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
One form of gaf
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.

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.[1]

AppearanceCode pointName
ڬ‎ U+06ACARABIC LETTER KAF WITH DOT ABOVE
ݢ‎ U+0762ARABIC 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.[2]

AppearanceCode pointName
ࢴ‎ U+08B4ARABIC 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
Main article: Gueh

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.

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
Character information
Previewگڳݢࢴݣڰࢰ
Unicode nameARABIC LETTER GAFARABIC LETTER GUEHARABIC LETTER KEHEH
WITH DOT ABOVE		ARABIC LETTER KAF
WITH DOT BELOW		ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH THREE DOTS ABOVEARABIC LETTER GAF
WITH RING		ARABIC LETTER GAF
WITH INVERTED STROKE
Encodingsdecimalhexdecimalhexdecimalhexdecimalhexdecimalhexdecimalhexdecimalhex
Unicode1711U+06AF1715U+06B31890U+07622228U+08B41891U+07631712U+06B02224U+08B0
UTF-8218 175DA AF218 179DA B3221 162DD A2224 162 180E0 A2 B4221 163DD A3218 176DA B0224 162 176E0 A2 B0
Numeric character referenceگگڳڳݢݢࢴࢴݣݣڰڰࢰࢰ
gollark: Okay.
gollark: Wrong way round.
gollark: But if you type too fast, you might accidentally hack the pentagon or something.
gollark: <:Stick:516249153257340939> <:Stick:516249153257340939> <:Stick:516249153257340939> <:Stick:516249153257340939> <:Stick:516249153257340939> <:Stick:516249153257340939>
gollark: ... it just *lets* me?

See also

References
  1. Jonatha Kew (2003). "Proposal to encode Jawi and Moroccan Arabic GAF characters" (PDF).
  2. Roozbeh Pournader, Google (June 24, 2013). "Proposal to encode three Arabic characters for Arwi" (PDF).
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