Ḫāʾ

{{Short description|7th Arabic letter}}

{{Distinguish|Khē}}

{{Unreferenced|date=August 2009}}

{{Phoenician glyph|previousletter=Ṯāʾ|previouslink=Ṯāʾ|nextletter=Ḏāl|nextlink=Ḏāl|letname=Ḫāʾ|archar=خ|ipa=x, χ|num=24|gem=600}}

{{Infobox grapheme

| name = Ḫāʾ خَاء

| letter = خ

| script = Arabic script

| type = Abjad

| language = Arabic language

| phonemes = {{IPAlink|x}}, {{IPAlink|χ}}

| alphanumber = 7

| direction = Right-to-left

| fam1 = 𐤇

| fam2 = 𐡇‎

| fam3 = 𐢊

| fam4 = ح

}}

{{Arabic-script sidebar}}

{{transliteration|ar|DIN|Ḫāʾ}}, {{transliteration|ar|DIN|Khāʾ}}, or Xe ({{lang|ar|خ}}, transliterated as {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ḫ}} (DIN-31635), {{transliteration|ar|Wehr|ḵ}} (Hans Wehr), {{transliteration|ar|ALA-LC|kh}} (ALA-LC) or {{transliteration|ar|ISO|ẖ}} (ISO 233)) is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others being {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ṯāʼ}}, {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ḏāl}}, {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ḍād}}, {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ẓāʼ}}, {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ġayn}}). It is based on the {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ḥāʾ}}  {{lang|ar|ح}}. It is related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪍‎‎‎, South Arabian {{lang|sem-x-oldsoara|𐩭}}, and Ge'ez {{lang|gez|ኀ}}.

It represents the sound {{IPAblink|x}} or {{IPAblink|χ}} in Modern Standard Arabic. The pronunciation of {{lang|ar|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 {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ḥāʾ}}. South Semitic also kept the phoneme separate, and it appears as South Arabian Image:himjar kha.PNG, Ge'ez {{transliteration|sem|Ḫarm}} 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 ({{lang|ar|الخرطوم}} al-Kharṭūm), Sheikh ({{lang|ar|شيخ}}), Kazakhstan ({{lang|ar|كازاخستان}}), Maha Sarakham ({{lang|ar|ماها ساراخام}}).

{{transliteration|ar|DIN|Ḫāʾ}} is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:

{{Arabic alphabet shapes|خ}}

Ḫā is not related with the letter X, Ḫā has no derivatives.