correctly as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative is often used as a shibboleth to distinguish Arabic-speakers from non-Arabic-speakers; in particular, pronunciation of the letter as is seen as a hallmark of Ashkenazi Jews and Greek Jews. Ḥet is one of the few Hebrew consonants that can take a vowel at the end of a word. This occurs when patach gnuva comes under the Ḥet at the end of the word. The combination is then pronounced rather than . For example: (), and (). Variations Ḥet, along with Aleph, Ayin, Resh, and He, cannot receive a dagesh. As pharyngeal fricatives are difficult for most English speakers to pronounce, loanwords are usually Anglicized to have . Thus (), pronounced by native Hebrew speakers as or is pronounced by most English speakers, who cannot often perceive the difference between and . Significance In gematria, Ḥet represents the number eight. In chat rooms, online forums, and social networking the letter Ḥet repeated (חחחחחחחחחח) denotes laughter, just as in English, in the saying 'Haha'. Character encodings See also Ħ, ħ : H with stroke References External links Phoenician alphabet Arabic letters Hebrew letters