Gaf

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One form of 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
  • in the Pegon script
  • ڭ/ݣ in Moroccan Arabic
  • ڨ in Algerian Arabic, Tunisian Arabic and Berber languages
  • ګ in Pashto
  • ڳ in Sindhi and Saraiki

Note that the standard practice in Egypt (in Literary Arabic and 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/ݣ can also be used to represent /ɡ/ in Morocco. [1]

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Naskh glyph form:
(Help)
گ ـگ ـگـ گـ
Nastaʿlīq glyph form: گ ــــگ ــــگــــ گــــ

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 a dot or three dots below[]

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
ڮ U+08B4 ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH THREE DOTS BELOW
Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form:
(Help)
ڮ ـڮ ـڮـ ڮـ
Appearance Code point Name
U+08B4 ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH DOT BELOW
Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form:
(Help)
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[]

The Arabic signage for the Argana cafe in Marrakesh's Jemaa el-Fnaa features a prominent gaf with three dots.

ڭ was used in Ottoman Turkish language for /ŋ/, another form ݣ, both are 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.

Appearance Code point Name
ڭ U+06AC ARABIC LETTER NG
ݣ U+0762 ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH THREE DOT ABOVE
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

Kaf with inverted stroke[]

In Chechen on the Arabic character is used to write a Кӏ (Kh).

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form:
(Help)
ـࢰ ـࢰـ ࢰـ

Character encoding[]

Character information
Preview گ ڳ ݢ ݣ ڰ
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 dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec 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

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ The letter ڭ used in an article on Moroccan Arabic learning; "واش كتهدر بالإنݣليزية" "Learn Moroccan Arabic". Best Riad Marakkesh. *note: source is unreliable
  2. ^ Jonatha Kew (2003). "Proposal to encode Jawi and Moroccan Arabic GAF characters" (PDF).
  3. ^ Roozbeh Pournader, Google (June 24, 2013). "Proposal to encode three Arabic characters for Arwi" (PDF).

External links[]

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