The letter ĥ: the loch sound, hh and hx

Ĥ is the rarest sound in Esperanto: the ch of Scottish loch. For more than a century speakers have built k-spellings beside the ĥ words, and today both are usually correct. A handful of words keep ĥ, because the k-word is already taken or no alternative caught on.

What ĥ sounds like

The Fundamento's own English column describes it:

Ĥĥ, strongly aspirated h, "ch" in "loch" (scotch).

It is the sound in German Bach and Spanish jamón. PMEG adds that the real difference from h is not the strength of the breath but where it is made:

Ĥ estas farata ĉe la velo, per la lango, dum H estas farata en la gloto, per la voĉkordoj.

Ĥ is made at the soft palate, with the tongue, while H is made in the throat, with the vocal cords.

So h and ĥ are different letters, and they keep words apart:

• horoan hour
• ĥoroa choir
• koroa heart

• La ĥoro kantas. - The choir sings.
• Mi atendis unu horon. - I waited one hour.

How to say it. PMEG's route is to start from k: say ko, then loosen the tongue at the back of the mouth until the air can flow through. The stop becomes a scrape, and that scrape is ĥ. If you can say loch the Scottish way, you already have it.

PMEG also names why it feels hard: not the sound itself, which some languages lack, but how rarely it turns up in Esperanto.

Writing ĥ without the hat

When the hatted letters cannot be typed, two substitute systems are in use. The Fundamento's own alphabet carries a note for printers: they may add an h after the letter, so ĥ becomes hh. The x-system adds an x instead.

The Akademio's statement of 21 January 2007 puts the h-system first: other substitutes are acceptable when the h-system is not practical, as long as they are a purely technical means, not a spelling reform, and cause no confusion.

The x-system is common online chiefly because x is not an Esperanto letter, so hx can only ever mean ĥ. The h-system can meet a real h across a compound seam:

• flughaveno - an airport: flug- plus haveno, a real g and a real h, not a ĝ.

Either way, these are ways of typing, not spellings: write ĥ wherever you can. Typing Esperanto shows how on every device.