Kaph

Kaph

כ,ך

ܟܟ
ك,ك
Phonemic representation k, x
Position in alphabet 11
Numerical value 20
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician

Κ

K

К

Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Kāp , Hebrew Kāf כ, Aramaic Kāp , Syriac Kāp̄ ܟܟ, and Arabic Kāf ک/ك (in Abjadi order).

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek kappa (Κ), Latin K, and Cyrillic К.

Origin of kaph

Kaph is thought to have been derived from a pictogram of a hand (in both modern Arabic and modern Hebrew, kaph means palm/grip).

Hebrew kaf

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts Cursive
Hebrew
Rashi
script
Serif Sans-serif Monospaced
כ כ כ

Hebrew spelling: כָּף

Hebrew pronunciation

The letter kaf is one of the six letters which 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 which alter the pronunciation:

Name Symbol IPA Transliteration Example
Kaf כּ [k] k kangaroo
Chaf כ [χ] or [x] ch or kh loch

Kaph with the dagesh

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.

Kaph without the dagesh (chaph)

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 have differentiated between these letters as in other Semitic languages.

Final form of kaf

Orthographic variants
Various Print Fonts Cursive
Hebrew
Rashi
script
Standard Sans-serif Serif
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 Chaf Chaf Sofit ך

Significance of kaph in Hebrew

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:

Arabic kāf

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: ك ـك ـكـ كـ
Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ک ـک ـکـ کـ
Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: 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].

Use in literary Arabic

In literary Arabic, kāf is used as a prefix meaning "like", "as", or "as though". For example, كَطَائِر (/katˤaːʔir/), meaning "like a bird" or "as though a bird" (as in Hebrew, above). The prefix كَـ ka is one of the Arabic words for "like" or "as" (the other, مِثْل /miθl/, is unrelated). The /ka/ prefix sometimes has been added to other words to create fixed constructions. For instance, it is prefixed to ﺫَلِك /ðaːlik/ "this, that" to form the fixed word كَذَلِك /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.

Character encodings

Character כ ך ك ک ܟ
Unicode name HEBREW LETTER KAF HEBREW LETTER FINAL KAF ARABIC LETTER KAF/CAF ARABIC LETTER KEHEH SYRIAC LETTER KAPH
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 1499 U+05DB 1498 U+05DA 1603 U+0643 1705 U+06A9 1823 U+071F
UTF-8 215 155 D7 9B 215 154 D7 9A 217 131 D9 83 218 169 DA A9 220 159 DC 9F
Numeric character reference כ כ ך ך ك ك ک ک ܟ ܟ
Character 𐎋 𐡊 𐤊
Unicode name SAMARITAN LETTER KAAF UGARITIC LETTER KAF IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER KAPH PHOENICIAN LETTER KAF
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 2058 U+080A 66443 U+1038B 67658 U+1084A 67850 U+1090A
UTF-8 224 160 138 E0 A0 8A 240 144 142 139 F0 90 8E 8B 240 144 161 138 F0 90 A1 8A 240 144 164 138 F0 90 A4 8A
UTF-16 2058 080A 55296 57227 D800 DF8B 55298 56394 D802 DC4A 55298 56586 D802 DD0A
Numeric character reference ࠊ ࠊ 𐎋 𐎋 𐡊 𐡊 𐤊 𐤊

See also

External links

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