H (letter)
H, h is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the eighth letter of most variants, being placed after G and before I, as is the case for instance in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈeɪtʃ], aitch, as in 'he drops his aitches', referring to the habit of some speakers, notably cockneys, not to sound initial aspirated h in words like house and head.
Use in English
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h between vowels, and usually initially, is a breath outwards, an aspirate. But it also combines with a number of consonants to form other consonants, is a schwa in two Cambodian words, and in many words is silent.
The aspirated h is much more common initially than medially (and final h is never aspirated): hòuse, héad, hêed, háppy, hôme, hélp, hínder, húrry, hurrây, hêave, héavy, héaven, héll, hŷpe (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English spellings).
When not initial, aspirated h sometimes looks misleadingly like a combination with another consonant, as in adhêre and dishàrmony, but this is accidental and the h is sounded separately from the preceding consonant; h is also normally sounded between vowels, as in rehëarse, mahógany, ahŏy, ahéad and ahém; and in some names, like Mahôney.
Silent h occurs initially in hónest, hónour, hóur time (= our we), héir fortune (= ãir breathe) and in their derivatives: hónourable, hòurly &c; and also in nìhilist (or nîhilist), exhåust, in the suffix -ham (in British English) in names of towns or surnames: Béckenham, Péckham, Twíckenham, Tóttenham, and in Jóhn (= the less common Jón; cf. the German Johánnes, where the h is pronounced, *Yohánness).
A silent h is also used to lengthen vowels, usually in interjections: àh! ôh! èh? or words from German: Kôhl, Kûhn, àùtobàhn (*òutobàn) and unstressed in Méndelssohn (*Méndəlsən). It is unstressed finally in Sãrah, parîah and verándah—all pronouncing ah as schwa (as with a in Sàra, Marìa and Miránda).
In vêhicle, silent h separates the i from the preceding ê, making the í a syllable: *vê-í-kle – or as a schwa: *vêəkle, *víəkle. And in names like Mêehan and Côhen the h is not pronounced as such: *Mêeyən and *Côwən (cf. Còwan, where the w is written).
In Bahrâin and Tehràn, pronouncing the h preceding the r is a needless affectation by some journalists, and does not occur in normal speech. The h in Délhi is also silent.
h combining with preceding letters
h is silent after vowels and before consonants and thus does not begin clusters; instead, it shows great versatility in combining with preceding letters:
àh, with silent h, shows the long à sound, and is used in interjections: áh! bàh! blàh blàh blàh! pàh! yàh bôo!, in German words: Màhler, Stàhl, Bràhms, àùtobàhn (òwt-), and also in Bahrâin, though here some people pronounce the h separately, as it represents an Arabic aspirate sound.
ch as in choôse, bêach, chéck verify = BrE chéque money, chàr, cóckroach, chát, chêek, chín, côach.
- Very often it is preceded by a redundant t: ẁatch, wrétch, cátch, bátch, kétchup, ítching, wítch (for many speakers = whích).
- But in some words taken from French, it is pronounced like sh: chìc, machìne, AmE moústáche, BrE moustàche.
- Elsewhere, the h is redundant, and ch is pronounced k: Bucharést (Bùka-), chŏrd, psychólogy, schoôner - while in chémist, àrchive, schême it prevents the following e or i from making the c sound like an s.
- The optional sound of IPA χ occurs in words from Scottish Gaelic (as also in German Bàch): lóch, Sássenach - optional because these are usually, by non-Scots, pronounced with a final k sound.
- chsi in fûchsia is pronounced sh: *fyûshə.
dh represents the voiced th sound in Rìyadh.
èh has a silent h, and occurs in the interjection èh?, showing vowel length, in Tehràn, and in names from German, like Lèhmann (although compare Lêhman)
hh occurs accidentally in withhôld, withhéld and hítchhîke, where in each case the second h is aspirated as if beginning a new word; witch-hunt, too, may appear without a hyphen. A non-accidental use is in the Arabic word Wahhàbi, where it sounds like one h.
ih occurs in nìhilist (or nîhilist) where the h is usually silent or has the consonantal y sound, *nêeyilist.
kh appears in words from Arabic, Persian, Urdu and so on. The pronunciation is the same as that of ch in lóch (a rasping in the back of the throat, IPA χ) - and thus many speakers do not distinguish it from k alone: Khàlid, Khàn, shèikh. In Khmér, the h represents an aspirate in the original language: since this is not a natural place for an h sound in English, it is in effect silent, or even, in slower speech, a schwa, *K(ə)mãir.
ôh! oôh! poôh! are interjections (also: Winnie the Poôh) and, from German, ôhm: silent h.
ph = f as in fâce: Phílip (= fíllip), phôto, nýmph, phrâse, phâse, Dáphnê, phoênix, grāph (but Stêphen = Stêven). But in Phnóm Pénh, *P(ə)nóm Pén, the h represents an aspirate, as with Khmér, above.
rh = r: Rhôdes, rhôdium, rhododéndron, rhêsus, rhêtoric.
sh is the normal way of showing the very common sound spelt ch in machìne: shoòt, frésh, cásh, shêet, fâstish, Bangladésh, ásh, pólish, Pôlish, áshen, díshwasher, shùsh! sssssh!
th represents two sounds, one the voiced version of the other.
- Voiced th is used in certain functional, and therefore in many cases very common, words: thís, thát, thére, thén, thôugh, althôugh, thús, thérefore, thòu, the/thê article = thêe you, and in òther, mòther, fàther, bròther, rāther, lāther.
- Unvoiced th is not uncommon either, especially at the beginning and end of words: thínk, thŏught, throûgh, thòrough (AmE thúrrôw, BrE *thúrrə), thrôw, móth, bôth, ẁrath (-ó-), fífth (*fíth - though some pronounce the second f), fílthy. But the h is redundant in Thaîland (*Tŷland).
úh (h silent after schwa) is used as in húh? úh? with the same interrogative meaning as èh?, and (mostly AmE) úh-húh yes, and in other improvised interjections; otherwise it appears in German names as ûh: Kûhn.
wh = w in standard British English but is pronounced hw in American, Scottish, some northern English and other varieties: what, whére, why, whén, whéther (cf. wéather), sòmewhat, sòmewhere, anywhere (én-), nôwhere, whísky, whîte, Whítsun, wháck, whám.
zh has the sound of -si- in vision or -su- in pléasure, which are the usual spellings for the sound. As zh it occurs only in words from Arabic, Russian and other languages, as in Brézhnev.
Scientific uses
- H: henry, unit of electromagnetic inductance
- h: Planck's constant
- h: generic symbol for height