Gāf (Persian letter)
Letter used to represent the /ɡ/ sound in Persian alphabet
Gāf (گ; Persian: گاف), is the name of different Perso-Arabic letters, all representing /ɡ/. They are all derived from the letter Kāf (ک), with additional diacritics, such as dots and lines. In name and shape, it is a variant of Kāf (ک).
It is also one of the five letters the Persian alphabet added to the Arabic alphabet, which are; Že (ژ), Če (چ), and Gaf (گ), in addition to the obsolete Ve (ڤ). Its numerical value is 5000 (see Abjad numerals), except for the Jawi variant (ݢ) which instead has a value of 6000. There are four forms, each used in different alphabets:
- Gāf (گ) in the Persian alphabet, Tausug written in the Arabic script
- Gāf (ݢ) in the Jawi script
- Gāf (ࢴ or ڮ) in the Pegon script
- Gāf (ګ) in Pashto
01Use in Arabic
A non-standard letter to the Arabic alphabet; Gāf (گ) has been traditionally used in Iraq and parts of the Levant for /g/. In Morocco, a similar letter (ݣ) is used. While in other Arabic-speaking countries other letters are used, such as a varitation of Qāf (ق) known as Gāf (ڨ) in Tunisia and Algeria, and any of the standard letters Jīm (ج), Ghayn (غ), or Qāf (ق) elsewhere.
02Variant forms
Kāf with line
The most common form of Gāf (گ) is based on Kāf (ک) with an additional line. It is rarely used in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) itself but is used to represent the sound /ɡ/ when writing other languages.
When representing this sound in transliteration of Persian into Hebrew, it is written as Kaf (כ׳) with a geresh.
It is frequently used in Persian, Urdu, Balochi, Sindhi, Kurdish, and is one of four Perso-Arabic letters not found in Arabic. It is also commonly used in Mesopotamian Arabic.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naskh glyph form: (Help) |
گ | ـگ | ـگـ | گـ |
| Nastaliq glyph form: | گ | ــــگ | ــــگــــ | گــــ |
Kāf with ring
In Pashto, this letter (ګ) is used for /ɡ/.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naskh glyph form: (Help) |
ګ | ـګ | ـګـ | ګـ |
| Nastaliq glyph form: | ګ | ــــګ | ــــګــــ | ګــــ |
Kāf with single dot above
This Gāf (ݢ) is derived from a variant form of Kāf (ک), with the addition of a dot. It's used in the Jawi script to represent /ɡ/.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ݢ | ـݢ | ـݢـ | ݢـ |
Unicode includes two forms on this letter: one based on the standard Arabic Kāf (ك), and one based on the variant form (ک). The latter is the preferred form.
| Preview | ڬ | ݢ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH DOT ABOVE | ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH DOT ABOVE | ||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 1708 | U+06AC | 1890 | U+0762 |
| UTF-8 | 218 172 | DA AC | 221 162 | DD A2 |
| Numeric character reference | ڬ | ڬ | ݢ | ݢ |
Kāf with three dots below
This letter (ڮ) is derived from a form of Kāf (ك), with the addition of three dots below.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ڮ | ـڮ | ـڮـ | ڮـ |
Gāf with inverted stroke
In Chechen, Kabardian, and Adyghe, the character (ࢰ) is used to spell /kʼ/ or /t͡ʃʼ/.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ࢰ | ـࢰ | ـࢰـ | ࢰـ |
Kāf with a dot below
This letter (ࢴ) is derived from a form of Kāf (ك), with the addition of three a dot below. It's used in the Arwi alphabet for the Tamil language and the Pegon script for Indonesian languages to represent /ɡ/.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ࢴ | ـࢴ | ـࢴـ | ࢴـ |
Kāf with three dots
This letter (ڭ) is used in Moroccan Arabic and Arabic-script Berber to represent /ɡ/. Examples of its use include city names (e.g., Agadir: أݣادير) and family names (e.g., El Guerrouj: الݣروج). The preferred form is (ڭ).
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ڭ | ـڭ | ـڭـ | ڭـ |
It was also used in Ottoman Turkish for /ŋ/. Both forms are based on variant forms of Kāf (ك/ک), with the addition of three dots. The preferred form is (ݣ).
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ݣ | ـݣ | ـݣـ | ݣـ |
03Character encoding
| Preview | ګ | ڬ | ڮ | گ | ࢰ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH RING | ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH DOT ABOVE | ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH THREE DOTS BELOW | ARABIC LETTER GAF | ARABIC LETTER GAF WITH INVERTED STROKE | |||||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 1707 | U+06AB | 1708 | U+06AC | 1710 | U+06AE | 1711 | U+06AF | 2224 | U+08B0 |
| UTF-8 | 218 171 | DA AB | 218 172 | DA AC | 218 174 | DA AE | 218 175 | DA AF | 224 162 176 | E0 A2 B0 |
| Numeric character reference | ګ | ګ | ڬ | ڬ | ڮ | ڮ | گ | گ | ࢰ | ࢰ |
| Preview | ݢ | ݣ | ڭ | ࢴ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH DOT ABOVE |
ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH THREE DOTS ABOVE |
ARABIC LETTER NG | ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH DOT BELOW | ||||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 1890 | U+0762 | 1891 | U+0763 | 1709 | U+06AD | 2228 | U+08B4 |
| UTF-8 | 221 162 | DD A2 | 221 163 | DD A3 | 218 173 | DA AD | 224 162 180 | E0 A2 B4 |
| Numeric character reference | ݢ | ݢ | ݣ | ݣ | ڭ | ڭ | ࢴ | ࢴ |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Gāf (Persian letter)”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Gaf.svg by Ikiroid, Public domain
- Top Floors Cafe Argana in 2006 (Cropped).png by Sylvain Machefert / Symac, CC BY-SA 3.0
- کتاب الابنیه عن حقایق الادویه، برگی از دستنویس محفوظ در کتابخانه مجلس در تهران.jpg by اردشیر خسروی, Public domain
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