Gaf
| Arabic alphabet |
|---|
|
Arabic script |
Gaf may be the name of three different Arabic letters, all representing the sound of "g". They are all forms of the letter kāf, with additional diacritics, such as dots and lines. There are three forms, each used in different places:
- گ in several languages
- ݢ in Malay
- ݣ in Moroccan Arabic
Gaf with line
گ is based on kāf with an additional line. It is not used in Arabic itself, but may be used to represent a voiced velar stop (IPA: /ɡ/) when writing other languages.
| Contextual forms | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Final | Medial | Initial | Isolated |
| ﮓ | ﮕ | ﮔ | ﮒ |
Gaf with single dot
ݢ is derived from a variant form (ک) of kāf with the addition of a dot. It is not used in Arabic itself, but is used in the Jawi script of Malay to represent a voiced velar stop (IPA: /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.
| Appearance | Code point | Name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ڬ | U+06AC | ARABIC LETTER KAF WITH DOT ABOVE | |
| ݢ | U+0762 | ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH DOT ABOVE | (preferred) |
Gaf with three dots
ݣ is based on a variant form (ک) of kāf with the addition of three dots. While it is not used in Standard Arabic, it is used in informal Moroccan Arabic to represent a voiced velar stop (IPA: /ɡ/).
Its initial and medial forms are identical to ڭ, which represents a velar nasal (IPA: /ŋ/) in some languages. However, their final and isolated forms are different.