Initial Do-Chashmi He

It is a joining shape of ھ, not a new sound. The underlying letter is called do-chashmi he (“two-eyed he”). In Urdu it follows a consonant to mark its breathy, aspirated pronunciation: بھ is one consonant sound, not b followed by a separate h.

In Uyghur, the underlying ھ represents /h/ and can begin a word. “Initial” describes this glyph's joining shape: it connects to a following Arabic-script letter. Standard Urdu does not begin words with do-chashmi he, because the letter there must follow the consonant it changes.

Why did Urdu use it for aspiration?

It let Urdu spell a breathy consonant with a shared second letter. Urdu adapted the Persian-derived Arabic script to write Indo-Aryan speech, including aspiration: a consonant pronounced with a strong puff of air. At Fort William College around 1800, John Gilchrist proposed writing sounds such as bh, ph, and kh with do-chashmi he; the spelling convention took about a century to settle into regular use. In Urdu, ھ and ہ were used interchangeably as styles until the early 20th century; standard Urdu distinguishes aspiration from the independent h letter.

Should I type this exact shape?

For ordinary text, type the base letter and let layout shape it. This fixed presentation form exists for compatibility with older data and software. Text layout normally chooses Arabic letter forms from neighboring characters. In Urdu, enter ھ after the consonant; in Uyghur, enter it as /h/ with a Uyghur input method. Use the fixed form only when a legacy record specifically requires it.