Numeric value: 20 | ||
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Ka (К к; italics: К к) is a letter of the Cyrillic script.
Contents
It commonly represents the voiceless velar plosive /k/, like the pronunciation of ⟨k⟩ in "king".
History
The Cyrillic letter Ka was derived from the Greek letter Kappa (Κ κ).
In the Early Cyrillic alphabet its name was како (kako), meaning "as".
In the Cyrillic numeral system, Ka had a value of 20.
Form
The Cyrillic letter Ka looks very similar, and corresponds to the Latin letter K. In some fonts, Cyrillic Ka is generally differentiated from its Latin and Greek counterparts by drawing its diagonal spurs with curves instead of straight lines. In other fonts, the lowercase form of Ka has the vertical bar elongated above x-height, thus resembling the Latin lowercase K.
Usage
In Russian, the letter Ka represents the plain voiceless velar plosive /k/ or the palatalized one /kʲ/; for example, the word короткий ("short") contains both the kinds: [kɐˈrotkʲɪj]. The palatalized variant is pronounced when the following letter in the word is ь, е, ё, и, ю, or я.
In Macedonian it always represents the sound /k/.