Kha (Indic)

Kha
Kha
Example glyphs
Bengali
Tibetan
Thai	ข
Malayalam	ഖ
Sinhala	ඛ
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	ק
Greek	Ϙ (Ϟ), Φ
Latin	Q
Cyrillic	Ҁ, Ф
Properties
Phonemic representation	/kʰ/ /x/
IAST transliteration	kha Kha
ISCII code point	B4 (180)
	; ^B in Northern Thai, Tai Lü and Tai Khü

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Kha is the second consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, kha is derived from the Brahmi letter , which is probably derived from the Aramaic ("Q").

Mathematics[]

Āryabhaṭa numeration[]

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The values of the different forms of ख are:^[1]

ख [kə] = 2 (२)
खि [kɪ] = 200 (२००)
खु [kʊ] = 20,000 (२० ०००)
खृ [kri] = 2,000,000 (२० ०० ०००)
खॢ [klə] = 2×10⁸ (२×१०^८)
खे [ke] = 2×10¹⁰ (२×१०^१०)
खै [kɛː] = 2×10¹² (२×१०^१२)
खो [koː] = 2×10¹⁴ (२×१०^१४)
खौ [kɔː] = 2×10¹⁶ (२×१०^१६)

Historic Kha[]

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoshthi, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Kha as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with slight variations toward the Gupta . The Tocharian Kha did not have an alterante Fremdzeichen form. The third form of kha, in Kharoshthi () was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Kha[]

The Brahmi letter , Kha, is probably derived from the Aramaic Qoph , and is thus related to the modern Latin Q and Greek Koppa. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Kha can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.^[2] As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi Kha historic forms
Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)

Tocharian Kha[]

The Tocharian letteris derived from the Brahmi , but does not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form.

Tocharian Kha with vowel marks
Kha	Khā	Khi	Khī	Khu	Khū	Khr	Khr̄	Khe	Khai	Kho	Khau	Khä

Kharoshthi Kha[]

The Kharoshthi letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic Qoph , and is thus related to Q and Koppa, in addition to the Brahmi Kha.

Devanagari Kha[]

Kha (ख) is the second consonant of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ખ and the Modi letter

B

[1]

[2]