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/ݣ in Moroccan Arabic and Berber languages
- 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 Egypt (in Literary Arabic and Egyptian Arabic), so as in coastal Yemen, southwestern and eastern Oman, is to use ج ǧīm for /g/, while in Arabic dialects like Hejazi Arabic and Najdi Arabic the ق qāf, 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.
ك kāf has been traditionally used in the Levant and Iraq for /g/, if not گ, particularly in Iraq. In Morocco, ݣ or ك are used. In Tunisia and Algeria, ڨ or ق qāf used.
غ ġayn is preferred in the Levant (nowadays), and by Aljazeera TV channel to be used instead to represent /ɡ/ e.g. هونغ كونغ (Hong Kong) and غاندالف (Gandalf). Foreign publications and TV channels in Arabic, e.g. Deutsche Welle,[1] and Alhurra,[2] follow this practice.
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. [3]
| 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.[4]
| 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
ڮ and ࢴ are derived from a variant form (ك) of kāf with the addition of three dots or a dot below. They are not used in the Arabic language itself, but are used in the Pegon script of Indonesian languages and in the Arwi alphabet of the Tamil language[5] to represent a voiced velar stop /ɡ/, respectively.
| Appearance | Code point | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ڮ | U+06AE | 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 for /ɠ/.
| Position in word | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ڳ | ـڳ | ـڳـ | ڳـ |
Gaf with three dots
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ڭ was used in Ottoman Turkish language for /ŋ/, another form ݣ, both are based on a variant form (ک) 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
| Position in word | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ګ | ـګ | ـګـ | ګـ |
Kaf with inverted stroke
In Chechen, Kabardian, and Adyghe, an the Arabic character ࢰ is used to spell the Кӏ ⟨Kh⟩ for /kʼ/ or /t͡ʃʼ/. In Chechen, ⟨گ⟩ is alternatively used as well.
| Position in word | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ࢰ | ـࢰ | ـࢰـ | ࢰـ |
Afrikaans gin
| Position in word | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ݝ | ـݝ | ـݝـ | ݝـ |
Based on ghayn (غ), called gīn /ɡiːn/, historically used in the Arabic Afrikaans script to spell /ɡ/ in Afrikaans.
Character encoding
| Preview | گ | ڳ | ݢ | ڭ | ࢴ | ݣ | ڰ | ࢰ | ݝ | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | ARABIC LETTER GAF | ARABIC LETTER GUEH | ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH DOT ABOVE |
ARABIC LETTER NG | ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH DOT BELOW |
ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH THREE DOTS ABOVE | ARABIC LETTER GAF WITH RING |
ARABIC LETTER GAF WITH INVERTED STROKE |
ARABIC LETTER AIN WITH TWO DOTS ABOVE | |||||||||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 1711 | U+06AF | 1715 | U+06B3 | 1890 | U+0762 | 1709 | U+06AD | 2228 | U+08B4 | 1891 | U+0763 | 1712 | U+06B0 | 2224 | U+08B0 | 1885 | U+075D |
| UTF-8 | 218 175 | DA AF | 218 179 | DA B3 | 221 162 | DD A2 | 218 173 | DA AD | 224 162 180 | E0 A2 B4 | 221 163 | DD A3 | 218 176 | DA B0 | 224 162 176 | E0 A2 B0 | 221 157 | DD 9D |
| Numeric character reference | گ | گ | ڳ | ڳ | ݢ | ݢ | ڭ | ڭ | ࢴ | ࢴ | ݣ | ݣ | ڰ | ڰ | ࢰ | ࢰ | ݝ | ݝ |
References
- "Leningrad لينينغراد spelled with غ rather than ج". Retrieved 14 December 2022.
- ""Blogger" بلوغر is spelled with غ, not ج about an article on Egypt quoting an Egyptian official Facebook post spelling it بلوجر with ج". Retrieved 14 December 2022.
- 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).
- Pournader, Roozbeh (June 24, 2013). "Proposal to encode three Arabic characters for Arwi" (PDF).