haa#
هاء

The Arabic letter ه sounds about like English "h".

However, it is much softer, and it is pronounced from the deepest part of the throat.

Technically the ه is a "voiced glottal fricative".

writing the letter ه with Roman letters

This means that if somebody writes HARAM, there's no way to know if this H represents the Arabic sound ه or the Arabic sound ح. So the word might be either Haram حرم with a H ح meaning "it's forbidden", or haram هرم with a h ه meaning "it's a pyramid".

The difference is:

1. The haa ها sound is made by opening all organs and letting the air out, so the air moves the vocal cords.
2. The Haa حا sound is made by almost closing the upper part of the throat, then forcing air through it.

This might look like a small detail, but for an Arab ear, the words haram هرم and Haram حرم sound as different as a "Told" and "Cold" for us.

This is why Arabic words should always be spelled with Arabic letters.

When Arabs are forced to use a Roman keyboard, as in some chatrooms, they always spell the haa ها sound as "h". However, for the Haa حا sound, they use "7" or something. The digit "7" looks like the letter H ح.

This is very clear for Arabs, because the letters al7rm must clarly be read #alHaram الحرم "the forbidden one" and not #alharam الهرم "the pyramid".

However, this is not considered "serious", and most non-Arabs think it's disturbing, because they see the letters al7rm and don't know how to read them.

The letter ح, is often spelled "h", but sounds different.

Copyright (c) 2001-2009 Jordi Mas Trullenque.
email: jordimastrullenque at gmail dot com
http://purl.oclc.org/net/arabe/h.en.html
Last revised: 2008-10-28

waaw واو

Alphabet Table

writing_arabic -> alphabet -> *haa#