Acceptable ways to write it: khat (kht), chat (cht)
The letter khat (𐤇) or Kh/kh (Ḫ/ḫ) is the eighth letter in the Afroasiatic language known as Paleo-Hebrew (Ābarayat). The letter has been equated with the letter Kh, Ch, or H in the English language. However, it shouldn’t be confused with the Paleo-Hebrew letter ha (𐤄) which also can be equated with the letter H by itself. Nonetheless, the letters hold different pronunciations.
The iteration of it as Kh is prevalent in Egyptian and Hamitic (African) languages. Whereas, the iteration of it as Ch is more prevalent in Germanic, Khazarian, and Turkish languages. Since the original tribes lived closer to and interacted more with the Egyptians than they did the Khazarians we utilize the Kh spelling of the letter. However, both are functionally accurate.
The Paleo-Hebrew language or the original language of the Ābarayam is one spoken with an emphasis on the rauakh (breath, wind, spirit). With the language of the Ābarayam, each letter has a meaning and a number associated with it that adds meaning to each word they’re used with. Below you will be able to learn more about the letter in Ancient Hebrew, Yiddish Hebrew, Greek, and much more.
Letter Meanings
| Letter | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𐤇 (kh) – kha | tent wall, fence, separation, divide, abdomen, belly |
| Prefix | Not applicable |
| Suffix | Not applicable |
| Number | 8 |
Based on the meaning of the letters the word could be defined as:
- “wall of…”
- “separation of…”
- “divide a…”
- “division of…”
Definitions for 𐤇 / kh
| Language | Word | Transliteration | Pronunciation | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ābarayat | 𐤇 | kh | kha | Tent wall, fence, separation, outside, inside, half, divide, abdomen, belly |
| English | Kh kh | kh | /khaa/ | the combination of the letters k and h in the modern English alphabet. |
| Hebrew | ח | h | /ch/ | courtyard, thread |
| Arabic | ح | ḫāʾ | /khaa/ | life, benefit, live |
| Greek | Χ χ / Η η / Ͱ ͱ | x / kh | [x] / [h] | Chi: the twenty-second letter of the Greek alpha-beta |
Images for 𐤇 / kh
History of Meaning
The pictograph of the word is of a tent wall. The meanings of this letter are “outside,” as the function of the wall is to protect the occupants from the elements, half, as the wall in the middle of the tent divides the tent into the male and female sections, and secular, as something that is outside. When added to a word the sound is more of a “kh” sound.
History of the Letter H
The letter H was introduced in 1066 CE (4991 AM). It’s one of the most controversial letters in the English language. The breathy sound associated with the letter made academics argue that the letter was unnecessary — and many Latin and British scholars began dropping the “H” in 500 CE. Despite the controversy, “H” secured a spot in our alphabet.
In the alphabets used to write Greek, the letter became superfluous as a result of the disappearance of the aspirate which it represented in that dialect. It was accordingly put to new use to indicate the open long e which had arisen through the alteration of the primitive Greek long a.
In English, the initial h is pronounced in words of Germanic origin (e.g., hunt, hook); in some words of Romance origin, the h remains unpronounced (e.g., heir, honor), but in others, it has been restored (e.g., humble, humor). The initial h often disappears in unaccented syllables (e.g., “What did he say?”).
History of the Letter Ch
The letter Ch was introduced in 200 BCE (3725 AM). “Ch” is frequently used in transliterating into many European languages from Greek, Hebrew, Yiddish, and various others.
The digraph was first used in Latin in the 2nd century B.C. to transliterate the sound of the Greek letter chi in words borrowed from that language. In classical times, Greeks pronounced this as an aspirated voiceless velar plosive [kʰ]. In post-classical Greek (Koine and Modern) this sound developed into a fricative [x]. Since neither sound was found in native Latin words (with some exceptions like pulcher ‘beautiful’, where the original sound [k] was influenced by [l] or [r]), in Late Latin the pronunciation [k] occurred.
In Old French, a language that had no [kʰ] or [x] and represented [k] by c, k, or qu, ch began to be used to represent the voiceless palatal plosive [c], which came from [k] in some positions and later became [tʃ] and then [ʃ]. Now the digraph ch is used for all the aforementioned sounds, as shown below. The Old French usage of ch was also a model of several other digraphs for palatals or postalveolars: lh (digraph), nh (digraph), sh (digraph).
History of the Letter Kh or Ḫ
The letter Kh or Ḫ in transcriptions of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages represents the aspirated voiceless velar plosive (/kʰ/). For most other languages it represents the voiceless velar fricative /x/, for example in transcriptions of the letter ḫāʾ (خ) in standard Arabic, standard Persian, and Urdu, Cyrillic Х, х (kha), Spanish j. When used for transcription of the letter ḥet (ח) in Sephardic Hebrew, it represents the voiceless pharyngeal fricative /ħ/. In Canadian Tlingit it represents /qʰ/, which in Alaska is written k. In the Ossete Latin alphabet, it was used for /kʼ/.
Ḫāʾ or Khāʾ or Xe (خ, transliterated as ḫ, ḵ, kh, or ẖ), is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet. It is based on the ḥāʾ ح. It represents the sound [x] or [χ] in Modern Standard Arabic. The pronunciation of خ is very similar to German, Irish, and Polish unpalatalized “ch”, Russian х (Cyrillic Kha), Greek χ and Peninsular Spanish, and Southern Cone “j”. In name and shape, it is a variant of ḥāʾ. South Semitic also kept the phoneme separate, and it appears as South Arabian ḫ, Ge’ez Ḫarm ኀ. Its numerical value is 600 (see Abjad numerals).
When representing this sound in the transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written as ח׳. The most common transliteration in English is “kh”, e.g. Khartoum (الخرطوم al-Kharṭūm), Sheikh (شيخ). Ḫāʾ is written in several ways depending on its position in the word.
Definitions for 𐤇𐤉 / khay
When adding the 𐤉 (yad) to the end of a word, it creates a possessive of the original word. It can either signify “my…” or identify a member of a nation. For example, 𐤏𐤁𐤓 (Ābar) is the progenitor, but 𐤏𐤁𐤓𐤉 (Ābaray) is the singular descendant of him also known as a Hebrew.
| Language | Word | Transliteration | Pronunciation | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ābarayat | 𐤇𐤉 | khay | khey | alive, living, age, alive, appetite, wild beast, company, congregation, lifetime, lively, life, that lives. |
| English | alive | alive | uh-lahyv | having life; living; existing; not dead or lifeless. |
| Hebrew | חַי | chay | khah'-ee | alive, living, age, alive, appetite, wild beast, company, congregation, lifetime, lively, life, that lives. |
| Arabic | ||||
| Greek |
Images for 𐤇𐤉 / khay
Definitions for 𐤇𐤉𐤌 / khayam
When adding the 𐤌 (mayam) after the 𐤉 (yad) to the end of a word, it creates a plural of the original word. It can identify multiple members of a nation. For example, 𐤏𐤁𐤓 (Ābar) is the progenitor, but 𐤏𐤁𐤓𐤉𐤌 (Ābarayam) are the plural descendants of him also known as Hebrews.
| Language | Word | Transliteration | Pronunciation | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ābarayat | 𐤇𐤉𐤌 | khayam | khaw-yawm | |
| English | ||||
| Hebrew | ||||
| Arabic | ||||
| Greek |
Images for 𐤇𐤉𐤌 / khayam
Definitions for 𐤇𐤉𐤕 / khayat
When adding the 𐤕 (tau) after the 𐤉 (yad) to the end of a word, it creates a plural of the original word. It identifies the language or a sign of a nation’s existence. For example, 𐤏𐤁𐤓 (Ābar) is the progenitor, but 𐤏𐤁𐤓𐤉𐤕 (Ābarayat) is the language of him also known as Paleo-Hebrew language.
| Language | Word | Transliteration | Pronunciation | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ābarayat | 𐤇𐤉𐤕 | khayat | khaw-yawt | |
| English | ||||
| Hebrew | ||||
| Arabic | ||||
| Greek |
Images for 𐤇𐤉𐤕 / khayat
Classification
You can continue your studies of the words by viewing Strong’s entries for:
