Ḫāʾ | |
Letter: | خ |
Script: | Arabic script |
Type: | Abjad |
Language: | Arabic language |
Phonemes: | pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink/ |
Alphanumber: | 7 |
Direction: | Right-to-left |
, , or Xe (Arabic: خ, transliterated as (DIN-31635), (Hans Wehr), (ALA-LC) or (ISO 233)) is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being,,,,). It is based on the Arabic: [[ح]]. It represents the sound pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ in Modern Standard Arabic. The pronunciation of Arabic: خ is very similar to German, Irish, and Polish unpalatalised "ch", Russian х (Cyrillic Kha), Greek χ and Peninsular Spanish and Southern Cone "j". In name and shape, it is a variant of . South Semitic also kept the phoneme separate, and it appears as South Arabian, Ge'ez ኀ. Its numerical value is 600 (see Abjad numerals). In most European languages, it is mostly romanized as the digraph kh.
When representing this sound in transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written as ח׳.
The most common transliteration in English is "kh", e.g. Khartoum (Arabic: الخرطوم al-Kharṭūm), Sheikh (Arabic: شيخ), Kazakhstan (Arabic: كازاخستان), Maha Sarakham (Arabic: ماها ساراخام).
is written is several ways depending in its position in the word: