Che (Persian letter)

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Che or cheem (چ‎) is a letter of the Persian alphabet, used to represent [t͡ʃ], and which derives from ǧīm (ج‎) by the addition of two dots. It is found with this value in other Arabic-derived scripts. It is based on the jim  ج. It is used in Persian, Urdu, Pashto, Kurdish, Uyghur, Kashmiri, Azerbaijani, Ottoman Turkish, Malay (Jawi), Javanese (Pegon), and other Indo-Iranian languages. It is also one of the five letters the Persian alphabet added from the twenty-eight inherited from the Arabic alphabet (the others being ژ, پ, and گ in addition to the obsolete ڤ). In name and shape, it is a variant of jim. Its numerical value is 3000 (see Abjad numerals).

When representing this sound in transliteration of Persian into Hebrew, it is written as ג׳ gimel and a geresh.

The letter چ‎ can be used to transcribe [t͡ʃ] in Gulf Arabic and Iraqi Arabic dialects, where they have that sound natively as in "چلب" /tʃalb/ (dog) instead of "كلب" /kalb/. Since the sound is not part of Standard Arabic’s phonology; In most of the rest of Arabic-speaking geographic regions, the combination of tāʾ-šīn (تش‎) is more likely used to transliterate the /t͡ʃ/ sound which is often realized as two consonants ([t]+[ʃ]) as in "تشاد" /tʃaːd/ (Chad) and "التشيك" /at.tʃiːk/ (Czech Republic).

In Egypt, this letter represents [ʒ], which can be a reduction of /d͡ʒ/, It is called gīm be talat noʾaṭ (جيم بتلات نقط "Gīm with three dots") there. The /ʒ/ pronunciation is also proposed for South Arabian minority languages, like Mehri and Soqotri.

In Israel, where official announcements are often trilingual or triscripted, this letter represents [ɡ] on roadsigns when transcribing Hebraized place names. It has also been used as /g/ in Lebanon for transliteration such as "چامبيا" (The Gambia) and "چوچل" (Google).^[1]

• ڤ - Ve
• پ - Pe
• گ - Gaf
• ژ - Že

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