Is the H silent in Greek?
Greek mythology is full of names starting with an H, yet the H sound is dropped in modern Greek, and also in Italian, French and co*ckney English.
Greek does not have a letter "H," but it does have an "H" sound. The sound can be found in three "double letters": theta, chi, phi (th, ch, and ph). The other place where the "H" sound can be found is at the beginning of words that begin with a vowel.
An “h” can be silent on its own, or as part of a consonant digraph (a combination of letters that produce one single sound). A few examples of words with a silent “h” are: ec h o, h onest, psyc h ic, and w h ile.
There are no silent letters in Greek. It's pronounced (g + n). English does not allow this combination of sounds, but other languages do.
In present-day Israeli Hebrew, this phoneme is generally dropped in ordinary speech — a word such as הֵם (hém, “them”) is usually pronounced /em/, at least in everyday conversation — but the letter ה is still used where the sound /h/ would be expected, such as in loanwords where the source word has /h/.
The rule for the Spanish H is that it's always silent unless it is next to the letter C. When you see the letter C next to an H you need to make a ch sound, which is almost identical to the “ch” sound in English.
h, eighth letter of the alphabet. It corresponds to Semitic cheth and Greek eta (Η).
Silent H. H is always silent in HONOUR, HOUR, HONEST, HEIR, VEHICLE & VEHEMENT. You don't say it after 'g' in GHOST, GHASTLY, AGHAST, GHERKIN & GHETTO, or after 'r' in RHINOCEROS, RHUBARB, RHYME and RHYTHM.
The Spanish 'H': Always Silent. Gerald Erichsen is a Spanish language expert who has created Spanish lessons for ThoughtCo since 1998.
Silent H words
The letter H is also silent in words where it follows the letter W, as in when, where, which, why, whine, whistle, and white.
What letters Cannot be silent?
But as Merriam-Webster Dictionary points out, one unusual letter is never silent: the letter V. While it makes an appearance in words like quiver and vivid, you can rest assured it always behaves the exact same way.
In English, we don't pronounce the p at the beginning, but the Greeks did. Our alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet, but we adapted certain sounds to be more like those we were familiar with. So English speakers took out the p sound.
The Latin alphabet has some script letters that do not exist in the Greek alphabet, such as B, C, D, G, W, Q and J. W is a consonant in the Latin alphabet, but resembles to the Greek letter ω (omega) which is a vowel.
This would frame Y-H-W-H as a derivation from the Hebrew triconsonantal root היה (h-y-h), "to be, become, come to pass", with a third person masculine y- prefix, equivalent to English "he", thereby affording translations as "he who causes to exist", "he who is", etc.; although this would elicit the form Y-H-Y-H (יהיה) ...
He is often used to represent the name of God as an abbreviation for Hashem, which means The Name and is a way of saying God without actually saying the name of God (YHWH).
The German consonant “h” at the beginning of a word is pronounced just like the English “h” in “hear” (unvoiced sound). An example of a German word beginning with “h” is “heilig” [holy]. After a vowel, the German “h” is not pronounced. It just lengthens the vowel.
As we just explained above, the letter H (acca) is never pronounced in Italian. So, even in adopted foreign words, even if we write hotel, we will say /otel/, as if the H wasn't there at all! Remember though, that the letter H in between C or G and E or I (e.i. che/chi, ghe/ghi)changes the pronunciation of the word!
The letter h is not pronounced in French. This letter is a consonant and it doesn't make any sound. Therefore, words that start with the letter h, such as honneur, hiver, and hier, are pronounced without the sound h.
Hecate – Olympian era goddess, daughter of Perses and Asteria. Greek goddess of witchcraft.
What is mu (µ)? The lowercase Greek letter µ (pronounced mu) generally represents the prefix multiplier 0.000001, i.e., 10-6 or one millionth. For example, 0.000001 farad or 10-6 F of electrical capacitance is commonly written as 1 µF. Similarly, 0.000000001 or 10 -9 farad is written as 0.001 µF.
What letter is Χ?
Chi /ˈkaɪ, ˈxiː/ ( listen) (uppercase Χ, lowercase χ; Greek: χῖ) is the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet.
Answer: The Americans have picked this up from Norman- French. "Herb" is a word that would have been very commonly used by the French, so that is why it would have stuck, as oppose to other words in the American dialect such as "helicopter."
The h is only sometimes silent. This happens often after the letter w at the beginning of a word. It also sometimes happens after the letters c, g, r, or ex-.
In Northern Ireland the Catholic population is distinguished from the Protestant by the former saying 'haitch' and the latter 'aitch'. 'Haitch' is the way Catholic primary schools teach H in the alphabet and therefore may well have Papal authority as correct!
In Britain, H owes its name to the Normans, who brought their letter "hache" with them in 1066. Hache is the source of our word "hatchet": probably because a lower-case H looks a lot like an axe. It has certainly caused a lot of trouble over the years.
Usage (language): The name of the letter h is based on French (h)ache, in which the initial h is not pronounced. In imitation of the French, the English name is commonly aitch, but this means the name does not contain the sound of the letter.
In Britain, H apparently owes its “haitch” pronunciation to the Catholic Normans, who brought the old French word “hache” with them when they invaded in 1066. With aitch and haitch, it still seems to be linked to the speaker's religion. According to Rosen, “haitch” is the Catholic way and “aitch” is the Protestant way.
In Spanish, the “h” is silent, so hola is pronounced “oh-la.”
The British pronunciation is "Herbs" with an "H" while American pronunciation is "erbs" without the "H." Quite simple, eh? Just like this simple vinaigrette recipe to go with your herb salad. "Herb" or "erb," it's really your choice.
However, in today's word the H appears in an accented syllable, so it should be pronounced. Still, if you are from the US South, you may pronounce today's word umble. It's OK if you do. The noun that fits this adjective is humility.
Is there an H sound in Chinese?
In the case of the "H" sound, those that do hear that is sounds different from the English "H" often get caught into the trap of pronouncing it like the Hebrew "Ch" (as in Chanukah), this is wrong. There is no such sound in Chinese.
H-dropping or aitch-dropping is the deletion of the voiceless glottal fricative or "H-sound", [h]. The phenomenon is common in many dialects of English, and is also found in certain other languages, either as a purely historical development or as a contemporary difference between dialects.
h is fully pronounced and never 'silent'. s is always as in "see" and never voiced as in "wise". ch represents Greek Χ χ (chi) and is nearly equal to a hard Latin "c", the only difference being that ch is aspirated (it is pronounced with an additional puff of air).
Exceptions: Most of the words beginning with H are not silent (remember to use the article “a” with voiced H) For example history, history, hair, happy. The letter K is always silent when it precedes the letter N in a word.
F. While some people do in fact pronounce the second f in fifth, the first pronunciation given in our dictionary is the one that omits it. Overall, however, f is to be commended for its performance generally. We'd give it an A, if we were on speaking terms with that letter.
The word 'knight', with its silent 'k', and silent 'gh', is cognate with the German word for servant, 'knecht', where every letter is pronounced. Silent 'e' (eg, tot vs tote) is a bit more of a complicated story. In Chaucer's day, the 'e' was pronounced.
H is always silent in HONOUR, HOUR, HONEST, HEIR, VEHICLE & VEHEMENT. You don't say it after 'g' in GHOST, GHASTLY, AGHAST, GHERKIN & GHETTO, or after 'r' in RHINOCEROS, RHUBARB, RHYME and RHYTHM. It's normally silent after 'w': WHAT? WHICH?
"Ptero" is Greek for "wing" or "winglike." In English, we don't pronounce the "p" at the beginning, but the Greeks did. Our alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet, but we adapted certain sounds to be more like those we were familiar with. So English speakers took out the "p" sound.
Answer: The Americans have picked this up from Norman- French. "Herb" is a word that would have been very commonly used by the French, so that is why it would have stuck, as oppose to other words in the American dialect such as "helicopter."
Silent H words
The letter H is also silent in words where it follows the letter W, as in when, where, which, why, whine, whistle, and white.
Why are there two O's in Greek?
You will probably have noticed that some of the letters are redundant; Greek has three letters representing the sound /i/ ('ee') and two representing the sound /o/ ('oo'). This is because in Classical Greek the different letters did actually have different sounds associated with them.
The letter ⟨k⟩ is normally silent (i.e. it does not reflect any sound) when it precedes an ⟨n⟩ at the beginning of a word, as in “knife”, and sometimes by extension in other positions.
There are no silent letters in Greek.
It's pronounced (g + n). English does not allow this combination of sounds, but other languages do.
Most religious scholars and historians agree with Pope Francis that the historical Jesus principally spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic. Through trade, invasions and conquest, the Aramaic language had spread far afield by the 7th century B.C., and would become the lingua franca in much of the Middle East.
He is often used to represent the name of God as an abbreviation for Hashem, which means The Name and is a way of saying God without actually saying the name of God (YHWH).
