Kaph | |
---|---|
Phoenician | ![]() |
Hebrew | כ ,ך |
Aramaic | ![]() |
Syriac | ܟ |
Arabic | ك |
Phonemic representation | k (x) |
Position in alphabet | 11 |
Numerical value | 20 |
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician | |
Greek | Κ, Χ?, Ψ? |
Latin | K, X? |
Cyrillic | К, Х?, Ѱ? |
Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician kāp 𐤊, Hebrew kāp̄ כ, Aramaic kāp 𐡊
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek kappa (Κ), Latin K, and Cyrillic К.
Kaph is thought to be derived from a pictogram of a hand (in both modern Arabic and modern Hebrew, kaph כף means "palm" or "grip"), though in Arabic the a in the name of the letter (كاف) is pronounced longer than the a in the word meaning "palm" (كَف).
|
Orthographic variants | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Various print fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi script | ||
Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | ||
כ | כ | כ | ![]() |
![]() |
Hebrew spelling: כַּףְ
Main article: Modern Hebrew phonology |
The letter kaf is one of the six letters that can receive a dagesh kal. The other five are bet, gimel, daleth, pe, and tav (see Hebrew alphabet for more about these letters).
There are two orthographic variants of this letter that alter the pronunciation:
Name | Symbol | IPA | Transliteration[1] | Example |
---|---|---|---|---|
Kaf | כּ | [k] | k | kangaroo |
Khaf | כ | [χ] or [x] | ch, kh, or k | loch |
When the kaph has a "dot" in its center, known as a dagesh, it represents a voiceless velar plosive ([k]). There are various rules in Hebrew grammar that stipulate when and why a dagesh is used.
When this letter appears as כ without the dagesh ("dot") in its center it represents [χ], like the ch in German "Bach".
In modern Israeli Hebrew the letter heth is often pronounced as a [χ], but many communities (particularly those of Mizrahi and Sephardi origins, as well as immigrants to Israel from Arab countries and Arab Israelis) have differentiated between these letters as in other Semitic languages.
Orthographic variants | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Various Print Fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi script | ||
Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | ||
ך | ך | ך | ![]() |
![]() |
If the letter is at the end of a word the symbol is drawn differently. However, it does not change the pronunciation or transliteration in any way. The name for the letter is final kaf (kaf sofit). Four additional Hebrew letters take final forms: tsadi, mem, nun, and pei. Kaf/khaf is the only Hebrew letter that can take a vowel in its word-final form, which is pronounced after the consonant, that vowel being the qamatz.
Name | Alternate name | Symbol |
---|---|---|
Final kaf | Kaf sofit | ךּ |
Final khaf | Khaf sofit | ך |
In gematria, kaph represents the number 20. Its final form represents 500, but this is rarely used, tav and qoph (400+100) being used instead.
As a prefix, kaph is a preposition:
The letter is named kāf, and it is written in several ways depending on its position in the word.
There are three variants of the letter:
Position in word | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
---|---|---|---|---|
Glyph form: (Help) |
ك | ـك | ـكـ | كـ |
Position in word | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
---|---|---|---|---|
Glyph form: (Help) |
ک | ـک | ـکـ | کـ |
Position in word | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
---|---|---|---|---|
Glyph form: (Help) |
ڪ | ـڪ | ـڪـ | ڪـ |
In varieties of Arabic kāf is almost universally pronounced as the voiceless velar plosive /k/, but in rural Palestinian and Iraqi, it is pronounced as a voiceless postalveolar affricate [t͡ʃ].
In Literary Arabic, kāf, when used as a prefix كَـ ka, is one of the Arabic words for "like", "as", or "as though" (the other, مِثْل /miθl/, is unrelated). For example, كَطَائِر (/katˤaːʔir/), means "like a bird" or "as though a bird" (as in Hebrew, above) and attached to ذٰلِك /ðaːlik/ "this, that" forms the fixed expression كَذٰلِك /kaðaːlik/ "like so, likewise."
kāf is used as a possessive suffix for second-person singular nouns (feminine taking kāf-kasrah كِ, /ki/ and masculine kāf-fatḥah كَ /ka/); for instance, كِتَاب kitāb ("book") becomes كِتَابُكَ kitābuka ("your book", where the person spoken to is masculine) كِتَابُكِ kitābuki ("your book", where the person spoken to is feminine). At the ends of sentences and often in conversation the final vowel is suppressed, and thus كِتَابُك kitābuk ("your book"). In several varieties of vernacular Arabic, however, the kāf with no harakat is the standard second-person possessive, with the literary Arabic harakah shifted to the letter before the kāf: thus masculine "your book" in these varieties is كِتَابَك kitābak and feminine "your book" كِتَابِك kitābik.
Preview | כ | כּ | ך | ךּ | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | HEBREW LETTER KAF | HEBREW LETTER KAF WITH DAGESH | HEBREW LETTER FINAL KAF | HEBREW LETTER FINAL KAF WITH DAGESH | ||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 1499 | U+05DB | 64315 | U+FB3B | 1498 | U+05DA | 64314 | U+FB3A |
UTF-8 | 215 155 | D7 9B | 239 172 187 | EF AC BB | 215 154 | D7 9A | 239 172 186 | EF AC BA |
Numeric character reference | כ |
כ |
כּ |
כּ |
ך |
ך |
ךּ |
ךּ |
Preview | ك | ﻛ | ﻜ | ﻚ | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | ARABIC LETTER KAF | ARABIC LETTER KAF INITIAL FORM | ARABIC LETTER KAF MEDIAL FORM | ARABIC LETTER KAF FINAL FORM | ||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 1603 | U+0643 | 65243 | U+FEDB | 65244 | U+FEDC | 65242 | U+FEDA |
UTF-8 | 217 131 | D9 83 | 239 187 155 | EF BB 9B | 239 187 156 | EF BB 9C | 239 187 154 | EF BB 9A |
Numeric character reference | ك |
ك |
ﻛ |
ﻛ |
ﻜ |
ﻜ |
ﻚ |
ﻚ |
Preview | 𐤊 | 𐡊 | ܟ | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | PHOENICIAN LETTER KAF | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER KAPH | SYRIAC LETTER KAPH | |||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 67850 | U+1090A | 67658 | U+1084A | 1823 | U+071F |
UTF-8 | 240 144 164 138 | F0 90 A4 8A | 240 144 161 138 | F0 90 A1 8A | 220 159 | DC 9F |
UTF-16 | 55298 56586 | D802 DD0A | 55298 56394 | D802 DC4A | 1823 | 071F |
Numeric character reference | 𐤊 |
𐤊 |
𐡊 |
𐡊 |
ܟ |
ܟ |