H

The h (capital H, noun hache, plural haches or silent hache) is the eighth letter and the sixth consonant of the Spanish alphabet and the basic Latin alphabet.

History

Egyptian wall	Proto-Sinalytic ḥa cerer	Fellowship Heth	Greek Heta	Etrusco	Latin H

The Proto-Canaanite glyph is believed to represent a "wall". The shape of the letter is related to the hieroglyph for "courtyard" (probably read ḥasir), while the denomination would come from ḫayt, reconstructed name for the glyph derived from the hieroglyph for "thread".

Use in Spanish

In current Spanish, the H is not pronounced (it is the only Spanish grapheme that currently does not represent any phoneme, it is «muda»), except when it is in the digraph «ch» and in some foreign words, as in the case of the word "hobby" (hobby) a foreign word from English. In this case, its pronunciation is that of a soft J. Today it has no sound in almost any of the Romance languages, except Romanian, where it is most frequently found in words of non-Latin origin, with a few exceptions (for example, vehicul). Written after some consonants (such as C and S) it can produce new sounds.

Another important exception is words that had F instead of H in Vulgar Latin and Old Spanish. In the pre-classical Spanish language, words like "harto", "hablar" and "beautiful" they were written "farto", "talk" and "beautiful". This initial /f/ changed its point of articulation from labiodental [f] to pharyngeal [h]. Spanish speakers who follow the Atlantic norm tend to articulate the [h] in words like "huir", "heder", "higo". In a good part of Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Extremadura, Cantabria and in rural areas of the Caribbean coast, Cuba and Puerto Rico, the pronunciation [h] is maintained in the words indicated.

Use in Italian

In Italian, as in Spanish, the letter h generally has no phonological value, but rather a diacritical grapheme. The main and most common uses are:

• In the verb «avere» (make) distinguishes some verbal voices from the indicative present, from other frequently used words (h etymological):
  • hor (1.a singular person) → or (“o”, conjunction)
  • hai (2 singular person) → ai (“al”, preposition)
  • ha (3rd person singular) → a (“a”, preposition)
  • hanno (3rd plural person) → anno (“year”)

• It frequently characterizes many short intersections, when it comes to a problem of confusion with other words (ah, Oh., Uh..., ehm, etc.), but also in cases where there is no confusion (toh, beh). In many cases the presence of h graphically serves to reinforce the interjective nature of the word, which can also be emphasized by other means as the sign of admiration (!) or suspensive points (…).
  As a general rule and to avoid confusion with the conjugation of the verb «avere» and in case of indecision, always worth the norm that the h must appear immediately after the end of the first syllable: There!, Ohibò!etc.
  In some cases, especially in intersections such as ah, Uh..., ehm, etc. the letter h may sometimes acquire autonomous phenological values, but only in exceptional cases and as optional realizations; in such case the h can correspond to a glotal fricative. Next to the usual pronunciation ah, Uh..., ehm and similar ([a], [ or [e], [engineering], it is possible to hear occasionally: [ha], [h transformation], [he], [h transformationm]etc.

• In the digits ch and gh it serves to indicate the pronouncement "dura" of the letter C and G before the vowels E and I.

• It is also traditionally used in the graphs of a few Italian localities: for example Rho, Roghudi, Santhià, Thiene, Thiesi, Vho.

Use in other languages

In French it is almost always silent as in Spanish and Italian, although in some cases it takes the value of an aspiration, especially in words of obviously Germanic origin. However, "ch" is pronounced /ʃ/ (like "sh" in English) and "ph" is pronounced /f/. In English and most of the Germanic languages, the grapheme H/h represents the voiceless glottal fricative, an aspirated sound in many cases very close to that of the Spanish [j]; In both English and French, the h, together with a k: kh takes on a value equivalent to that of the Spanish j, although many times the grapheme is simply read /k/, due to the absence of the sound of the h in French and in some English words. In Portuguese the grapheme h after an n is equivalent to the sound of a Castilian Spanish ñ, sometimes the same thing happens if it accompanies an L (eg, lh) where it can be equivalent to a Castilian Spanish ll. In most Semitic languages, the sign that transliterates h or ḥ in the Romanesque alphabet is voiced and is equivalent to a notorious aspiration, in other cases it represents the glottal stop consonant (glotal stop).

Rules for its orthographic use

They are written with H:

• All forms of verbs bearing h in the infinitive: There must be (hubo, habré, we would have, there will be), make (do, do, do, do, do), Search (hallarais, find, find, find)
• The words of vocablos with that letter: Gentilehombre.
• Those from the words that begin with HueA exception of the following:

• of bone: osamenta, osario, osseo and osify;
• of eggoval, ovalo, ovary, ovipar, ovoid and ovule;
• of orphan: orphanage and orphanage;
• of hollow: ochety.

This is because in the primitive vocablos hollow, bone, egg and orphan, the h initial is not original, but it has been added to them by starting all with ue. The word egg, because in the beginnings of the printing press was written: "vevo" and gave problems of understanding; it is the same case as the h of the French word huit (ocho).

• The words that begin with the following Greek prefixes:

• hecto (c) hectoliter, hectowatt, hectogram.
• Helen- (Greek): hellenic, helenization, helenistic.
• helio (sol): heliotropism, heliogrammed, heliotherapy.
• hema, hemato and Hemo (sangre): hematozoan, hemoglobin, hemophilia, bleeding.
• Hemi (medium, half): hemiplejía, hemiedría, hemistiquio.
• hepat- (sighs): liver, hepatitis, hepatology.
• hepta (seven): heptacordo, heptaedro, heptasílaba.
• hetero (other, uneven, different): heterodox, heterosexual, heterogeneous.
• Hex (six): hexapode, hexagon, hexameter.
• Hidr- (water): water, hydrophobia, hydrography, hydroplane.
• hyper. (excess, superiority): hypertension, hipérbaton.
• hip (inferiority, below, also horse): hypodermis, hypogeo, hippocamp.
• homo (the same, same, similar): homophobia, homophobia.

• The words that begin with the following Latin prefixes:

• host/il- (extranjero, enemy): hostile, hostile.
• horr- (from Latin) Horrens, erected): horror, horror, horrible.
• hosp- (guests): hospital, lodging, lodging.

Words that have an intermediate h separate vowels, such as: vaho, vehemente, eviction, incense, pillow, alcohol. With the exception of words made up of words, for example: benefactor, congratulations, some that start with the prefixes ad, des, ex, in, for example: undo, exhaustive, incapable, adhere, adhesive.

Nor are a large number of words with initial h: hybrid, buckle, crowded, sullen.

The following mnemonic rules have not been made explicit by the Royal Spanish Academy, but discovered by Spanish teachers or students accustomed to reviewing dictionaries.

• Almost all the words that start with the diptongos ia e ie with the exception of iatrogenic: hiatus, ice.
• Almost all the words that start with the diptongos ue and ui: hollow, hollow, smell.

Some words that begin with Hue or Hui, can also be written with güe and güi, respectively: Huipil, huisquil, also written güero, güipil, güisquil.

• The words that begin with hum, except umbela, umbelfer, umbilicado, umbilical, umbra, umbráculo, threshold, threshold and umbrio: human, humor, humility.

Alternative representations

In the aeronautical phonetic alphabet it is assigned the word Hotel. In Morse code it is: ····

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  Signal flags

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  Semaphor Alphabet

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  Signography Braille (Spanish)

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  Manual Alphabet