Gaf
Gaf, or gāf, can be the name of different Perso-Arabic letters, all representing /ɡ/. They are all forms of the letter kāf, with additional diacritics, such as dots and lines. There are four forms, each used in different places:
- گ in Perso-Arabic alphabet
- ݢ in the Jawi script
- ࢴ in the Pegon script
- ڭ in Moroccan Arabic
- ڨ in Algerian Arabic, Tunisian Arabic and Berber languages
- ګ in Pashto
- ڳ in Sindhi and Saraiki
| Persian alphabet |
|---|
| ا ب پ ت ث ج چ ح خ د ذ ر ز ژ س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک گ ل م ن و ه ی |
|
Perso Arabic script |
| Arabic alphabet |
|---|
|
Arabic script |
Note that the standard practice in Egyptian Arabic is to use ج ǧīm for /g/, and in Arabic dialects like Hejazi Arabic and Najdi Arabic the غ and ق qāf are used instead to represent /ɡ/ e.g. هونغ كونغ (Hong Kong) and غاندالف (Gandalf), so the name gāf (Hejazi: [ɡäːf], Najdi: [ɡɑːf]) can be used for the letter when trying to explain a pronunciation or a spelling of a word, whether the word is foreign or dialectal.
Gaf with line
گ is based on kāf with an additional line. It is rarely used in Arabic itself, but may be used to represent the sound /ɡ/ when writing other languages. It is frequently used in Persian, Pashto, Uyghur, Urdu and Kurdish and is one of four Perso-Arabic letters not found in Arabic.
ڭ can also be used to represent /ɡ/ in Morocco. [1]
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
گ | ـگ | ـگـ | گـ |
Gaf with single dot above
ݢ is derived from a variant form (ک) of kāf with the addition of a dot. It is not used in the Arabic language itself, but is used in the Jawi script of Malay to represent a voiced velar stop /ɡ/. 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.[2]
| Appearance | Code point | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ڬ | U+06AC | ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH DOT ABOVE |
| ݢ | U+0762 | ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH DOT ABOVE |
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ڬ | ـڬ | ـڬـ | ڬـ |
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ݢ | ـݢ | ـݢـ | ݢـ |
Gaf with single dot below
ࢴ is derived from a variant form (ك) of kāf with the addition of a dot below. It is not used in the Arabic language itself, but is used in the Pegon script of Indonesian languages to represent a voiced velar stop /ɡ/. This is also used in Arwi alphabet.[3]
| Appearance | Code point | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ࢴ | U+08B4 | ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH DOT BELOW |
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ࢴ | ـࢴ | ـࢴـ | ࢴـ |
Gaf with line and two dots
ڳ is derived from a variant form (ک) of kāf with the addition of a line and two dots. It is used in the Sindhi and Saraiki alphabets.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ڳ | ـڳ | ـڳـ | ڳـ |
Gaf with three dots
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ݣ or ڭ is based on a variant form (ك) of kāf with the addition of three dots. It is used in Berber and Moroccan Arabic to represent /ɡ/. Examples of its use include city names (such as Agadir أݣادير, also written: أكادير) and family names (such as El Guerrouj الݣروج, also written: الكروج). The preferred form is ڭ.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ڭ | ـڭ | ـڭـ | ڭـ |
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ݣ | ـݣ | ـݣـ | ݣـ |
Gaf with ring
In Pashto:
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ګ | ـګ | ـګـ | ګـ |
Gaf with inverted stroke
In Chechen on the Arabic character ࢰ is used to write a Кӏ (Kh).
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ࢰ | ـࢰ | ـࢰـ | ࢰـ |
Character encoding
| Preview | گ | ڳ | ݢ | ࢴ | ݣ | ڰ | ࢰ | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | ARABIC LETTER GAF | ARABIC LETTER GUEH | ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH DOT ABOVE | ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH DOT BELOW | ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH THREE DOTS ABOVE | ARABIC LETTER GAF WITH RING | ARABIC LETTER GAF WITH INVERTED STROKE | |||||||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
| Unicode | 1711 | U+06AF | 1715 | U+06B3 | 1890 | U+0762 | 2228 | U+08B4 | 1891 | U+0763 | 1712 | U+06B0 | 2224 | U+08B0 |
| UTF-8 | 218 175 | DA AF | 218 179 | DA B3 | 221 162 | DD A2 | 224 162 180 | E0 A2 B4 | 221 163 | DD A3 | 218 176 | DA B0 | 224 162 176 | E0 A2 B0 |
| Numeric character reference | گ | گ | ڳ | ڳ | ݢ | ݢ | ࢴ | ࢴ | ݣ | ݣ | ڰ | ڰ | ࢰ | ࢰ |
References
- The letter ڭ used in an article on Moroccan Arabic learning; "واش كتهدر بالإنݣليزية" "Learn Moroccan Arabic". Best Riad Marakkesh. *note: source is unreliable
- Jonatha Kew (2003). "Proposal to encode Jawi and Moroccan Arabic GAF characters" (PDF).
- Roozbeh Pournader, Google (June 24, 2013). "Proposal to encode three Arabic characters for Arwi" (PDF).