vulg. hı, The seventh letter of the Arabic, but ninth of the Turkish and Persian alphabets. In chronograms it represents the number 600. Its sound is that of the German ch in doch, and of the Greek χ in χάος.It is one of the class of hard letters, requiring, when movent in a syllable, a hard vowel to follow it. In Constantinople the pronunciation of this letter is softened, so as to resemble that of the letter ح , or even ه ; but in the mouth of provincials, Persians, and Arabs, the guttural sound is very harsh to western ears. In transliteration this letter is represented by kh.Some Turkish words now generally written and pronounced with ق , are occasionally, written and pronounced with خ ; as, بشخە başha, for بشقە başka, etc. The final ق and ك of the first person plural. of certain tenses of verbs are also, in the pronunciation of the Turcomans of Asia Minor, changed into خ; as, كیدخ gideh.The name of this letter, when written.in full, is خای معجمە and خای منقوطە (the dotted خ). In astronomical works it is used as an abbreviation of the name of the planet Mars (مریخ).