŝtejno "Liechtenstein".

See also