H system

The H-system was first proposed by L. Zamenhof in his supplement to the Second Book in 1888. The mention of the H-system was also added to the description of the Esperanto alphabet in subsequent translations of the First Book (for example, in the English translation of 1889).

In the official statement “On the special technical needs regarding our alphabet and spelling” ^[1] of the Esperanto Academy in Official Communication No. 6 of 01/21/2007, the H-system is called the “Fundamental replacement system (ch, gh, hh, jh, sh, u) "

Even though this system was proposed by L. Zamenhof, it has several drawbacks. Firstly, the letter H is already an independent Esperanto letter, and this violates the principle of “one letter - one sound”. Secondly, in this system, the letter U corresponds to two sounds at once - [u] and [ŭ], which again violates the principle of “one letter - one sound”.

Another problem with the H-system is that letter combinations in words may be mistaken for surrogate spelling. For example, in the words flu gh aveno, cha sh undo and traumata (tra ŭ mata or tra u mata?). In such cases, you need to use a different pointer. Zamenhof recommended the use of the apostrophe in such cases: flug'haveno, ches'hundo. A hyphen may also be used: flug-haveno, ces-hundo.

For a long time, the H-system was practically not used, with the exception of some cases in telegrams. Since the Internet period, the H-system has become more widely used than ever before. However, it is less popular than the unofficial X-system of surrogate recording (the latter is devoid of problems inherent in the H-system).

• X system