The letter H By Michal Heiman The eighth letter in the Latin alphabet. Pronounced: /eitʃ/ In most dialects of English, the name for the letter is pronounced /eɪtʃ/ and spelt aitch or occasionally eitch

Pronounciation: The pronunciation "aitch" was in O.Fr. (ache), and is from a presumed L.L The letter passed from Roman to Germanic.

Sound : In the international phonetic alphabet, variations of the letter are used to represent two sounds. The lowercase form, [h], represents the voiceless glottal fricative or 'aspirate‘ The small capital form, [ʜ], represents the voiceless epigottal fricative.אחרי, מעל, קרוב

Sound: H is silent in a syllable rime, as in dahlia, cheetah, pooh-poohed. H is often silent in the weak form of some function words beginning with H: had, has, have, he, her, him, his in some words of Romance origin and, for some speakers, also in an initial unstressed syllable, as in "an historic occasion", "an hotel“ , “an hour”.

Origins of the letter H Originally a Semitic letter which came into Latin via Greek and Etruscan.

Coming from… Egyptian hieroglyph – shape of a fence Proto-Semitic - ħ - Phoenician - heth - Etruscan - H - Greek - Eta - H Latine - H

Form: Modern English has words ultimately from Latin: with missing h : able, from L. habile with a silent h heir, hour with a formerly silent h now vocalized : humble a few with an excrescent h : hostage, hermit

In another language: French: The h muet, or "mute h", is considered as though the letter were not there at all. Most words that begin with an h muet come from Latin (honneur, homme) e.g: l’homme, l’hommage’ l’herritage. whereas most words beginning with an h aspiré come from Germanic. e.g: harpe, hareng

Now let’s practice… “ In Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire...? (Eliza) Hurricanes hardly happen...” (My Fair Lady)