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Ha
Example glyphs
Bengali–Assamese
Tibetan
Tamil	ஹ
Thai	ห
Malayalam	ഹ
Sinhala	හ
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	ה
Greek	Ε
Latin	E, Ɛ
Cyrillic	E, Є, Э, Ҩ
Properties
Phonemic representation	/h/
IAST transliteration	h H
ISCII code point	D8 (216)

Ha is a consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ha is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter .

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The values of the different forms of ह are:

• ह [hə] = 100 (१००)
• हि [hɪ] = 10,000 (१० ०००)
• हु [hʊ] = 1,000,000 (१० ०० ०००)
• हृ [hri] = 100,000,000 (१० ०० ०० ०००)
• हॢ [hlə] = ×10 (१०)
• हे [he] = ×10 (×१०)
• है [hɛː] = ×10 (×१०)
• हो [hoː] = ×10 (×१०)
• हौ [hɔː] = ×10 (×१०)

Historic Ha

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ha as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Ha did not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form. The third form of ha, in Kharoshthi () was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Ha

The Brahmi letter , Ha, is probably derived from the Aramaic He , and is thus related to the modern Latin E and Greek Epsilon. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ha can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period. As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi Ha historic forms

Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)

Tocharian Ha

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi , but does not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form.

Tocharian Ha with vowel marks

Ha	Hā	Hi	Hī	Hu	Hū	Hr	Hr̄	He	Hai	Ho	Hau	Hä

Kharoṣṭhī Ha

The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic He , and is thus related to H and Eta, in addition to the Brahmi Ha.

Devanagari Ha

Devanāgarī
Abugida Brahmic scripts Inherent vowel
Languages Hindi Marathi Nepali Konkani Maithili Sindhi Bodo Pali Prakrit Sanskrit and more
Transliteration IAST Hunterian NLK ISO 15919 Harvard-Kyoto ITRANS Velthuis SLP1 WX notation (ISCII)
Vowels and syllabic consonants अ a ॲ æ ऄ आ (का) ā इ (कि) i ई (की) ī उ (कु) u ऊ (कू) ū ॶ (कॖ) ॷ (कॗ) ऋ (कृ) r̥ ॠ (कॄ) r̥̄ ऌ (कॢ) l̥ ॡ (कॣ) l̥̄ ए (के) ē ऍ (कॅ) ê ऎ (कॆ) e ऐ (कै) ai (कॕ) (कॎ) ओ (को) ō ऑ (कॉ) ô ऒ (कॊ) o औ (कौ) au ॳ (कऺ) ॴ (कऻ) ॵ (कॏ) (Schwa deletion)
Consonants क k क़ q ख kh ख़ k̲h̲ ग g ग़ ġ ॻ gg घ gh ङ ṅ च c छ ch ज j ज़ z ॼ jj ॹ ž झ jh झ़ zh ञ ñ ट ṭ ठ ṭh ड ḍ ड़ ṛ ॾ ḍḍ ॸ ḍ ढ ḍh ढ़ ṛh ण ṇ त t थ th द d ध dh न n ऩ ṉ प p फ ph फ़ f ब b ॿ bb भ bh म m य y य़ ẏ ॺ र r ऱ ṟ ळ ḷ ऴ ḻ ल l व v श ś ष ṣ स s ह h ॽ (Conjuncts)
Diacritics, punctuation, symbols अं ṁ अः ḥ अँ m̐ अऀ ऽ ’ क़ क् ३ 3 ᳵ ẖ ᳶ ḫ अ॑ ` अ॒ _ अ॓ अ॔ ॐ aum̐ । ॥ ॰ ॱ ₹ INR and more (Devanagari (Unicode block) Devanagari Extended Devanagari Extended-A Vedic Extensions)
Numerals ० 0 १ 1 २ 2 ३ 3 ४ 4 ५ 5 ६ 6 ७ 7 ८ 8 ९ 9 Āryabhaṭa Akṣarapallī Bhūtasaṃkhyā Kaṭapayādi
v t e

Ha (ह) is a consonant of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter હ, and the Modi letter 𑘮.

Devanagari-using Languages

In all languages, ह is pronounced as [ɦə] or [ɦ] when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Conjuncts with ह

Devanagari exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts. In modern Devanagari texts, most conjuncts are formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". Some conjunct clusters are always represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters. Vertically stacked conjuncts are ubiquitous in older texts, while only a few are still used routinely in modern Devanagari texts. Lacking a vertical stem to drop for making a half form, Ha either forms a stacked conjunct/ligature, or uses its full form with Virama. The use of ligatures and vertical conjuncts may vary across languages using the Devanagari script, with Marathi in particular avoiding their use where other languages would use them.

Ligature conjuncts of ह

True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Devanagari are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra. Nepali and Marathi texts use the "eyelash" Ra half form for an initial "R" instead of repha.

• Repha र্ (r) + ह (ha) gives the ligature rha:

• Eyelash र্ (r) + ह (ha) gives the ligature rha:

• ह্ (h) + rakar र (ra) gives the ligature hra:

Stacked conjuncts of ह

Vertically stacked ligatures are the most common conjunct forms found in Devanagari text. Although the constituent characters may need to be stretched and moved slightly in order to stack neatly, stacked conjuncts can be broken down into recognizable base letters, or a letter and an otherwise standard ligature.

• छ্ (cʰ) + ह (ha) gives the ligature cʰha:

• ड্ (ḍ) + ह (ha) gives the ligature ḍha:

• ढ্ (ḍʱ) + ह (ha) gives the ligature ḍʱha:

• द্ (d) + ह (ha) gives the ligature dha:

• ह্ (h) + ब (ba) gives the ligature hba:

• ह্ (h) + च (ca) gives the ligature hca:

• ह্ (h) + ज (ja) gives the ligature hja:

• ह্ (h) + ज্ (j) + ञ (ña) gives the ligature hjña:

• ह্ (h) + क (ka) gives the ligature hka:

• ह্ (h) + ल (la) gives the ligature hla:

• ह্ (h) + ळ (ḷa) gives the ligature hḷa:

• ह্ (h) + म (ma) gives the ligature hma:

• ह্ (h) + न (na) gives the ligature hna:

• ह্ (h) + ण (ṇa) gives the ligature hṇa:

• ह্ (h) + ञ (ña) gives the ligature hña:

• ह্ (h) + व (va) gives the ligature hva:

• ह্ (h) + य (ya) gives the ligature hya:

• ङ্ (ŋ) + ह (ha) gives the ligature ŋha:

• ट্ (ṭ) + ह (ha) gives the ligature ṭha:

• ठ্ (ṭʰ) + ह (ha) gives the ligature ṭʰha:

Bengali Ha

The Bengali script হ is derived from the Siddhaṃ , and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, ह. The inherent vowel of Bengali consonant letters is /ɔ/, so the bare letter হ will sometimes be transliterated as "ho" instead of "ha". Adding okar, the "o" vowel mark, gives a reading of /ho/. Like all Indic consonants, হ can be modified by marks to indicate another (or no) vowel than its inherent "a".

হ in Bengali-using languages

হ is used as a basic consonant character in all of the major Bengali script orthographies, including Bengali and Assamese.

Conjuncts with হ

Bengali হ does not form conjuncts like most other letters, and can only be found in conjunction with Repha and Ya-phala.

• র্ (r) + হ (ha) gives the ligature rha, showing the repha prefix:

• র্ (r) + হ্ (h) + য (ya) gives the ligature rhya, with repha and the ya phala suffix:

Gujarati Ha

Ha (હ) is the thirty-third consonant of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ha ह with the top bar (shiro rekha) removed, and ultimately the Brahmi letter .

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, હ is pronounced as [hə] or [h] when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Ha	Hā	Hi	Hī	Hu	Hū	Hr	Hl	Hr̄	Hl̄	Hĕ	He	Hai	Hŏ	Ho	Hau	H
Gujarati Ha syllables, with vowel marks in red.

Conjuncts with હ

Gujarati હ exhibits conjunct ligatures, much like its parent Devanagari Script. While most Gujarati conjuncts can only be formed by reducing the letter shape to create a "half form" that fits tightly to following letter, Ha does not have a half form. A few conjunct clusters can be represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters, and vertically stacked conjuncts can also be found in Gujarati, although much less commonly than in Devanagari. Lacking a half form, Ha will normally use an explicit virama when forming conjuncts without a true ligature. True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Gujarati are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra.

• ર્ (r) + હ (ha) gives the ligature RHa:

• હ્ (h) + ર (ra) gives the ligature HRa:

• હ્ (h) + ણ (ɳa) gives the ligature HṆa:

• હ્ (h) + ન (na) gives the ligature HNa:

• હ્ (h) + લ (la) gives the ligature HLa:

• હ્ (h) + વ (va) gives the ligature HVa:

Javanese Ha

Telugu Ha

Ha (హ) is a consonant of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . It is closely related to the Kannada letter ಹ. Most Telugu consonants contain a v-shaped headstroke that is related to the horizontal headline found in other Indic scripts, although headstrokes do not connect adjacent letters in Telugu. The headstroke is normally lost when adding vowel matras. Telugu conjuncts are created by reducing trailing letters to a subjoined form that appears below the initial consonant of the conjunct. Many subjoined forms are created by dropping their headline, with many extending the end of the stroke of the main letter body to form an extended tail reaching up to the right of the preceding consonant. This subjoining of trailing letters to create conjuncts is in contrast to the leading half forms of Devanagari and Bengali letters. Ligature conjuncts are not a feature in Telugu, with the only non-standard construction being an alternate subjoined form of Ṣa (borrowed from Kannada) in the KṢa conjunct.

Malayalam Ha

Ha (ഹ) is a consonant of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Grantha letter Ha. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Conjuncts of ഹ

As is common in Indic scripts, Malayalam joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. There are several ways in which conjuncts are formed in Malayalam texts: using a post-base form of a trailing consonant placed under the initial consonant of a conjunct, a combined ligature of two or more consonants joined together, a conjoining form that appears as a combining mark on the rest of the conjunct, the use of an explicit candrakkala mark to suppress the inherent "a" vowel, or a special consonant form called a "chillu" letter, representing a bare consonant without the inherent "a" vowel. Texts written with the modern reformed Malayalam orthography, put̪iya lipi, may favor more regular conjunct forms than older texts in paḻaya lipi, due to changes undertaken in the 1970s by the Government of Kerala.

• ഹ് (h) + ന (na) gives the ligature hna:

• ഹ് (h) + മ (ma) gives the ligature hma:

Odia Ha

Ha (ହ) is a consonant of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter Ha. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

As is common in Indic scripts, Odia joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. The most common conjunct formation is achieved by using a small subjoined form of trailing consonants. Most consonants' subjoined forms are identical to the full form, just reduced in size, although a few drop the curved headline or have a subjoined form not directly related to the full form of the consonant. The second type of conjunct formation is through pure ligatures, where the constituent consonants are written together in a single graphic form. ହ generates conjuncts only by subjoining and does not form ligatures.

Kaithi Ha

Ha (𑂯) is a consonant of the Kaithi abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter Ha. Like in other Indic scripts, Kaithi consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Conjuncts of 𑂯

As is common in Indic scripts, Kaithi joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. The most common conjunct formation is achieved by using a half form of preceding consonants, although several consonants use an explicit virama. Most half forms are derived from the full form by removing the vertical stem. As is common in most Indic scripts, conjucts of ra are indicated with a repha or rakar mark attached to the rest of the consonant cluster. In addition, there are a few vertical conjuncts that can be found in Kaithi writing, but true ligatures are not used in the modern Kaithi script.

• 𑂩୍ (r) + 𑂯 (ha) gives the ligature rha:

Comparison of Ha

The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including Ha, are related as well.

Comparison of Ha in different scripts

Aramaic Kharoṣṭhī 𐨱 Ashoka Brahmi Kushana Brahmi Tocharian Gupta Brahmi Pallava Kadamba - Bhaiksuki 𑰮 Siddhaṃ Grantha 𑌹 Cham ꨨ Sinhala හ Pyu / Old Mon - Tibetan Newa 𑐴 Ahom 𑜑 Malayalam ഹ Telugu హ Burmese ဟ Lepcha ᰝ Ranjana Saurashtra ꢲ Dives Akuru 𑤭 Kannada ಹ Kayah Li ꤟ Limbu ᤜ Soyombo 𑪂 Khmer ហ Tamil ஹ Chakma 𑄦 Tai Tham ᩉ / ᩌ Meitei Mayek ꯍ Gaudi - Thai ห Lao ຫ Tai Le ᥞ Marchen 𑲎 Tirhuta 𑒯 New Tai Lue ᦠ Tai Viet ꪬ / ꪭ Aksara Kawi 'Phags-pa ꡜ Odia ହ Sharada 𑆲 Rejang ꥁ Batak ᯂ Buginese ᨖ Zanabazar Square 𑨱 Bengali-Assamese Takri 𑚩 Javanese ꦲ Balinese ᬳ Makasar - Hangul - Northern Nagari - Dogri 𑠪 Laṇḍā - Sundanese ᮠ Baybayin ᜑ Modi 𑘮 Gujarati હ Khojki 𑈪 Khudabadi 𑋞 Mahajani 𑅱 Tagbanwa - Devanagari Nandinagari 𑧎 Kaithi Gurmukhi ਹ Multani 𑊦 Buhid ᝑ Canadian Syllabics - Soyombo 𑪂 Sylheti Nagari ꠢ Gunjala Gondi 𑶇 Masaram Gondi 𑴬 Hanuno'o ᜱ Notes The middle "Kushana" form of Brahmi is a later style that emerged as Brahmi scripts were beginning to proliferate. Gupta Brahmi was definitely a stylistic descendant from Kushana, but other Brahmi-derived scripts may have descended from earlier forms. Tocharian is probably derived from the middle period "Kushana" form of Brahmi, although artifacts from that time are not plentiful enough to establish a definite succession. Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table) The Origin of Hangul from 'Phags-pa is one of limited influence, inspiring at most a few basic letter shapes. Hangul does not function as an Indic abugida. Although the basic letter forms of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics were derived from handwritten Devanagari letters, this abugida indicates vowel sounds by rotations of the letter form, rather than the use of vowel diacritics as is standard in Indic abugidas. May also be derived from Ranjana (see above) Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.

Character encodings of Ha

Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter Ha in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. Ha from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.

Character information

Preview					ஹ		హ		ହ		ಹ		ഹ		હ		ਹ
Unicode name	DEVANAGARI LETTER HA		BENGALI LETTER HA		TAMIL LETTER HA		TELUGU LETTER HA		ORIYA LETTER HA		KANNADA LETTER HA		MALAYALAM LETTER HA		GUJARATI LETTER HA		GURMUKHI LETTER HA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	2361	U+0939	2489	U+09B9	3001	U+0BB9	3129	U+0C39	2873	U+0B39	3257	U+0CB9	3385	U+0D39	2745	U+0AB9	2617	U+0A39
UTF-8	224 164 185	E0 A4 B9	224 166 185	E0 A6 B9	224 174 185	E0 AE B9	224 176 185	E0 B0 B9	224 172 185	E0 AC B9	224 178 185	E0 B2 B9	224 180 185	E0 B4 B9	224 170 185	E0 AA B9	224 168 185	E0 A8 B9
Numeric character reference	ह	ह	হ	হ	ஹ	ஹ	హ	హ	ହ	ହ	ಹ	ಹ	ഹ	ഹ	હ	હ	ਹ	ਹ
ISCII	216	D8	216	D8	216	D8	216	D8	216	D8	216	D8	216	D8	216	D8	216	D8

Character information

Preview	AshokaKushanaGupta		𐨱				𑌹
Unicode name	BRAHMI LETTER HA		KHAROSHTHI LETTER HA		SIDDHAM LETTER HA		GRANTHA LETTER HA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	69683	U+11033	68145	U+10A31	71086	U+115AE	70457	U+11339
UTF-8	240 145 128 179	F0 91 80 B3	240 144 168 177	F0 90 A8 B1	240 145 150 174	F0 91 96 AE	240 145 140 185	F0 91 8C B9
UTF-16	55300 56371	D804 DC33	55298 56881	D802 DE31	55301 56750	D805 DDAE	55300 57145	D804 DF39
Numeric character reference	𑀳	𑀳	𐨱	𐨱	𑖮	𑖮	𑌹	𑌹

Character information

Preview			ྷ		ꡜ		𑨱		𑐴		𑰮		𑆲
Unicode name	TIBETAN LETTER HA		TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER HA		PHAGS-PA LETTER HA		ZANABAZAR SQUARE LETTER HA		NEWA LETTER HA		BHAIKSUKI LETTER HA		SHARADA LETTER HA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	3943	U+0F67	4023	U+0FB7	43100	U+A85C	72241	U+11A31	70708	U+11434	72750	U+11C2E	70066	U+111B2
UTF-8	224 189 167	E0 BD A7	224 190 183	E0 BE B7	234 161 156	EA A1 9C	240 145 168 177	F0 91 A8 B1	240 145 144 180	F0 91 90 B4	240 145 176 174	F0 91 B0 AE	240 145 134 178	F0 91 86 B2
UTF-16	3943	0F67	4023	0FB7	43100	A85C	55302 56881	D806 DE31	55301 56372	D805 DC34	55303 56366	D807 DC2E	55300 56754	D804 DDB2
Numeric character reference	ཧ	ཧ	ྷ	ྷ	ꡜ	ꡜ	𑨱	𑨱	𑐴	𑐴	𑰮	𑰮	𑆲	𑆲

Character information

Preview	𑘮		𑧎		𑪂		ꠢ		𑶇
Unicode name	MODI LETTER HA		NANDINAGARI LETTER HA		SOYOMBO LETTER HA		SYLOTI NAGRI LETTER HO		GUNJALA GONDI LETTER HA		KAITHI LETTER HA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	71214	U+1162E	72142	U+119CE	72322	U+11A82	43042	U+A822	73095	U+11D87	69807	U+110AF
UTF-8	240 145 152 174	F0 91 98 AE	240 145 167 142	F0 91 A7 8E	240 145 170 130	F0 91 AA 82	234 160 162	EA A0 A2	240 145 182 135	F0 91 B6 87	240 145 130 175	F0 91 82 AF
UTF-16	55301 56878	D805 DE2E	55302 56782	D806 DDCE	55302 56962	D806 DE82	43042	A822	55303 56711	D807 DD87	55300 56495	D804 DCAF
Numeric character reference	𑘮	𑘮	𑧎	𑧎	𑪂	𑪂	ꠢ	ꠢ	𑶇	𑶇	𑂯	𑂯

References

1. Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
2. ^ Bühler, Georg (1898). "On the Origin of the Indian Brahmi Alphabet". archive.org. Karl J. Trübner. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
3. Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 1838
4. Pall, Peeter. "Microsoft Word - kblhi2" (PDF). Eesti Keele Instituudi kohanimeandmed. Eesti Keele Instituudi kohanimeandmed. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
5. "The Bengali Alphabet" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-28.

^note Conjuncts are identified by IAST transliteration, except aspirated consonants are indicated with a superscript "h" to distinguish from an unaspirated cononant + Ha.

• Indic letters