Ka with descender
Cyrillic letter Ka with descender
Ka with descender (Қ қ; italics: Қ қ), 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 /q/.
Iranian languages such as Tajik and, before 1924, Ossetic (now superseded by the digraph ⟨Къ⟩). Since /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 /q/.
the Abkhaz language, where it represents the aspirated voiceless velar plosive /kʰ/. (The Cyrillic letter Ka (К к) is used to represent the ejective /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 ⱪ).
Its ISO 9 transliteration is ⟨ķ⟩ (k with cedilla), and this is the standard transliteration for Abkhaz Қ. The common Kazakh and Uzbek Romanization is ⟨q⟩.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ka with descender” is cyrillic letter Ka with descender. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through descender, Cyrillic and letter, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “cyrillic letter Ka with descender” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14193723. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1924, 1905, 1928 and 1938.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ka with descender”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ka with descender primary sources, Ka with descender archive and descender research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ka with descender”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ka with descender” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.