Gol he

Gol he, also called choṭī he, is one of the two variants of the Arabic letter he/hāʾ (ه) that are in use in the Urdu alphabet, the other variant being the do-cas͟hmī he (ھ), also called hā-'e-mak͟hlūt.^[1] The letter is named for its shape in the isolated form, gol meaning "round" in Hindustani, to distinguish it from the do-cas͟hmī he, which is really a calligraphic variant of the "two-eyed" regular he in the medial position (ﻬ‎). Its various non-isolated forms originated in the Nastaʿlīq script or calligraphic hand,^[2][3] though various zigzag (medial) and hook (final) forms of hāʾ have existed before the script was developed.^[4]

Use in Urdu

The letter ہ‎ (encoded at U+06C1) replaces the regular he ه‎ (encoded at U+0647) in Urdu (as well as the Punjabi Shahmukhi alphabet) for the voiced glottal fricative [ɦ] but is usually pronounced [ɑː] in the word-final position (exception include certain two-letter words such as وہ /ʋoː/ or کہ /keː/) while the do-cas͟hmī he ھ‎ is used in digraphs for aspiration and breathy voice and hence never used word-initially.

For comparison, the do-cas͟hmī he (not used word-initially) and the regular Arabic letter:

See also

• Nastaʿlīq script

References

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This page was last edited on 24 March 2024, at 14:33