The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek kappa (Κ), Latin K, and Cyrillic К. Kaph is thought to be derived from a pictogram of a hand (in both modern Arabic and modern Hebrew, kaph כף means "palm" or "grip"), though in Arabic the a in the name of the letter (كاف) is pronounced longer than the a in the word meaning "palm" (كَف).
The small ک above the kāf in its final and isolated forms ⟨ك ـك⟩ was originally ‘alāmatu-l-ihmāl, but became a permanent part of the letter.
In Arabic, kāf, when used as a prefix كَـ ka, functions as a comparative preposition (أداة التشبيه, such as مِثْل /miθl/ or شَبَه /ʃabah/)[3] and can carry the meaning of English words "like", "as", or "as though" .
There are two orthographic variants of this letter that alter the pronunciation: When the kaph has a "dot" in its center, known as a dagesh, it represents a voiceless velar plosive (/k/).
However, Mizrahi Jews and Palestinian Arabs living in Israel have differentiated between these letters as in other Semitic languages.