{{Short description|Cyrillic letter used in various languages}} {{More references needed|date=October 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox grapheme | script = Cyrillic | type = Alphabet | typedesc = ic | name = Ka with descender | image = Cyrillic letter Qaf.svg | imagealt = | imageclass = skin-invert-image | phonemes = {{IPA|[q]}}, {{IPA|[kʰ]}} | number = | fam1 = | letter = Қ қ }}

'''Ka with descender''' (Қ&nbsp;қ; italics: <span style="font-family: times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: larger">''Қ&nbsp;қ''</span>), 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 smaller languages (Karakalpak, Shor and Tofa), where it represents the voiceless uvular plosive {{IPA|/q/}}. * Iranian languages such as Tajik and, before 1924, Ossetic (now superseded by the digraph {{angbr|Къ}}). Since {{IPA|/q/}} is represented by the letter ق ''qāf'' in the Arabic alphabet, Қ is sometimes referred to as "Cyrillic Qaf". * Eastern varieties of the Khanty language, where it also represents {{IPA|/q/}}. * the Abkhaz language, where it represents the aspirated voiceless velar plosive {{IPA|/kʰ/}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hewitt |first1=George |title=Abkhaz: A Comprehensive Self-Tutor |date=2010 |publisher=Lincom Europa |pages=18-20}}</ref> (The Cyrillic letter Ka (К&nbsp;к) is used to represent the ejective {{IPA|/kʼ/}}.) It was introduced in 1905 for the spelling of Abkhaz. From 1928 to 1938, Abkhaz was spelled with the Latin alphabet, and the corresponding letter was the Latin letter K with descender (Ⱪ&nbsp;ⱪ).{{cn|date=October 2025}}

Its ISO 9 transliteration is {{angbr|{{Transliteration|ab|ISO|ķ}}}} (k with cedilla),<ref>{{cite book |title=ISO 9:1995 Information and documentation - Transliteration of Cyrillic characters into Latin characters - Slavic and non-Slavic languages |publisher=International Standards Organization |page=8}}</ref> and this is the standard transliteration for Abkhaz Қ. The common Kazakh and Uzbek Romanization is {{angbr|q}}.

== Computing codes ==

{{charmap | 049A|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter<br />Ka with Descender | 049B|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter<br />Ka with Descender }}<ref name="Unicode Consortium 2000" />

== See also == Other Cyrillic letters used to write the sound {{IPA|/q/}}: * Ӄ ӄ : Cyrillic letter Ka with hook * Ҡ ҡ : Cyrillic letter Bashkir Qa * Ԛ ԛ : Cyrillic letter Qa * Ԟ ԟ : Cyrillic letter Aleut Ka * Ҟ ҟ : Cyrillic Letter Ka with stroke * Cyrillic characters in Unicode

== References == <references> <ref name="Unicode Consortium 2000">{{cite book | author = Unicode Consortium | title = The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0 | publisher = Addison-Wesley | date = 2000 | isbn = 978-0-201-61633-0 | url = https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Unicode_Standard_Version_3_0/-u5QAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 | access-date = 27 June 2025 | page = 380 }}</ref> </references>

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Category:Cyrillic letters with diacritics Category:Kazakh language Category:Letters with descender (diacritic) Category:Tajik language Category:Uyghur language Category:Uzbek language

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