Devanagari letter khha

It marks a rough, back-of-the-throat sound, like ch in “loch.” Ordinary ख is a k released with a puff of air, so the letters mark different consonants. In Hindi, ख़ corresponds to the rough sound written with خ in Urdu.

The dotted kh uses a nukta, the small dot added to a letter, to extend Devanagari with a sound its basic consonants do not mark. Hindi words with Persian or Urdu roots include ख़बर (“news”), ख़ुश (“happy”), ख़त (“letter”), and ख़ुदा (“God”).

In the 19th century, debates over Hindi and Urdu in northern India involved scripts as well as vocabulary. Hindi advocates promoted Devanagari and Sanskrit-derived words, while Urdu was written in an adapted Persian-Arabic script and retained many Persian words. The nukta helps keep the rough consonant visible when such words are written in Devanagari.

Why do some Hindi spellings drop the dot?

Some informal Hindi spellings leave the dot off. The word may remain clear from context, but the spelling no longer distinguishes ख़’s rough consonant from ख’s breathy k.

Keep ख़ when you want that borrowed sound marked, including when writing Urdu words in Devanagari; plain ख marks the Hindi aspirated consonant. Dropping the dot is a familiar casual simplification.