Che (Persian letter)

← Pe Che Že →
Persian	چ‎
Phonemic representation	tʃ
Position in alphabet	30
Numerical value	3000
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician

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 used in Persian, Urdu, Pashto, Kurdish, Kashmiri, Azerbaijani, Ottoman Turkish, Malay (Jawi), Java (Pegon), and other 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). Its numerical value is 3000 (see Abjad numerals).

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	چ‎	ـچ‎	ـچـ‎	چـ‎

In Arabic

A bilingual road sign at a Turkmen village in Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq. The letter Che is used to represent the sound [t͡ʃ].

In this trilingual road sign in Israel, however, the letter Che is used to represent the sound [g] in Nof HaGalil.

The letter چ‎ can be used to transcribe [t͡ʃ] in Gulf Arabic and Iraqi Arabic, where they have that sound natively as in "چلب" /tʃalb/ (dog) instead of "كلب" /kalb/. 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, this letter is used as the letter gīm on roadsigns to represent [ɡ], when transcribing Hebrew or foreign names of places. It has also been used as /g/ in Lebanon for transliteration such as "چامبيا" (The Gambia) and "چوچل" (Google).

Character encodings

Character information

Preview	چ
Unicode name	ARABIC LETTER TCHEH
Encodings	decimal	hex
Unicode	1670	U+0686
UTF-8	218 134	DA 86
Numeric character reference	چ	چ

Character information

Preview	ڜ
Unicode name	ARABIC LETTER SEEN WITH THREE DOTS BELOW AND THREE DOTS ABOVE
Encodings	decimal	hex
Unicode	1692	U+069C
UTF-8	218 156	DA 9C
Numeric character reference	ڜ	ڜ

See also

• ڤ - Ve
• پ - Pe
• گ - Gaf
• ژ - Že