Ethiopic Syllable He

On the Keyman Modern Geʾez layout, press h. Another Ethiopic keyboard layout may assign ህ to a different key.

What does ህ mark in a word?

It is the sixth form in an Ethiopic h-series. A series groups syllable signs that share a consonant but pair it with different vowels. The ሀ series is the h-series, and ህ is its sixth form. Amharic Latin-letter transcription writes it as hɨ; in a word, that sixth-order vowel may be neutral or silent.

ሕ is the sixth form of a different h-series. Amharic may pronounce the two spellings alike, but they remain distinct characters.

How did Ethiopic writing gain vowels?

It developed from South-Arabian forms and later gained vowel marking. In Ethiopia, pseudo-Sabaean inscriptions—texts in a South-Arabian-style script—date to the 8th/7th centuries BCE. An indigenous Ethiopic consonant script, or abjad, appears in the 1st–3rd centuries CE. Vowel marking for Geʿez, a classical Ethiopian language, in the 4th century CE made the script an abugida: each consonant form also indicates its vowel.