Gaf

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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

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: Template:IPA-acw, 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. ^{[citation needed]}

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]

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 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]

Appearance	Code point	Name
ࢴ‎	U+06AC	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.

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ڳ‎	ـڳ‎	ـڳـ‎	ڳـ‎

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
Preview	گ		ڳ		ݢ		ࢴ		ݣ		ڰ		ࢰ
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

References

^ Jonatha Kew (2003). "Proposal to encode Jawi and Moroccan Arabic GAF characters" (PDF).
^ Roozbeh Pournader, Google (June 24, 2013). "Proposal to encode three Arabic characters for Arwi" (PDF). {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)

External links

Notes on some Unicode Arabic characters: recommendations for usage (PDF)

[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). {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)

[1]

[2]