Gaf (gāf), is the name of different Perso-Arabic letters, all representing. They are all derived from the letter kāf, with additional diacritics, such as dots and lines. It is also one of the four letters the Persian alphabet added from the twenty-eight inherited from the Arabic alphabet (the others being pe, che, and že). In name and shape, it is a variant of kaf. Its numerical value is 5000 (see Abjad numerals). There are four forms, each used in different alphabets:

Use in Arabic

gāf or kāf has been traditionally used in the Levant and Iraq for. In Iraq, gāf is more used. Ġayn is preferred in the Levant (nowadays) and by Al Jazeera TV channel to represent, e.g., هونغ كونغ (Hong Kong), البرتغال (Portugal), أغسطس (August), and غاندالف (Gandalf). Foreign publications and TV channels in Arabic, e.g. Deutsche Welle and Alhurra, follow this practice. In Morocco, gāf or kāf is used. In Tunisia and Algeria, or qāf is used. The standard practice in Egypt (for Literary and Egyptian Arabic), as in coastal Yemen and southwestern and eastern Oman, is the use of for.

Variant forms

Kaf with line

The most common form of gāf is based on kāf with an additional line. It is rarely used in Standard Arabic itself but is used to represent the sound when writing other languages. When representing this sound in transliteration of Persian into Hebrew, it is written as כ׳ kaph and a geresh. It is frequently used in Persian, Pashto, Uyghur, Urdu and Kurdish, and is one of four Perso-Arabic letters not found in Arabic. It is also commonly used in Mesopotamian Arabic.

Kaf with ring

In Pashto, this letter is used for.

Kaf with single dot above

This gāf is derived from a variant form of kāf, with the addition of a dot. It is not used in the Arabic language itself, but is used in the Jawi script to represent. Unicode includes two forms on this letter: one based on the standard Arabic kāf, and one based on the variant form. The latter is the preferred form.

Kaf with three dots below

This letter is derived from a form of kāf, with the addition of three dots below.

Gaf with inverted stroke

In Chechen, Kabardian, and Adyghe, the Arabic character is used to spell or. In Chechen, ⟨⟩ is alternatively used as well.

Kaf with a dot below

This letter is derived from a form of kāf, with the addition of three a dot below. It is not used in the Arabic language itself, but is used in the Arwi alphabet for the Tamil language and the Pegon script for Indonesian languages to represent.

Kaf with three dots

The letter is used in Berber and Moroccan Arabic to represent. Examples of its use include city names (e.g., Agadir: ) and family names (e.g., El Guerrouj: ). The preferred form is. It was also used in Ottoman Turkish for. Both forms are based on variant forms of kāf (/), with the addition of three dots. The preferred form is. It was also used in Persian instead of.

Character encoding