The Esperanto Letter Ĥ: The Least-Loved Letter

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.

Ĥ or k: both are usually right

PMEG records the trend: since the earliest years there has been a tendency to create alternatives to ĥ words, mostly with k, because k is made in the same place in the mouth.

PMEG adds a rule that covers a whole family: every root with ĥ straight after r has a k form.

What the Akademio did. Its Eighth Official Addition (1974) officialised six k-forms as parallel to the existing ĥ-forms, each printed as Moderna formo de (modern form of) its ĥ-spelling:

The same list gives kirurgo with ĥirurgo in brackets, a surgeon. Parallel means parallel: the ĥ-forms were not withdrawn, and ĥemio is in the Fundamento itself. PMEG's verdict:

Ĝenerale ambaŭ vortoj de tiaj vortparoj estas plene uzeblaj.

Generally both words of such pairs are fully usable.

It adds that the choice is a matter of taste:

• Mi studas kemion. - I study chemistry.
• Mi studas ĥemion. - I study chemistry.

Where k cannot go

A plain swap fails when the k-word already means something else. PMEG's examples:

With ĉino (a Chinese person) the ĥ-form has gone: PMEG advises using only ĉino, unless you want to sound deliberately old-fashioned.

And some words have no generally accepted alternative at all. PMEG names two:

• eĥoan echo
• ĉeĥoa Czech
• monaĥoa monk

• ĉeĥo - a Czech. The k-form would be ĉeko, which is a cheque.
• eĥo - an echo.
• monaĥo - a monk. A variant monako exists, but ReVo notes it is scarcely used and easily confused with Monaco.

How alive the ĥ spelling is varies word by word:

The ĥ question: keep it or let it go?

Should Esperanto keep ĥ in the words that have a k-form? Speakers disagree, and both sides can point to the record:

What is not in dispute: the letter stays in the alphabet, the 1974 k-forms were added beside the ĥ-forms rather than instead of them, and in 1982 the Akademio found that no spelling change is necessary or desirable, a resolution its 2007 statement builds on. Pick one spelling per word and use it consistently.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Say ko, then ĥo, then ĥoro and horo aloud until they sound different.
2. Learn eĥo, ĉeĥo, ĥoro and monaĥo with their ĥ.
3. Read the Esperanto alphabet for ĥ in its place.

See also

• Typing Esperanto - getting ĉ ĝ ĥ ĵ ŝ ŭ on any keyboard, and the x-system.
• Orthography and punctuation - the h-system and the x-system side by side, letter by letter.
• Capital letters - the other spelling choices Esperanto leaves to the writer.
• Who decides what is correct Esperanto? - the Fundamento, the Akademio and the 1974 Official Addition.
• Esperanto pronunciation - the sound system ĥ is the rare corner of.
• Countries and peoples - where ĉeĥo and ĉino live.
• False friends - more words that look like near misses and are different words.