ਹ - ਹਾਹਾ - haahaa - Fifth letter of the Gurmukhi alphabet.
Name: haahaa Shape: ਹ - see note* Spelling: ਹਾਹਾ Sound: 'h' as the 'h' in 'hat' - see note**. Type: Consonant *Note: This letter sometimes appears added to the preceding consonant thus without a vowel sound added (doing so modifies the pitch of the voice - raising it - because Punjabi is a tonal language). This is done by writing it at the foot of that consonant. See 'Other Bits' for more details.
**Note: This letter sometimes appears at the end of a word in which case it isn't always pronounced.
Mouth: hold your mouth in exactly the same way that you would if you were saying the sound of the Roman alphabet letter 'h' as in the start of the word 'hat'. Tongue: flat along bottom of mouth Soft Palette: not particularly blocking nose Lips: apart Vocal Chords: Used Aspirated: yes
Confusion: ਹ ਰ Reading: When you first start, there is a fair chance that you might confuse ਰ with ਹ. Remember that the curl doesn't make it back to the vertical bar in ਹ. Writing: The same confusion as with reading. You'll need to take a bit of care with this one. You won't write many ਹs to start with so you will probably draw the curl right back to the vertical bar.
Also, there is no doubt that ਹ looks like a letter 'J' in Roman text. You will eventually get over this - just forget that you know how to read Roman text (easier said than done).
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