Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Arabic kāf, Aramaic kāp 𐡊, Hebrew kāp̄ , Phoenician kāp 𐤊, and Syriac kāp̄ ܟ. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek kappa (Κ), Latin K, and Cyrillic К.

Origin

Kaph is thought to be derived from a pictogram of a hand (in both modern Arabic and modern Hebrew, kaph כף means "palm" or "grip"), though in Arabic the a in the name of the letter (كاف) is pronounced longer than the a in the word meaning "palm" (كَف).

Arabic kāf

The letter is named كاف kāf, and it is written in several ways depending on its position in the word. There are four variants of the letter,

As an affix

Prefix

In Arabic, kāf, when used as a prefix كَـ ka, functions as a comparative preposition (أداة التشبيه, such as مِثْل or شَبَه ) and can carry the meaning of English words "like", "as", or "as though". For example, كَطَائِر, means "like a bird" or "as though a bird" (as in Hebrew, above) and attached to ذٰلِك "this, that" forms the fixed expression كَذٰلِك "like so, likewise."

Possessive suffix

When adjoined at the end of a word, kāf is used as a possessive suffix for second-person singular nouns (feminine taking kāf-kasrah كِ, and masculine kāf-fatḥah كَ ); 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.

Hebrew kaf

Hebrew spelling:

Hebrew pronunciation

The letter kaf is one of the six letters that can receive a dagesh kal. The other five are bet, gimel, daleth, pe, and tav (see Hebrew alphabet for more about these letters). There are two orthographic variants of this letter that alter the pronunciation:

Kaf with the dagesh

When the kaph has a "dot" in its center, known as a dagesh, it represents a voiceless velar plosive. There are various rules in Hebrew grammar that stipulate when and why a dagesh is used.

Kaf without the dagesh (khaf)

When this letter appears as without the dagesh ("dot") in its center it represents, like the ch in German "Bach", or , like ch in Scottish English "loch". In modern Israeli Hebrew the letter heth is often pronounced the same way. However, Mizrahi Jews and Israeli Arabs have differentiated between these letters as in other Semitic languages.

Final form of kaf

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: mem, nun, pei and tsadi. 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.

Significance of kaph in Hebrew

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:

Character encodings