Ḫāʾ
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| Arabic alphabet | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ا ب ت ث ج ح | |||||
| خ د ذ ر ز س | |||||
| ش ص ض ط ظ ع | |||||
| غ ف ق ك ل | |||||
| م ن ه و ي | |||||
| History · Transliteration Diacritics · Hamza ء Numerals · Numeration |
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Ḫāʾ (ﺥ, transliterated as ḫ (DIN-31635), ẖ (ISO 233), "kh" or "x") is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being ṯāʼ, ḏāl, ḍād, ẓāʼ, ġayn). It represents the voiceless velar fricative (IPA: [x]). The pronunciation of ﺥ is very similar to German, Scottish, and Polish unpalatalised "ch", Russian х (Cyrillic Kha), and Spanish "j". In name and shape, it is a variant of ḥāʼ (see also there). South Semitic also kept the phoneme separate, and it appears as South Arabian 
, Ge'ez Ḫarm ኀ. Its numerical value is 600 (see Abjad numerals).
The most common transliteration in English is "kh", e.g. Khartoum (الخرطوم al-Kharṭūm), sheikh (شيخ).
Ḫāʼ is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:
| Position in word: | Isolated | Initial | Medial | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Form of letter: | خ | خـ | ـخـ | ـخ |
[edit] See also
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