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I am the letter H! |
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{{Redirect|Aitch|the surname|Aitch (Aich)}} |
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{{wiktionarypar2|H|h}} |
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{{Latin alphabet navbox|uc=H|lc=h}} |
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'''H''' is the eighth letter in the [[Latin alphabet]]. Its name in both [[British English|British]] and [[American English]] is spelled '''aitch'''<ref>"H" ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' 2nd edition (1989); ''Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1993); "aitch", op. cit.</ref> ({{pronEng|eɪtʃ}}) in most dialects, though in [[Hiberno-English|Irish]], [[Australian English|Australian]], [[Singaporean English|Singaporean]], South Indian English and very occasionally [[British English]] it is '''haitch''' {{IPA|/heɪtʃ/}}. (See the discussion below on the two pronunciations of the name of this letter.) In the [[help:IPA|International Phonetic Alphabet]], this symbol is used to represent two sounds. Its lowercase form, {{IPA|[h]}}, represents the [[voiceless glottal fricative]] or 'aspirate', and its small capital form, {{IPA|[ʜ]}}, represents the [[voiceless epiglottal fricative]]. |
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==History== |
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{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;text-align:center;" |
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|- bgcolor="#EEEEEE" |
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! Egyptian hieroglyph <br>fence |
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! Proto-Semitic <br>{{IPA|ħ}} |
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! Phoenician <br>{{IPA|ħ}} |
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! Etruscan <br>H |
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! Greek <br> eta |
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|----- |
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|<hiero>N24</hiero> |
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|[[Image:Proto-semiticH-01.png]] |
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|[[Image:PhoenicianH-01.png]] |
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|[[Image:EtruscanH-01.svg|64px]] |
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|[[Image:Eta uc lc.svg|64px]] |
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|} |
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The Semitic letter ח ({{Unicode|ḥêṯ}}) most likely represented the [[voiceless pharyngeal fricative]] ({{IPA2|ħ}}). The form of the letter probably stood for a fence or posts. The early [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] H stood for {{IPA|/h/}}, but later on, this letter, ''[[Eta (letter)|eta]]'' (Η, η), became a long vowel, {{IPA|/ɛː/}}. (In Modern Greek, this [[phoneme]] has merged with {{IPA|/i/}}, similar to the [[English language|English]] [[Great Vowel Shift|development]] where Middle English ''ea'' {{IPA|/ɛː/}} and ''ee'' {{IPA|/eː/}} came to be both pronounced as {{IPA|/i:/}}.) |
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[[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] and [[Latin]] had {{IPA|/h/}} as a phoneme, but almost all [[Romance languages]] lost the sound — [[Romanian language|Romanian]] later re-borrowed the {{IPA|/h/}} phoneme from its neighbouring Slavic languages, [[Spanish language|Spanish]] developed a secondary {{IPA|/h/}} from F, then lost it again, and now has developed an {{IPA|[h]}} [[allophone]] of {{IPA|/x/}} in some Spanish-speaking countries. In German, ''h'' is typically used as a vowel lengthener, as well as the phoneme {{IPA|/h/}}. This may be because {{IPA|/h/}} was sometimes lost between vowels in German. Hence, H is used in many spelling systems in [[digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] and [[trigraph (orthography)|trigraphs]], such as ''ch'' in Spanish and English {{IPA|/tʃ/}}, French {{IPA|/ʃ/}} from {{IPA|/tʃ/}}, Italian {{IPA|/k/}}, German {{IPA|/χ/}}, Czech and Slovak {{IPA|/x/}}. |
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==Usage in English== |
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===The name of the letter=== |
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In most dialects of English, the name for the letter is pronounced {{IPA|/eɪtʃ/}} and spelled '''aitch''' [http://m-w.com/dictionary/aitch] (or occasionally '''eitch'''). Pronunciation {{IPA|/heɪtʃ/}} (and hence spelling '''haitch''') is usually considered to be [[Phonological history of English fricatives#H-adding|h-adding]] and hence nonstandard. However it is standard in [[Hiberno-English]], [[Singaporean English]], ''Haitch'' is also used in parts of Northern England. In [[Northern Ireland]] it is a [[shibboleth]] as [[Protestant]] schools teach ''aitch'' and Catholics ''haitch''.<ref>[http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/JCorbett.html The Association for Scottish Literary Studies]</ref> This is also indicative of Catholic school teaching in [[Australia]]. The perceived name of the letter affects the choice of indefinite article before [[initialism]]s beginning with H: for example "an HTML page" or "a HTML page". The pronunciation {{IPA|/heɪtʃ/}} may be a [[hypercorrection]] formed by analogy with the names of the other letters of the alphabet, most of which include the sound they represent.<ref>Todd, L. & Hancock I.: "International English Usage", page 254. Routledge, 1990.</ref> |
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Authorities disagree about the history of the letter's name. The [[Oxford English Dictionary]] says the original name of the letter was {{IPA|/aha/}}; this became {{IPA|/aka/}} in Latin, passed into English ''via'' Old French {{IPA|/atʃ/}}, and by Middle English was pronounced {{IPA|/aːtʃ/}}. [[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]] derives it from French ''hache'' from Latin ''haca'' or ''hic'', from which it can be argued that the pronunciation {{IPA|/eɪtʃ/}} is a result of [[Phonological history of English fricatives and affricates#H-dropping|h-dropping]]. |
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===Value=== |
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H occurs as a single-letter [[grapheme]] (with value {{IPA|/h/}} or [[silent letter|silent]]) and in various [[digraph]]s, such as ''ch'' ({{IPA|/tʃ/}}, French {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, Greek and Italian {{IPA|/k/}}, German & Scots {{IPA|/x/}}), ''gh'' (silent, {{IPA|/g/}}, or {{IPA|/f/}}) , ''ph'' ([[Greek language|Greek]] words with {{IPA|/f/}}), ''rh'' (Greek words with {{IPA|/r/}}), ''sh'' ({{IPA|/ʃ/}}), ''th'' (either {{IPA|/θ/}} like ''thin'' or {{IPA|/ð/}} like ''then''), ''wh'' (either {{IPA|/w/}}, {{IPA|/ʍ/}}or {{IPA|/f/}}: see [[Phonological history of wh#Wine-whine merger|wine-whine merger]]). In [[romanization|transcriptions of other writing systems]], ''zh'' may occur (as in [[Russian language|Russian]] [[Doctor Zhivago]]); this is generally pronounced {{IPA|/ʒ/}} in English, although this rendition is not necessarily faithful to the sound in the original language (as in the case of [[pinyin]] transcriptions). |
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H is silent in a [[syllable rime]], as in ''ah'', ''ohm'', ''dahlia'', ''cheetah'', ''pooh-poohed''. |
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H is often silent in the [[Weak form and strong form|weak form]] of some [[function words]] beginning with H, including ''had'', ''has'', ''have'', ''he'', ''her'', ''him'', ''his''. |
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H is silent in some words of [[Romance language|Romance]] origin: |
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*Initially in ''heir'', ''honest'', ''honour'', ''hour''; for [[American English]] usually also ''herb'', and sometimes ''homage''; as well as non-[[anglicization|anglicized]] [[loanwords]] such as ''hors-d'oeuvres'' |
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*Internally in ''silhouette'', ''chihuahua'', and often ''piranha'' |
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*For some speakers, also in an initial unstressed syllable, as in "an historic occasion", "an hotel". |
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*After ''ex'' when x has value {{IPA|/gz/}}, as ''exhaust''. |
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*For many speakers, after a stressed vowel and before an unstressed, as ''annihilate'', ''vehicle'' (but not ''vehicular''). |
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==Usage in Spanish== |
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In Spanish, H is a silent letter with no pronunciation, as in ''hijo'' {{IPA|[ˈixo]}} ('son'), ''hola'' {{IPA|[ˈola]}} ('hello'), and ''hábil'' {{IPA|[ˈaβil]}} ('skillful'). The spelling reflects an earlier pronunciation of {{IPA|[h]}} did exist. The {{IPA|[h]}} sound exists in a number of dialects in Spanish, either as a syllable-final allophone of {{IPA|/s/}} (for example Andalusia, Argentina or Cuba - vg. ''esto'' {{IPA|[ˈeht̪o]}} 'this' , or as a dialectal realization of Standard {{IPA|/x/}} (for example Mexican ''caja'' {{IPA|[ˈkaha]}} 'box' ). |
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==Usage in French== |
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In the French language, the name of the letter is pronounced {{IPA|/aʃ/}}. |
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The French language classifies words that begin with this letter in two ways that must be learned to use French properly, even though it is a silent letter either way. The ''h muet'', or "mute ''h''", is considered as though the letter were not there at all, so singular nouns get the article ''le'' or ''la'' replaced by the sequence ''l'''. Similarly, words such as ''un'', whose pronunciation would [[elision|elide]] onto the following word would do so for a word with ''h muet''. |
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For example ''Le'' ''hébergement '' becomes ''L'hébergement''. |
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The other way is called ''h aspiré'', or "aspirated ''h''" (though it is still not aspirated) and is treated as a phantom consonant. Hence masculine nouns get the ''le'', separated from the noun with a bit of a glottal stop. There is no elision with such a word; the preceding word is kept separate by similar means. |
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Most words that begin with an ''h muet'' come from Latin (''honneur'', ''homme'') or from Greek through Latin (''hécatombe''), whereas most words beginning with an ''h aspiré'' come from Germanic (''harpe'', ''hareng'') or non-Indo-European languages (''harem'', ''hamac'', ''haricot''). As is generally the case with French, there are numerous exceptions. |
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In some cases, an ''h'' was added to disambiguate the {{IPA|[v]}} and semivowel {{IPA|[ɥ]}} pronunciations, before the introduction of the distinction between the letters [[V]] and [[U]]: ''huit'' (from ''uit'', ultimately from Latin ''octo''), ''huître'' (from ''uistre'', ultimately from Greek through Latin ''ostrea''). |
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Some of these distinctions have been preserved in English through Anglo-French: ''an honour'' vs. ''a harp''. |
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Dictionaries mark those words that have this second kind of ''h'' with a preceding mark, either an [[asterisk]], a [[dagger (typography)|dagger]], or a little circle lower than a degree-symbol. |
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==Usage in German== |
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In the German language, the name of the letter is pronounced {{IPA|/haː/}}. |
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In the [[German language]], this letter is used in the digraph "ch" and the trigraph "sch" to indicate completely different sounds. Following a vowel, it often silently indicates that the vowel is long: In the word {{lang|de|''erhöhen''}} "heighten", only the first <nowiki><h></nowiki> represents {{IPA|/h/}}. |
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In 1901, there was a [[spelling reform]] which eliminated the silent <nowiki><h></nowiki> in nearly all instances of <nowiki><th></nowiki> in native German words such as ''thun'' "to do" or ''Thür'' "door". It has been left unchanged in words derived from Greek, such as {{lang|de|''Theater''}} "theater" and {{lang|de|''Thron''}} "throne", which continue to be spelled with <th> even after the last German spelling reform. |
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==Usage in other languages== |
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Some languages, including, but not limited to, [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] and [[Finnish language|Finnish]] use H as a [[voiced glottal fricative|'''voiced''' glottal fricative]] {{IPA|[ɦ]}}. |
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In [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] and [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] it's rendered with the letter [[Г]] (note its difference from [[Russian language|Russian]] pronunciation and romanisation). |
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==In computing== |
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===Codes=== |
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{{Letter |
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|NATO=Hotel |
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|Morse=···· |
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|Character=H8 |
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|Braille=⠓ |
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}} |
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In [[Unicode]] the [[majuscule|capital]] H is codepoint U+0048 and the [[lower case]] h is U+0068. |
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The [[ASCII]] code for capital H is 72 and for lowercase h is 104; or in [[Binary numeral system|binary]] 01001000 and 01101000, correspondingly. |
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The [[EBCDIC]] code for capital H is 200 and for lowercase h is 136. |
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The [[numeric character reference]]s in [[HTML]] and [[XML]] are "<tt>&#72;</tt>" and "<tt>&#104;</tt>" for upper and lower case respectively. |
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==See also== |
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{{Commons|H}} |
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*[[h-circumflex|ĥ]] |
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*[[ħ]] |
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*[[En (Cyrillic)|Н, н - En (Cyrillic)]] |
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*[[Eta (letter)|Η, η - Eta (Greek)]] |
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*[[Kha|Х, х - Kha (Cyrillic)]] |
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==References== |
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{{reflist}} |
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{{Latin alphabet}} |
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[[Category:Latin letters]] |
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[[af:H]] |
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[[als:H]] |
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[[ar:H]] |
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[[arc:H]] |
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[[ast:H]] |
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[[az:H]] |
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[[zh-min-nan:H]] |
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[[bs:H]] |
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[[br:H (lizherenn)]] |
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[[ca:H]] |
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[[cs:H]] |
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[[co:H]] |
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[[cy:H]] |
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[[da:H]] |
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[[de:H]] |
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[[et:H]] |
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[[el:H]] |
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[[es:H]] |
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[[eo:H]] |
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[[eu:H]] |
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[[fa:H]] |
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[[fr:H (lettre)]] |
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[[fur:H]] |
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[[gan:H]] |
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[[gd:H]] |
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[[gl:H]] |
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[[ko:H]] |
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[[hr:H]] |
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[[ilo:H]] |
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[[is:H]] |
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[[it:H]] |
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[[he:H]] |
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[[ka:H]] |
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[[kw:H]] |
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[[sw:H]] |
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[[ht:H]] |
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[[la:H]] |
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[[lv:H]] |
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[[lt:H]] |
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[[hu:H]] |
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[[mzn:H]] |
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[[ms:H]] |
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[[nah:H]] |
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[[nl:H (letter)]] |
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[[ja:H]] |
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[[no:H]] |
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[[nn:H]] |
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[[nrm:H]] |
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[[uz:H (harf)]] |
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[[pl:H]] |
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[[pt:H]] |
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[[ro:H]] |
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[[qu:H]] |
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[[ru:H (латиница)]] |
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[[se:H]] |
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[[scn:H]] |
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[[simple:H]] |
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[[sk:H]] |
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[[sl:H]] |
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[[sr:H (слово латинице)]] |
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[[fi:H]] |
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[[sv:H]] |
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[[tl:H]] |
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[[th:H]] |
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[[vi:H]] |
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[[tr:H]] |
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[[uk:H (латиниця)]] |
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[[vo:H]] |
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[[yo:H]] |
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[[zh-yue:H]] |
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[[bat-smg:H]] |
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[[zh:H]] |
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Revision as of 12:40, 9 October 2008
I am the letter H!