Kaph

К

Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh

).

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the

.

Origin

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).

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:

• the basic form is used for the Arabic language and many other languages and is the Naskh glyph form:

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ك‎	ـك‎	ـكـ‎	كـ‎

• the cross-barred form, notably al-kāf al-mashkūlah or al-kāf al-mashqūqah,
  keheh
  .

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ک‎	ـک‎	ـکـ‎	کـ‎

• the long s-shaped variant form, al-kāf al-mabsūṭah,^[2] which is used in Arabic texts and in Thuluth and Kufic. It is a separate letter in the Sindhi language of Pakistan, where it represents the unaspirated /k/.

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ڪ‎	ـڪ‎	ـڪـ‎	ڪـ‎

In

[t͡ʃ].

As an affix

Prefix

In Arabic, kāf, when used as a prefix كَـ ka, functions as a comparative preposition (أداة التشبيه, such as مِثْل /miθl/ or شَبَه /ʃabah/)^[3] and can carry the meaning of English words "like", "as", or "as though" . 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."

Possessive suffix

When adjoined at the end of a word, kāf is used as a

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.

Hebrew kaf

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

Hebrew spelling: כַּף‎

Hebrew pronunciation

The letter kaf is one of the six letters that can receive a

for more about these letters).

There are two orthographic variants of this letter that alter the pronunciation:

Name	Symbol	IPA	Transliteration[4]	Example
Kaf	כּ‎	[k]	k	kangaroo
Khaf	כ‎	[χ] or [x]	ḵ, ch, or kh	loch

Kaf with the dagesh

When the kaph has a "dot" in its center, known as a

Hebrew grammar

that stipulate when and why a dagesh is used.

Kaf without the dagesh (khaf)

When this letter appears as כ‎ without the dagesh ("dot") in its center it represents [χ], like the ch in German "Bach".

In

have differentiated between these letters as in other Semitic languages.

Final form of kaf

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

.

Name	Alternate name	Symbol
Final kaf	Kaf sofit	ךּ‎
Final khaf	Khaf sofit	ך‎

Significance of kaph in Hebrew

In

(400+100) being used instead.

As a

preposition

:

• It can mean "like" or "as", as in literary Arabic (see below).
• In colloquial Hebrew, kaph and shin together have the meaning of "when". This is a contraction of כַּאֲשֶׁר‎, ka'asher (when).

Character encodings

Character information

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

Character information

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

Character information

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

See also

• Ca (Indic)
• Gaf
• Ka (Indic)
• Ngaph

References