He (Hebrew letter)

Form and pronunciation

The standard printed form appears as ה. In cursive and different typefaces the shape varies but remains recognizable. Unlike some Hebrew letters, He does not have a special final form used at the end of words. When written at the end of a word it often functions as a mater lectionis: a letter that indicates a vowel quality (commonly an /a/ or /e/ vowel) rather than a pronounced consonant. A dot called a mappiq may be placed inside a final He to show that it should be pronounced as consonantal /h/ rather than serving only as a vowel marker.

History and development

The letter descends from Phoenician 𐤄 and ultimately from earlier Proto-Sinaitic signs with antecedents in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. Through the Phoenician script it is an ancestor of several Mediterranean letters; its form contributed to characters used in early Greek and, by extension, in Latin-based alphabets. Its numeric value in Hebrew gematria is 5.

Grammatical and cultural uses

He is commonly used as a prefix to form the definite article in Hebrew: the prefix ה־ added to a noun is pronounced ha- and marks definiteness (for example, "the king"). It also appears within several grammatical formations and as part of proper names and sacred terms: the divine name of the Hebrew Bible (the Tetragrammaton) contains two He letters (YHWH). In written Hebrew He can function as a marker in numerals and abbreviations because of its gematria value.

Notable facts

• Unicode assigns the Hebrew letter He the code point U+05D4.
• When final and unpronounced, a mappiq indicates it should be sounded.
• Its Phoenician predecessor played a role in the ancestry of Greek and Latin letters.

Because He performs both phonetic and orthographic roles, it is central to reading and writing Hebrew. Its simplicity of shape belies a range of functions in grammar, orthography and religious texts, making it one of the more versatile letters in the Semitic writing tradition.