Editing Ĥ (section)

== History ==
{{Main|Esperanto orthography#Origin|l1 = Esperanto orthography § Origin}}
"Ĥ" was created by adding a [[circumflex]] to an ordinary "[[H]]". It first appeared as part of the alphabet of the [[International auxiliary language|international language]] [[Esperanto]], with the publication of the ''[[Unua Libro]]'' on 26 July 1887 marking the beginning of its wider usage.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-10-20|title=Unua Libro en Esperanto (First Book in Esperanto) - National Geographic Society|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/jul26/unua-libro-en-esperanto-first-book-esperanto/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020135352/https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/jul26/unua-libro-en-esperanto-first-book-esperanto/|archive-date=2017-10-20|access-date=2022-02-23|website=nationalgeographic.org}}</ref> Like all other non-[[ISO basic Latin alphabet|basic Latin]] letters in the Esperanto alphabet, it was inspired by Western Slavic Latin alphabets (e.g. [[Czech orthography|Czech]]), but uses a circumflex instead of a [[caron]] — most likely to make the orthography appear more international (i.e. less Slavic) and more compatible with French [[typewriter]]s, which were in general use at the time and had a [[dead key]] for the circumflex, allowing it to be typed over any character.

=== Reported end ===
⟨Ĥ⟩ was always the least frequent letter in Esperanto orthography,{{Efn|Although 'Ĥ' usually has more dictionary entries than the letter '[[Ĵ]]', ⟨ĵ⟩ is part of the common {{lang|eo|[[Esperanto vocabulary#Word formation|-aĵo]]}} suffix, which is why it occurs more frequently.}} occurring mostly in words with [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] etymologies, where it represented a Romanized [[chi (letter)|chi]] (in fact its name in the Kalocsay abecedary, {{Lang|eo|ĥi}}, was most likely inspired by this usage). Since chi is pronounced {{IPA|[k]}} in most languages, [[neologism|neologistic]] equivalents soon appeared{{Why|date=February 2022|reason=Why did speakers feel the need to replace it?}} in which ⟨ĥ⟩ was replaced by ⟨k⟩, such as {{Lang|eo|teĥniko}}{{nbsp}}→ {{Lang|eo|tekniko}} ("technology") and {{Lang|eo|ĥemio}}{{nbsp}}→ {{Lang|eo|kemio}} ("chemistry"). Such changes were probably due to the 'k' sound being easier to pronounce by most European speakers, and the resulting word sounding more similar to the native equivalent. Some other replacements followed different patterns, such as {{Lang|eo|ĥino}}{{nbsp}}→ {{Lang|eo|ĉino}} ("Chinese {{bracket|person}}").

These additions and replacements came very early and were in general use by [[World War I]]. Since then, the end of ⟨ĥ⟩ has been often discussed, but has never really happened. In modern times (post-[[World War II]]), no new coinages intended to replace words with ⟨ĥ⟩ in them have seen general use, with the notable of exception of {{Lang|eo|koruso}} for {{Lang|eo|ĥoro}} ("chorus"). Some words originally containing a ⟨ĥ⟩ are preferred to existing replacements (old or new), such as {{Lang|eo|ĥaoso}} vs. {{Lang|eo|kaoso}} ("chaos").{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Several words commonly use ⟨ĥ⟩, particularly those not derived from Greek words ({{Lang|eo|ĥano}} ("khan"), {{Lang|eo|ĥoto}} ("[[Jota (music)|jota]]"), {{Lang|eo|Liĥtenŝtejno}} ("[[Liechtenstein]]"), etc.) or those in which there is another word that uses "k" in that context. The latter include:
*{{Lang|eo|eĥo}} ("echo") ≠ {{Lang|eo|eko}} ("beginning")
*{{Lang|eo|ĉeĥo}} ("Czech") ≠ {{Lang|eo|ĉeko}} ("bank check")
*{{Lang|eo|ĥoro}} ("chorus") ≠ {{Lang|eo|koro}} ("heart") ≠ {{Lang|eo|horo}} ("hour")