Elymaic Letter Kaph

It marks the consonant k in an Elymaic word. Scholars transliterate it with Latin k; it is not a pictogram or a standalone message.

“Kaph” is a scholarly label that follows the Aramaic-family naming convention.

Where did Elymaic kaph come from?

It grew from Aramaic writing used by the ancient Achaemenid Empire.

The empire used Aramaic in government offices; local administrators in Elymais, a state in southwestern Iran, adapted that script to write standard Achaemenid Aramaic. Graffiti at Tang-e Chilau may date to the first century BCE or earlier, while the best-attested stone inscriptions are from the first through third centuries CE. Tang-e Sarvak was believed to be a sacred coronation site; its inscriptions name rulers, priests, and throne-holders. Elymaic legends also appear on royal coins.

Elymaic is closely related to other Aramaic-derived scripts in the region, especially Parthian and Mandaic, and also Characenean. Scholars disagree about its exact relationship to Mandaic: Elymaic has been proposed as its ancestor, a sister script, or a descendant.

Why does 𐿪 look different in inscriptions?

Unicode uses a normalized form based on Tang-e Sarvak stone inscriptions.

Letterforms vary across ancient inscriptions. Elymaic kaph resembles Elymaic resh 𐿳; kaph has the longer tail, which descends below the baseline.

Elymaic runs right to left, but its letters do not join digitally. Strokes that touch or overlap in some carvings do not make the script cursive.