Kha (Cyrillic)
{{Short description|Letter in the Cyrillic script}}
{{Distinguish|text= Latin letter X or the Greek letter Χ (chi)}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = Х х
| script = Cyrillic
| type = Alphabet
| typedesc = ic
| name = Kha {{Script|Cyrs|хѣръ}} (Early Cyrillic alphabet)
| image = Cyrillic letter Kha - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagesize =
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|x}}], [{{IPA link|χ}}], [{{IPA link|h}}]
| number = 600 (Cyrillic numerals)
| fam1 = Χ χ
}}
File:Elizaveta Bem's Azbuka - Х text.jpg's alphabet book]]
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.{{cite book |title=Aleksandr Chayanov and Russian Berlin | isbn=978-1-000-94657-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxrBEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Kha%22+Cyrillic+-wikipedia&pg=PA52 | last1=Bourgholtzer | first1=Frank | date=31 May 2023 | publisher=Taylor & Francis }}
It commonly represents the voiceless velar fricative {{IPA|/x/}}, similar to how some Scottish speakers pronounce the {{angbr|ch}} in “loch”, but has different pronunciations in different languages.
Kha is romanised as {{angbr|kh}} for Russian, Ukrainian, Mongolian, and Tajik, and as {{angbr|ch}} for Belarusian and Polish, while being romanised as {{angbr|h}} for Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Kazakh.
It is also romanised as {{angbr|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 {{Script|Cyrs|хѣръ}} (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 {{IPA|/x/}} unless it is before a palatalizing vowel, when it represents {{IPA|/xʲ/}}.
=Ossetian=
Kha represents the voiceless uvular fricative {{IPA|/χ/}} in Ossetian. The digraph ⟨хъ⟩ represents the voiceless uvular plosive {{IPA|/q/}}.
=Belarusian=
Kha is also an alternative transliteration of the letter {{lang|fa|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/.
=Aleut=
In Aleut, kha represents {{IPA|/x/}}. Kha with inverted breve (Х̑ х̑) represents the voiceless uvular fricative ({{IPA|/χ/}}).
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".{{cite web |url=http://slovardalja.net/word.php?wordid=42337 |title= "Хер" |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170213000623/http://slovardalja.net/word.php?wordid=42337 |language=ru |access-date=10 July 2024|archive-date= 2017-02-13 }} 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.{{cite web |url=https://ushakovdictionary.ru/word.php?wordid=83464 |title= "Хер" |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210509193831/https://ushakovdictionary.ru/word.php?wordid=83464 |language=ru |access-date=10 July 2024|archive-date= 2021-05-09 }}
- 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.Левин Ю. И. Об обсценных выражениях русского языка // Левин Ю. И. Избранные труды. Поэтика. Семиотика. — М., 1998. — С. 809—819 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/mokiyenko-94.htm |website= philology.ru |title=Русская бранная лексика: цензурное и нецензурное |language=ru |access-date=12 July 2024}} Nevertheless, the portal Gramota.ru notes that "the word kher and all derivatives of it do not belong to obscene words".{{cite web |url=https://gramota.ru/poisk?query=%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%20%D1%85%D0%B5%D1%80%20%D0%B8%20%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%B5%20%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5%20%D0%BE%D1%82%20%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%BE%20%D0%BD%D0%B5%20%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%8F%D1%82%D1%81%D1%8F%20%D0%BA%20%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%BC%20%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BC&mode=spravka |website= Gramota.ru |title= "Хер" |language=ru |access-date=12 July 2024}}
Related letters and other similar characters
- Χ χ : Greek letter Chi
- H h : Latin letter H
- J j : Latin letter J
- X x : Latin letter X
- {{lang|fa|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
Computing codes
{{charmap
|0425|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Ha
|0445|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Ha
|map1=KOI8-R and KOI8-U |map1char1=E8 |map1char2=C8
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=B6 |map2char2=B5
|map3=Code page 866 |map3char1=95 |map3char2=E5
|map4=Windows-1251 |map4char1=D5 |map4char2=F5
|map5=ISO-8859-5 |map5char1=C5 |map5char2=E5
|map6=Macintosh Cyrillic |map6char1=95 |map6char2=F5
}}
References
{{reflist}}