Gaf

For other uses, see GAF (disambiguation).

The Gaf of Pashto alphabet

One form of gaf

Gaf, or gāf, may be the name of four 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 three forms, each used in different places:

• گ‎ in Perso-Arabic alphabet and sometimes in Moroccan, occidental Algerian and many Berber languages
• ݢ‎ in Malay
• ݣ‎ in Moroccan, occidental Algerian and many Berber languages
• ګ‎ in Pashto
• ڳ‎ in Saraiki
• G in Somali

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, Urdu and Kurdish and it is one of four letters which are not found in Arabic.

If not ݣ‎, this letter can be used to represent /ɡ/ in Morocco, occidental Algeria and many Berber languages.

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form:	گ‎	ـگ‎	ـگـ‎	گـ‎

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 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.

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:	ڬ‎	ـڬ‎	ـڬـ‎	ڬـ‎

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form:	ݢ‎	ـݢ‎	ـݢـ‎	ݢـ‎

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 not used in the Arabic language itself, but is used in the Saraiki alphabet.

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

Gaf with three dots

ݣ‎ is based on a variant form (ک‎) of kāf with the addition of three dots. It is used in occidental Algerian Arabic (otherwise, ڨ is used), in Moroccan Arabic (though Persian گ can also be used) and in many Berber languages to represent /ɡ/. Examples on its use, as in many city names such as (أݣادير‎, also written: أغادير‎) and family names such as El Guerroie (الݣروج‎, also written: الكروج‎). In Morocco, occidental Algeria and many Berber languages, the Persian letter گ‎ can also be used instead.

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form:	ڭ‎	ـڭ‎	ـڭـ‎	ڭـ‎

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form:	ݣ‎	ـݣ‎	ـݣـ‎	ݣـ‎

Its isolated and final forms are identical to ڭ‎, which represents /ŋ/ in some languages. However, their initial and medial forms are different.

See also Ng (Arabic).

Gaf with ring

In Pashto:

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form:	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:	ࢰ‎	ـࢰ‎	ـࢰـ‎	ࢰـ‎

Character encoding

Character	گ		ڳ		ݢ		ڴ		ڰ		ࢰ
Unicode name	ARABIC LETTER GAF		ARABIC LETTER GUEH		ARABIC LETTER KEHEH WITH DOT ABOVE		ARABIC LETTER GAF WITH THREE DOTS ABOVE		ARABIC LETTER GAF WITH RING		ARABIC LETTER GAF WITH INVERTED STROKE
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	1711	U+06AF	1715	U+06B3	1890	U+0762	1716	U+06B4	1712	U+06B0	2224	U+08B0
UTF-8	218 175	DA AF	218 179	DA B3	221 162	DD A2	218 180	DA B4	218 176	DA B0	224 162 176	E0 A2 B0
Numeric character reference	گ	گ	ڳ	ڳ	ݢ	ݢ	ڴ	ڴ	ڰ	ڰ	ࢰ	ࢰ

See also

• ڨ‎, a letter derived from qāf and used for [ɡ] in Tunisia and Algeria.

External links

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