Kha (Cyrillic)

Not to be confused with Latin letterXor the Greek letterΧ (chi).

"H (Cyrillic)" redirects here. For the Cyrillic character Н, seeEn (Cyrillic).For the Cyrillic character Һ, seeShha.

Cyrillic letter Kha or H
Phonetic usage:	[x],[χ]
Name (Early Cyrillic Alpha bet):	хѣръ
Numeric value:	600
Derived from:	Greek letter Chi(Χ χ)
TheCyrillic script
Slavicletters
А А̀ А̂ А̄ Ӓ Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Ѐ Е̄ Е̂ Ё Є Ж З З́ Ѕ И І Ї Ꙇ Ѝ И̂ Ӣ Й Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О О̀ О̂ Ō Ӧ П Р С С́ Т Ћ Ќ У У̀ У̂ Ӯ Ў Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ Ꙏ Ъ Ъ̀ Ы Ь Ѣ Э Ю Ю̀ Я Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ А̊ А̃ Ӓ̄ Ӕ Ә Ә́ Ә̃ Ӛ В̌ Ԝ Г̑ Г̇ Г̣ Г̌ Г̂ Г̆ Г̈ г̊ Ҕ Ғ Ӻ Ғ̌ ғ̊ Ӷ Д́ Д̌ Д̈ Д̣ Д̆ Ӗ Е̃ Ё̄ Є̈ Ԑ Ԑ̈ Җ Ӝ Ӂ Ж̣ Ҙ Ӟ З̌ З̣ З̆ Ӡ И̃ Ӥ Ҋ Қ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ К̣ к̊ қ̊ Ԛ ᴫ Л́ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Л̈ Ӎ ᵸ Н́ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ О̆ О̃ Ӧ̄ Ө Ө̄ Ө́ Ө̆ Ӫ Ԥ П̈ Ҏ Р̌ С̌ Ҫ С̣ С̱ Т́ Т̈ Т̌ Т̇ Т̣ Ҭ У̃ Ӳ У̊ Ӱ̄ Ұ Ү Ү́ Х̣ Х̱ Х̮ Х̑ Х̌ Ҳ Ӽ х̊ Ӿ ӿ̊ Һ Һ̈ Ԧ Ц̌ Ц̈ Ҵ Ҷ Ҷ̣ Ӵ Ӌ Ҹ Ч̇ Ч̣ Ҽ Ҿ Ш̣ ꚜ Ы̆ Ы̄ Ӹ ꚝ Ҍ Ҩ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈ Ӏ ʼ ˮ
Archaicor unused letters
А̨ Б̀ Б̣ Б̱ В̀ Г̀ Г̧ Г̄ Г̓ Г̆ Ҕ̀ Ҕ̆ Ԁ Д̓ Д̀ Д̨ Ԃ Ꚁ Ꙣ Е̇ Е̨ Ж̀ Ж̑ Ꙃ Ꙅ Џ̆ Ꚅ Ꚅ̆ Ꙁ З̀ З̑ Ԅ Ԇ Ꚉ Ԫ Ꚃ Ꚕ І̂ І̣ І̨ Ј̵ Ј̃ Ꙉ К̓ К̀ К̆ Ӄ̆ К̑ К̇ К̈ К̄ Ԟ К̂ Л̀ Ԡ Ꙥ Ԉ Л̑ Л̇ Ԕ М̀ М̃ Ꙧ Н̀ Н̄ Н̧ Н̃ Ԋ Ԣ Н̡ Ѻ Ꙩ Ꙫ Ꙭ ꙮ Ꚙ Ꚛ П̓ П̀ П́ Ҧ П̧ П̑ Ҁ Ԛ̆ Р́ Р̀ Р̃ Ԗ С̀ С̈ Ԍ Ҫ̓ Т̓ Т̀ Ԏ Т̑ Ꚋ Т̧ Ꚍ Ꚍ̆ Ѹ Ꙋ У̇ У̨ ꙋ́ Ф̑ Ф̓ Х́ Х̀ Х̆ Х̇ Х̧ Х̾ Х̓ һ̱ Ѡ Ꙍ Ѽ Ѿ Ꙡ Ц̀ Ц́ Ц̓ Ꚏ Ꚏ̆ Ꚑ Ч́ Ч̀ Ч̆ Ч̑ Ч̓ Ԭ Ꚓ Ꚇ Ꚇ̆ Ҽ̆ Ш̀ Ш̆ Ш̑ Щ̆ Ꚗ Ꚗ̆ Ъ̄ Ъ̈ Ъ̈̄ Ꙑ Ы̂ Ы̃ Ѣ́ Ѣ̈ Ѣ̆ Ꙓ Э̨ Э̂ Ꙕ Ю̂ Ꙗ Я̈ Я̂ Я̨ Ԙ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ꙟ
List of Cyrillic letters List of Cyrillic multigraphs

Kha,fromElisabeth Boehm'sAlpha bet book

Kha,Khe,XeorHa(Х х; italics:Х х) is a letter of theCyrillic script.Itlooks the same astheLatin letter X(X xX x), in both uppercase and lowercase, both roman and italic forms, and was derived from theGreekletterChi,which also bears a resemblance to both the Latin X and Kha.

It commonly represents thevoiceless velar fricative/x/,similar to how someScottishspeakers pronounce the⟨ch⟩in “loch”,but has different pronunciations in different languages.

Kha isromanisedas⟨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⟩forSpanish.

History

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

The name of Kha in theEarly Cyrillic Alpha betwasхѣръ(xěrŭ).

In theCyrillic numeral system,Kha has a value of 600.

Usage

Russian

Kha is the twenty-third letter of theRussian Alpha bet.It represents thevoiceless velar fricative/x/unless it is before apalatalizingvowel, when it represents/xʲ/.

Ossetian

Kha represents thevoiceless uvular fricative/χ/inOssetian.The digraph ⟨хъ⟩ represents thevoiceless uvular plosive/q/.

Belarusian

Kha is also an alternative transliteration of the letterخḪāʼ in theArabic Alpha bet.This was used inBelarusian Arabic script,corresponding to the above Cyrillic letter.

Ukrainian

Kha is the twenty-sixth letter of theUkrainian Alpha bet.It represents thevoiceless 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".From this also comes the word pokherovat (originally, to cross out crosswise; cf. in N. S. Leskov:Vladikacrossed out the consistory's decision on the appointment of the investigation with a kher.
• 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.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.Nevertheless, the portal Gramota.ru notes that "the word kher and all derivatives of it do not belong to obscene words".

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
• 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

Character information

Preview	Х		х
Unicode name	CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER HA		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER HA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	1061	U+0425	1093	U+0445
UTF-8	208 165	D0 A5	209 133	D1 85
Numeric character reference	Х	Х	х	х
Named character reference	Х		х
KOI8-RandKOI8-U	232	E8	200	C8
Code page 855	182	B6	181	B5
Code page 866	149	95	229	E5
Windows-1251	213	D5	245	F5
ISO-8859-5	197	C5	229	E5
Macintosh Cyrillic	149	95	245	F5

External links

• The dictionary definition ofХat Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition ofхat Wiktionary