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Kaph (also spelledkaf) is the eleventhletter of theSemitic abjads, includingPhoeniciankāp 𐤊,Hebrewkāp̄כ‎,Aramaickāp 𐡊,Syriackāp̄ ܟ, andArabickāfك‎ (inabjadi order).

The Phoenician letter gave rise to theGreekkappa (Κ),LatinK, andCyrillicК.

Kaph is thought to be derived from a pictogram of a hand (in both modernArabic andmodern Hebrew,kaphכף means "palm" or "grip"), though in Arabic thea in the name of the letter (كاف) is pronounced longer than thea in the word meaning "palm" (كَف). The small ک above thekāf in its final and isolated forms⟨ك  ـك⟩ was originally‘alāmatu-l-ihmāl, but became a permanent part of the letter. Previously this sign could also appear above the medial form ofkāf, instead of the stroke on itsascender.

The letter is namedkāf, and it is written in several ways depending on its position in the word.

There are four variants of the letter:

• The basic form is used for the Arabic language and many other languages and is theNaskh glyph form.

• The cross-barred form,al-kāf al-mashkūlah oral-kāf al-mashqūqah,^[1] is theNastaliq form used predominantly in thePerso-Arabic script and as an alternative form of the version above in all forms of Arabic. It has a particular use in theSindhi language of Pakistan where it represents theaspirated /kʰ/ and is calledkeheh.

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

• The variant of letterkhe in Persian, and inTausug with a line above namedgaf is used, and it is thus written as:

Other than the four variants of the letterkāf as mentioned below, there are also five other variants of the Persian lettergaf, namely,

• the letterkhe with one dot above is used in theJawi alphabet, and it is thus written as:

• the letterkāf with three dots below is used in thePegon alphabet, using a modified basic form ofkāf, and it is thus written as:

• the letterkāf with one dot below is also used in the Pegon alphabet for writingJavanese andSundanese in Arabic script, but is also used in theArwi alphabet for theTamil language to represent/ɡ/, and it is thus written as:

• the letterkhe with a ring is used inPashto, and it is thus written as:

• inChechen,Kabardian, andAdyghe, the Arabic characterࢰ‎ is used to spell/kʼ/ or/t͡ʃʼ/. In Chechen, ⟨گ‎⟩ is alternatively used as well.

InOttoman Turkish,Chagatai,Kazakh,Kyrgyz,Azerbaijani,Uyghur,Moroccan Arabic,Xiao'erjing script, the Arabic letterng has two forms, namely:

• the letterkhe with three dots above is used, and thus it is written as:

• the basic form of the letterkāf with three dots is used, and thus it is written as:

There is also one another variant of the letterng, which is the letterkhe with three dots below, and it is thus written as:

In theSindhi alphabet, the lettergaf with two dots above is used, and it is thus written as:

There is also lettergueh in the Sindhi alphabet.Gueh is thus written as:

Before 1928, the Nogai alphabet was written in Arabic script. There is one such letter based on a basic form ofkāf with three dots below, and it is thus written as:

Invarieties of Arabickāf is almost universally pronounced as thevoiceless velar plosive/k/, but inrural Palestinian andIraqi, it is pronounced as avoiceless postalveolar affricate[t͡ʃ].

In Arabic,kāf, when used as a prefixكَـka, functions as a comparativepreposition (أداة التشبيه, such asمِثْل/miθl/ orشَبَه/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 toذٰلِك/ðaːlik/ "this, that" forms the fixed expressionكَذٰلِك/kaðaːlik/ "like so, likewise."

When adjoined at the end of a word,kāf is used as apossessive suffix for second-person singular nouns (feminine takingkāf-kasrahكِ,/ki/ and masculinekāf-fatḥahكَ/ka/); for instance,كِتَابkitāb ("book") becomesكِتَابُكَkitābuka ("your book", where the person spoken to is masculine)كِتَابُكِkitābuki ("your book", where the person spoken to is feminine). At the ends of sentences and often in conversation the final vowel is suppressed, and thusكِتَابُكkitābuk ("your book"). In several varieties of vernacular Arabic, however, thekāf with noharakat is the standard second-person possessive, with the literary Arabic harakah shifted to the letterbefore thekāf: thus masculine "your book" in these varieties isكِتَابَكkitābak and feminine "your book"كِتَابِكkitābik.

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

Hebrew spelling:כַּף‎

The letter kaf is one of the six letters that can receive adagesh kal. The other five arebet,gimel,daleth,pe, andtav (seeHebrew alphabet for more about these letters).

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

When the kaph has a "dot" in its center, known as adagesh, it represents avoiceless velar plosive (/k/). There are various rules inHebrew grammar that stipulate when and why a dagesh is used.

When this letter appears asכ‎without thedagesh ("dot") in its center it represents[χ], like thech in German "Bach", or[x], likech in Scottish English "loch".

Inmodern Israeli Hebrew the letterheth is often pronounced the same way. However,Mizrahi Jews andPalestinian Arabs living in Israel 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 ortransliteration in any way. The name for the letter isfinal kaf (kaf sofit). Four additional Hebrew letters take final forms:mem,nun,pei andtsadi. 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 theqamatz.

Ingematria, kaph represents the number 20. Its final form represents 500, but this is rarely used,tav andqoph (400+100) being used instead.

As aprefix, kaph is apreposition:

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

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related toKaph (letter).

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