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

Kaf (also spelled kaph) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Kāp Phoenician kaph.svg, Hebrew Kāf כ, Aramaic Kāp Kaph.svg, 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[edit]



Hebrew kaf[edit]

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts Cursive
Serif Sans-serif Monospaced

Hebrew spelling: כָּף

Hebrew pronunciation[edit]

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).


Name Symbol IPA Transliteration Example
Kaf כּ [k] k kangaroo

Kaph with the dagesh[edit]

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)[edit]

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[edit]

Orthographic variants
Various Print Fonts Cursive
Standard Sans-serif Serif

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[edit]

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:

  • 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 כאשר, ka'asher (when).

Arabic kāf[edit]

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:
Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ك‎ ـك‎ ـكـ‎ كـ‎
  • the cross-barred form, al-kāf al-mashkūlah/al-mashqūqah,[1] is used predominantly as an alternative form of the version above in all forms of Arabic (excluding Modern Standard Arabic) and in the languages that use the Perso-Arabic script.
Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ک‎ ـک‎ ـکـ‎ کـ‎
  • the long s-shaped variant form, al-kāf al-mabsūṭah,[2] which is only used in Arabic texts and for writing Qur'an. It is used consistently in the Sindhi language for unaspirated /k/:
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[edit]


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[edit]

Character כ ך ك ک ܟ
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Character 𐎋 𐡊 𐤊
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex

See also[edit]

External links[edit]