This group is the famous one: four different h sounds. English has only one, so it takes practice. The mouth, which writes r, comes first. You already know two groups (The Alphabet I: ꜣ j y ꜥ w, The Alphabet II: b p f m n).
Key idea
The mouth 𓂋 r, the reed shelter 𓉔 h, the twisted wick 𓎛 ḥ, the round sign 𓐍 ḫ and the animal’s belly 𓄡 ẖ. h, ḥ, ḫ and ẖ are four different consonants.
| Sign | Code | What it shows | Letter | How to think of it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 𓂋 | D21 | mouth | r | r; also the preposition r “to, toward” |
| 𓉔 | O4 | reed shelter in a field | h | plain h, as in “house” |
| 𓎛 | V28 | twisted wick of flax | ḥ | an emphatic h, like Arabic ḥ |
| 𓐍 | Aa1 | round sign (perhaps a placenta) | ḫ | kh, as in Scottish “loch” |
| 𓄡 | F32 | belly with teats and tail | ẖ | a softer kh, as in German “ich” |
The marks matter. A dot under h, a little arc under h, a line under h: each is a different letter, and words change meaning with them. ḥr is “face” or “on”, written with the face sign; ḫr is “with, near (a person)”; and hrw is “day”.
Why it works
Why keep four letters when we pronounce two of them alike? Because the Egyptians kept them apart in spelling, so they were different sounds to them, and dictionary order depends on them: ḥ words, ḫ words and ẖ words fill separate sections. A plain h in place of ḥ is a misspelling, not a variant.
Common mistake
Writing a plain h for all four. ḥtp “offering” with a plain h is no word at all. When you type, use H for ḥ, x for ḫ and X for ẖ (the Manuel de Codage), or the keypad. Check: the wick 𓎛 is ḥ (dot under), the round sign 𓐍 is ḫ (arc under), the belly 𓄡 is ẖ (line under).
Worked example: Which h?
The wick 𓎛 writes which letter?
- The twisted wick of flax is V28.
- It writes the emphatic ḥ (MdC H).
Answer: ḥ
Worked example: Spell it
Spell ḫr “with” in one-consonant signs.
- ḫ: the round sign 𓐍.
- r: the mouth 𓂋.
Answer: 𓐍𓂋