H The eighth symbol in the Phoenician alphabet, as in its

descendants, has altered less in the course of ages than most alphabetic symbols. From the beginning of Phoenician records it has consisted of two uprights connected by transverse bars, at first either two or three in number. The uprights are rarely perpendicular and the cross bars are not so precisely arranged as they are in early Greek and Latin inscriptions. In these the symbol takes the form of two rectangles out of which the ordinary H develops by the omission of the cross bars at top and bottom. It is very exceptional for this letter to have more than three cross bars, though as many as five are occasionally found in N.W. Greece. Within the same inscription the appearance of the letter often varies considerably as regards the space between and the length of the uprights. When only one bar is found it regularly crosses the uprights about the middle. In a few cases the rectangle is closed at top and bottom but has no middle cross bar ▯. The Phoenician name for the letter was Heth (Hēt). According to Semitic scholars it had two values, (1) a glottal spirant, a very strong h, (2) an unvoiced velar spirant like the German ch in ach. The Greeks borrowed it with the value of the ordinary aspirate and with the name ἧτα. Very early in their history, however, most of the Greeks of Asia Minor lost the aspirate altogether, and having then no further use for the symbol with this value they adopted it to represent the long e-sound, which was not originally distinguished by a different symbol from the short sound (see E). With this value its name has always been ἧτα in Greek. The alphabet of the Asiatic Greeks was gradually adopted elsewhere. In official documents at Athens H represented the rough breathing or aspirate ‘ till 403 B.C.; henceforth it was used for η. The Western Greeks, however, from whom the Romans obtained their alphabet, retained their aspirate longer than those of Asia Minor, and hence the symbol came to the Romans with the value not of a long vowel but of the aspirate, which it still preserves. The Greek aspirate was itself the first or left-hand half of this letter ├, while the smooth breathing ’ was the right-hand portion ┤. At Tarentum ├ is found for H in inscriptions. The Roman aspirate was, however, a very slight sound which in some words where it was etymologically correct disappeared at an early date. Thus the cognate words of kindred languages show that the Lat. anser “goose” ought to begin with h, but nowhere is it so found. In none of the Romance languages is there any trace of initial or medial h, which shows that vulgar Latin had ceased to have the aspirate by 240 B.C. The Roman grammarians were guided to its presence by the Sabine forms where f occurred; as the Sabines said fasena (sand), it was recognised that the Roman form ought to be harena, and so for haedus (goat), hordeum (barley), &c. Between vowels h was lost very early, for ne-hemo (no man) is throughout the literature nēmo, bi-himus (two winters old) bīmus. In the Ciceronian age greater attention was paid to reproducing the Greek aspirates in borrowed words, and this led to absurd mistakes in Latin words, mistakes which were satirized by Catullus in his epigram (84) upon Arrius, who said chommoda for commoda and hinsidias for insidias. In Umbrian h was often lost, and also used without etymological value to mark length, as in comohota (= Lat. commota), a practice to which there are some doubtful parallels in Latin.

In English the history of h is very similar to that in Latin. While the parts above the glottis are in position to produce a vowel, an aspirate is produced without vibration of the vocal chords, sometimes, like the pronunciation of Arrius, with considerable effort as a reaction against the tendency to “drop the h’s.” Though h survives in Scotland, Ireland and America as well as in the speech of cultivated persons, the sound in most of the vulgar dialects is entirely lost. Where it is not ordinarily lost, it disappears in unaccented syllables, as “Give it ’im” and the like. Where it is lost, conscious attempts to restore it on the part of uneducated speakers lead to absurd misplacements of h and to its restoration in Romance words when it never was pronounced, as humble (now recognized as standard English), humour and even honour.  (P. Gi.)  HAAG, CARL (1820-⁠), a naturalized British painter, court painter to the duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was born in Bavaria, and was trained in the academies at Nuremburg and Munich. He practised first as an illustrator and as a painter, in oil, of portraits and architectural subjects; but after he settled in England, in 1847, he devoted himself to water colours, and was elected associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1850 and member in 1853. He travelled much, especially in the East, and made a considerable reputation by his firmly drawn and carefully elaborated paintings of Eastern subjects. Towards the end of his professional career Carl Haag quitted England and returned to Germany.

HAAKON (Old Norse Hákon), the name of several kings of Norway, of whom the most important are the following:—

Haakon I., surnamed “the Good” (d. 961), was the youngest son of Harald Haarfager. He was fostered by King Aethelstan of England, who brought him up in the Christian religion, and on the news of his father’s death in 933 provided him with ships and men for an expedition against his half-brother Erik, who had been proclaimed king. On his arrival in Norway Haakon gained the support of the landowners by promising to give up the rights of taxation claimed by his father over inherited real property. Erik fled, and was killed a few years later in England. His sons allied themselves with the Danes, but were invariably defeated by Haakon, who was successful in everything he undertook except in his attempt to introduce Christianity, which aroused an opposition he did not feel strong enough to face. He was killed at the battle of Fitje in 961, after a final victory over Erik’s sons. So entirely did even his immediate circle ignore his religion that a court skald composed a poem on his death representing his welcome by the heathen gods into Valhalla.

Haakon IV., surnamed “the Old” (1204-1263), was declared to be the son of Haakon III., who died shortly before the former’s birth in 1204. A year later the child was placed under the protection of King Inge, after whose death in 1217 he was chosen king; though until 1223 the church refused to recognize him, on the ground of illegitimacy, and the Pope’s dispensation for his coronation was not gained until much later. In the earlier part of his reign much of the royal power was in the hands of Earl Skule, who intrigued against the king until 1239, when he proceeded to open hostility and was put to death. From this time onward Haakon’s reign was marked by more peace and prosperity than Norway had known for many years, until in 1263 a dispute with the Scottish king concerning the Hebrides, a Norwegian possession, induced Haakon to undertake an expedition to the west of Scotland. A division of his army seems to have repulsed a large Scottish force at Largs (though the later Scottish accounts claim this battle as a victory), and, having won back the Norwegian possessions in Scotland, Haakon was wintering in the Orkneys, when he was taken ill and died on the 15th of December 1263. A great part of his fleet had been scattered and destroyed by storms. The most important event in his reign was the voluntary submission of the Icelandic commonwealth. Worn out by internal strife fostered by Haakon’s emissaries, the Icelandic chiefs acknowledged the Norwegian king as overlord in 1262. Their example was followed by the colony of Greenland.

Haakon VII. (1872-  ), the second son of Frederick VIII., king of Denmark, was born on the 3rd of August 1872, and was usually known as Prince Charles of Denmark. When in 1905 Norway decided to separate herself from Sweden the Norwegians