Kha (Cyrillic) Explained

Kha, Khe, Xe or Ha (Х х; italics:

Х х) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It looks the same as the Latin letter X (X x X x), in both uppercase and lowercase, both roman and italic forms, and was derived from the Greek letter Chi, which also bears a resemblance to both the Latin X and Kha.^[1]

It commonly represents the voiceless velar fricative pronounced as //x//, similar to how some Scottish speakers pronounce the (ch) in “loch”, but has different pronunciations in different languages.

Kha is romanised as (kh) for Russian, Ukrainian, Mongolian, and Tajik, and as (ch) for Belarusian, while being romanised as (h) for Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Kazakh.It is also romanised as (j) for Spanish.

History

The Cyrillic letter Kha was derived from the Greek letter Chi (Χ χ).

The name of Kha in the Early Cyrillic alphabet was (xěrŭ).

In the Cyrillic numeral system, Kha has a value of 600.

Usage

Russian

Kha is the twenty-third letter of the Russian alphabet. It represents the voiceless velar fricative pronounced as //x// unless it is before a palatalizing vowel, when it represents pronounced as //xʲ//.

Ossetian

Kha represents the voiceless uvular fricative pronounced as //χ// in Ossetian. The digraph ⟨хъ⟩ represents the voiceless uvular plosive pronounced as //q//.

Belarusian

Kha is also an alternative transliteration of the letter Persian: خ Ḫāʼ in the Arabic alphabet. This was used in Belarusian Arabic script, corresponding to the above Cyrillic letter.

Ukrainian

Kha is the twenty-sixth letter of the Ukrainian alphabet. It represents the voiceless velar fricative /x/.

Figurative meanings of "хѣръ"

• Because of the shape of the letter X, its name kher was often used to refer to something cross-shaped: Dahl mentions "the game of kheriki-oniki" (crosses and zeros) and the expression "legs like kher" as the opposite of "bowlegged", "legs like a wheel".^[2] From this also comes the word pokherovat (originally, to cross out crosswise; cf. in N. S. Leskov: Vladika crossed out the consistory's decision on the appointment of the investigation with a kher.^[3]
• Being the first letter of the vulgar and obscene word for the male genital organ, the word kher has been actively used as its euphemism since the 19th century.^[4] As a result, by the 1990s in the USSR, the word "kher" and its derivatives (e.g., "pokherit") were perceived as taboo by many people, as the original names of Cyrillic letters had been forgotten by the majority of the population. This fact has also affected the use of the word "kher" in the post-Soviet era, despite the change of attitude towards obscene vocabulary.^[5] Nevertheless, the portal Gramota.ru notes that "the word kher and all derivatives of it do not belong to obscene words".^[6]

Related letters and other similar characters

• Χ χ : Greek letter Chi
• Ξ ξ : Greek letter Ksi
• H h : Latin letter H
• J j : Latin letter J
• X x : Latin letter X
• Persian: ﺥ : Arabic or Persian letter Ḫāʾ
• Һ һ : Cyrillic letter Ha
• Ѯ ѯ : Cyrillic letter Ksi
• ख़ : Devanagari letter Ḵẖa
• ਖ਼ : Gurumukhi letter Ḵẖa
• Ⲏ ⲏ : Coptic letter He

Notes and References

1. Book: Aleksandr Chayanov and Russian Berlin .
2. Web site: "Хер" . Web.Archive.org . ru . 10 July 2024.
3. Web site: "Хер" . Web.Archive.org . ru . 10 July 2024.
4. [Левин, Юрий Иосифович|Левин Ю. И.]
5. Web site: Русская бранная лексика: цензурное и нецензурное . philology.ru . ru . 12 July 2024.
6. Web site: «Хер» . Gramota.ru . ru . 12 July 2024.