Ka (К к; italics: ''К к'') is a letter of the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...
.
It commonly represents the voiceless velar plosive /k/, like the pronunciation of ⟨k⟩ in "king" or "kick".
History
The Cyrillic letter Ka was derived from the
Greek letter Kappa (Κ κ).
In the
Early Cyrillic alphabet
The Early Cyrillic alphabet, also called classical Cyrillic or paleo-Cyrillic, is an alphabetic writing system that was developed in Medieval Bulgaria in the Preslav Literary School during the late 9th century. It is used to write the Chur ...
its name was (''kako''), meaning "as".
In the
Cyrillic numeral system
Cyrillic numerals are a numeral system derived from the Cyrillic script, developed in the First Bulgarian Empire in the late 10th century. It was used in the First Bulgarian Empire and by South and East Slavic peoples. The system was used in R ...
, Ka had a value of 20.
Form
The Cyrillic letter Ka
looks very similar, and corresponds to the
Latin letter K. In many fonts, Cyrillic Ka is differentiated from its Latin and Greek counterparts by drawing one or both of its diagonal spurs with curved instead of straight. Also in some fonts the lowercase form of Ka has the vertical bar elongated above
x-height
upright 2.0, alt=A diagram showing the line terms used in typography
In typography, the x-height, or corpus size, is the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lowercase letters in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the le ...
, resembling the Latin lowercase k.
Usage
In
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
, the letter Ka represents the plain
voiceless velar plosive
The voiceless velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k.
The sound is a ver ...
or the palatalized one ; for example, the word "" (''"short"'') contains both the kinds: . The palatalized variant is pronounced when the following letter in the word is ''
ь'', ''
е'', ''
ё'', ''
и'', ''
ю'', or ''
я''.
In
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Macedonia
* Mac ...
and
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular
**Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans
** Serbian language
** Serbian culture
**Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...
, it always represents the sound .
Related letters and other similar characters
*Κ κ/ :
Greek letter Kappa
*K k :
Latin letter K
*Q q :
Latin letter Q
*C c :
Latin letter C
*X x :
Latin letter X
*
Ka with descender
Ka with descender (Қ қ; italics: ), is a letter of the Cyrillic script used in a number of non-Slavic languages spoken in the territory of the former Soviet Union, including:
* the Turkic languages Kazakh, Uyghur, Uzbek and several smal ...
*
Ka with hook
Ka with hook (Ӄ ӄ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is formed from the Cyrillic letter Ka (К к) by the addition of a hook.
Ka with hook is widely used in the alphabets of Siberia and the Russian Far East: Chuk ...
*
Ka with stroke
Ka with stroke (Ҟ ҟ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is formed from the Cyrillic letter Ka (К к) by adding a stroke through the upper part of the vertical stem of the letter.
Ka with stroke is used in the alphab ...
*
Ka with vertical stroke
Ka with vertical stroke (Ҝ ҝ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. Its form is derived from the Cyrillic letter Ka (К к) by the addition of a stroke through the short horizontal bar in the center of the letter.
Ka with ...
*
Aleut Ka
Aleut ( ) or is the language spoken by the Aleut living in the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands, Commander Islands, and the Alaska Peninsula (in Aleut , the origin of the state name Alaska). Aleut is the sole language in the Aleut branch of ...
*
Bashkir Ka
Bashkir Qa or Bashkir Ka (Ҡ ҡ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It is formed from the Cyrillic letter Ka (К к) with the top extending horizontally to the left. It is used in the alphabet of the Bashkir language and ...
*
Kje
Kje (Ќ ќ or Ḱ ḱ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script, used only in the Macedonian alphabet, where it represents the voiceless palatal plosive , or the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate . Kje is the 24th letter in this alp ...
Computing codes
External links
*
*
On the Aorists in -κα By
R. G. Latham, Esq., M.D.
References
{{Cyrillic navbox
Cyrillic letters