Kaph
Encyclopedia
Kaph is the eleventh letter of many Semitic
abjad
s, including Phoenician, Aramaic
, Hebrew
Kaf , Arabic alphabet
, Persian alphabet . Its value is k.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek
Kappa (Κ), Latin
K
, and Cyrillic
К
.
, kaph means palm/grip).
Hebrew spelling:
, Daleth, Kaph, Pe
, and Tav
(see Hebrew Alphabet for more about these letters).
There are two orthographic variants of this letter which alter the pronunciation:
([k]). There are various rules in Hebrew grammar
that stipulate when and why a dagesh is used.
In modern Israeli Hebrew
the sound value of Chaph is the same as that of Heth
, but many communities have differentiated between them.
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). There are four other Hebrew letters that take final forms, Tsadi
, Mem
, Nun
, and Pei
.
No longer commonly used in modern Hebrew, biblical Hebrew had a Kaph Sophit (Final Kaph):
Both the final forms of Chaph and Kaph take vowels. It is the only Hebrew final letter in which a vowel is necessary, and it is also the only vowel-taking final in which the consonant sound is pronounced first. The two vowels a final Chaph or Kaph takes are sh'va and chataf kamats. In most Hebrew fonts they are written directly inside the curve rather than in line with the vowels that precede them.
, 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:
Kaf is almost universally pronounced as the voiceless velar plosive
/k/, but in Iraqi
, Kuwaiti Arabic
and Gulf Arabic
in general, it is sometimes pronounced as a voiceless postalveolar affricate
[t͡ʃ] (possibly under Persian
influence).
, Kaf is used as a prefix meaning "like", "as", or "as though". For example, (/katˤaːʔir/), meaning "like a bird" or "as though a bird" (as in Hebrew, above). Unlike the Hebrew, the word is not a contraction; the prefix is one of the Arabic words for "like" or "as" (the other, /miθl/, is unrelated). The /ka/ prefix sometimes has been added to other words to create fixed constructions. For instance, it is prefixed to /ðaːlik/ "this, that" to form the fixed word /kaðaːlik/ "like so, likewise."
Kaf is used as a possessive
suffix for second-person singular nouns (feminine taking , /ki/ and masculine /ka/); for instance, ("book") becomes ("your book", where the person spoken to is masculine) ("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 ("your book"). In several varieties of vernacular Arabic, however, the kaf with no harakat
is the standard second-person possessive, with the Literary Arabic harakah shifted to the letter before the kaf: thus masculine "your book" in these varieties is and feminine "your book" .
i Arabic ( as opposed to ) and thus takes a different codepoint in Unicode
.
But it uses the same final form as the Maghrebi style
arabic.
Semitic
In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...
abjad
Abjad
An abjad is a type of writing system in which each symbol always or usually stands for a consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate vowel....
s, including Phoenician, Aramaic
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
, Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
Kaf , Arabic alphabet
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
, Persian alphabet . Its value is k.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
Kappa (Κ), Latin
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
K
K
K is the eleventh letter of the English and basic modern Latin alphabet.-History and usage:In English, the letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive; this sound is also transcribed by in the International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA....
, and Cyrillic
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
К
Ka (Cyrillic)
Ka is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet.It commonly represents the voiceless velar plosive , like the pronunciation of ⟨k⟩ in "king".-History:...
.
Origin of Kaph
Kaph is thought to have been derived from a pictogram of a hand (in both modern Arabic and modern HebrewHebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, kaph means palm/grip).
Hebrew Kaf
| Orthographic Orthography The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography... variants |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various Print Fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi Script Rashi script Rashi script is a semi-cursive typeface for the Hebrew alphabet. It is named for the author of the most famous rabbinic commentary on the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, Rashi, and is customarily used for printing his commentaries. The typeface is based on 15th century Sephardic semi-cursive... |
||
| Serif | Sans-serif Sans-serif In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif or san serif typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without".... | Monospaced | ||
| כ | כ | כ |  |
 |
Hebrew spelling:
Hebrew Pronunciation
The letter Kaf is one of the six letters which can receive a Dagesh Kal. The six are Bet, GimelGimel (letter)
Gimel is the third letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew , Syriac and Arabic...
, Daleth, Kaph, Pe
Pe (letter)
Pe is the seventeenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Pei and Persian, Arabic ....
, and Tav
Taw (letter)
Taw, Tav or Taf is the twenty-second and last letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Taw and Arabic alphabet .Its original sound value is ....
(see Hebrew Alphabet for more about these letters).
There are two orthographic variants of this letter which alter the pronunciation:
| | Name | | Symbol | | IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic... |
| Transliteration Transliteration Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another... |
| Example | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaf | [k] | k | kangaroo | ||||||
| Chaf | [x] or [χ] | ch or kh | loch | ||||||
Kaph with the dagesh
When the Kaph has a "dot" in its center, known as a dagesh, then it represents a voiceless velar plosiveVoiceless velar plosive
The voiceless velar stop or voiceless velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k....
([k]). There are various rules in Hebrew grammar
Hebrew grammar
-History of studies in Hebrew grammar:The Masoretes in the 7th to 11th centuries laid the foundation for grammatical analysis of Hebrew. As early as the 9th century Judah ibn Kuraish discussed the relationship between Arabic and Hebrew...
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 then it represents x, like the ch in German "Bach".In modern Israeli Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
the sound value of Chaph is the same as that of Heth
Heth (letter)
' or ' is the reconstructed name of the eighth letter of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, continued in descended Semitic alphabets as Phoenician , Syriac , Hebrew ḥēth , Arabic , and Berber .Heth originally represented a voiceless fricative, either pharyngeal , or...
, but many communities have differentiated between them.
Final form of Kaf
| Orthographic Orthography The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography... variants |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various Print Fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi Script Rashi script Rashi script is a semi-cursive typeface for the Hebrew alphabet. It is named for the author of the most famous rabbinic commentary on the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, Rashi, and is customarily used for printing his commentaries. The typeface is based on 15th century Sephardic semi-cursive... |
||
| Standard | Sans-serif Sans-serif In typography, a sans-serif, sans serif or san serif typeface is one that does not have the small projecting features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French word sans, meaning "without".... | Serif Serif In typography, serifs are semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. A typeface with serifs is called a serif typeface . A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”... |
||
| 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
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
in any way. The name for the letter is, Final Kaf ( Kaf Sofit). There are four other Hebrew letters that take final forms, Tsadi
Tsade
' is the eighteenth letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew ' and Arabic ' . Its oldest sound value is probably , although there is a variety of pronunciation in different modern Semitic languages and their dialects...
, Mem
Mem
Mem is the thirteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic...
, Nun
Nun (letter)
Nun is the fourteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . It is the third letter in Thaana , pronounced as "noonu"...
, and Pei
Pe (letter)
Pe is the seventeenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Pei and Persian, Arabic ....
.
| | Name | | Alternate Name | | Symbol | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final Kaf | Kaf Sofit | ||||
| Final Chaf | Chaf Sofit | ||||
No longer commonly used in modern Hebrew, biblical Hebrew had a Kaph Sophit (Final Kaph):
Both the final forms of Chaph and Kaph take vowels. It is the only Hebrew final letter in which a vowel is necessary, and it is also the only vowel-taking final in which the consonant sound is pronounced first. The two vowels a final Chaph or Kaph takes are sh'va and chataf kamats. In most Hebrew fonts they are written directly inside the curve rather than in line with the vowels that precede them.
Significance of Kaph in Hebrew
In gematriaGematria
Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...
, Kaph represents the number 20. Its final form represents 500 but this is rarely used, Tav and Qoph
Qoph
Qoph or Qop is the nineteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Syriac, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . Its sound value is an emphatic or . The OHED gives the letter Qoph a transliteration value of Q or a K and a final transliteration value as a ck...
(400+100) being used instead.
As a prefix, Kaph is a preposition:
- It can mean "like" or "as". This is an abbreviation of , k'mo (like/as)
- In colloquial Hebrew, Kaph and ShinShin (letter)Shin literally means "Sharp" ; It is the twenty-first letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Aramaic/Hebrew , and Arabic ....
together have the meaning of "when". This is a contraction of , ka'asher (when).
Arabic kāf
The letter is named kāf, and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:Kaf is almost universally pronounced as the voiceless velar plosive
Voiceless velar plosive
The voiceless velar stop or voiceless velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k....
/k/, but in Iraqi
Iraqi Arabic
Iraqi Arabic is a continuum of mutually intelligible Arabic varieties native to the Mesopotamian basin of Iraq as well as spanning into eastern and northern Syria, western Iran, southeastern Turkey, and spoken in respective Iraqi diaspora communities.-Varieties:Iraqi Arabic has two major varieties...
, Kuwaiti Arabic
Kuwaiti Arabic
Kuwaiti Arabic is a Gulf Arabic dialect spoken in Kuwait. Though it shares the majority of its' features with most Gulf dialects, it also exhibits largely phonetic features that are unique to the dialects of Iraq as well.-See also:* Varieties of Arabic...
and Gulf Arabic
Gulf Arabic
Gulf Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language spoken around the shore of the Persian Gulf such as in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman...
in general, it is sometimes pronounced as a voiceless postalveolar affricate
Voiceless postalveolar affricate
The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩...
[t͡ʃ] (possibly under Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
influence).
Use in Literary Arabic
In Literary ArabicLiterary Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic , Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in most formal speech....
, Kaf is used as a prefix meaning "like", "as", or "as though". For example, (/katˤaːʔir/), meaning "like a bird" or "as though a bird" (as in Hebrew, above). Unlike the Hebrew, the word is not a contraction; the prefix is one of the Arabic words for "like" or "as" (the other, /miθl/, is unrelated). The /ka/ prefix sometimes has been added to other words to create fixed constructions. For instance, it is prefixed to /ðaːlik/ "this, that" to form the fixed word /kaðaːlik/ "like so, likewise."
Kaf is used as a possessive
Possessive
Possessive may be:* Possessive case* Possessive adjective* Possessive pronoun* Possessive suffix* Possessive construction, pattern among words indicating possession * For possessive behavior in a relationship, see Attachment in adults...
suffix for second-person singular nouns (feminine taking , /ki/ and masculine /ka/); for instance, ("book") becomes ("your book", where the person spoken to is masculine) ("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 ("your book"). In several varieties of vernacular Arabic, however, the kaf with no harakat
Harakat
The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, including ijam ⟨⟩ , and tashkil ⟨⟩...
is the standard second-person possessive, with the Literary Arabic harakah shifted to the letter before the kaf: thus masculine "your book" in these varieties is and feminine "your book" .
Persian kaph
In Persian alphabet "Kaph" has a slightly different final form from the MashriqMashriq
Mashriq or Mashreq is derived from the Arabic consonantal root sh-r-q relating to the east or the sunrise, and essentially means "east"...
i Arabic ( as opposed to ) and thus takes a different codepoint in Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
.
But it uses the same final form as the Maghrebi style
Maghrebi script
Maghrebi script is a cursive form of the Arabic alphabet influenced by Kufic letters that developed in the Maghreb and later in Spain, particularly Andalusia.The Maghribi script can be divided in five other sub/scripts:...
arabic.