Qoph

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Phoenician	𐤒‎
Hebrew	ק‎
Aramaic	𐡒‎
Syriac	ܩ‎
Arabic	ق‎
Phonemic representation	q,g,ʔ,k
Position in Alpha bet	19
Numerical value	100
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Greek	Ϙ,Φ
Latin	Q
Cyrillic	Ҁ,Ф

This article containsspecial characters.Without properrendering support,you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols.

Qophis the nineteenthletterof theSemitic abjads,includingPhoenicianqōp𐤒,Hebrewqūp̄ק,Aramaicqop𐡒,Syriacqōp̄ܩ, andArabicqāfق.

Its original sound value was aWest Semitic emphatic stop,presumably[kʼ].InHebrew numerals,it has the numerical value of 100.

Origins

The origin of the glyph shape ofqōp() is uncertain. It is usually suggested to have originally depicted either asewing needle,specifically theeye of a needle(Hebrewקוףqufand Aramaicקופאqopɑʔboth refer to the eye of a needle), or the back of a head and neck (qāfin Arabic meant "nape").^[1] According to an older suggestion, it may also have been a picture of a monkey and its tail (the Hebrewקוףmeans "monkey" ).^[2]

BesidesAramaicQop,which gave rise to the letter in the Semitic abjads used in classical antiquity, Phoenicianqōpis also the origin of the Latin letterQand GreekϘ(qoppa) andΦ(phi).^[3]

Arabic qāf

The Arabic letterقis namedقافqāf.It is written in several ways depending in its position in the word:

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ق‎	ـق‎	ـقـ‎	قـ‎

Traditionally in thescripts of the Maghrebit is written with a single dot, similarly to how the letterfāفis written in Mashreqi scripts:^[4]

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ڧ‎	ـڧ‎	ـڧـ‎	ڧـ‎

It is usually transliterated into Latin script asq,though some scholarly works useḳ.^[5]

Pronunciation

According toSibawayh,author of the first book onArabic grammar,the letter is pronouncedvoiced(maǧhūr),^[6]although some scholars argue, that Sibawayh's termmaǧhūrimplies lack ofaspirationrather than voice.^[7]As noted above,Modern Standard Arabichas thevoiceless uvular plosive/q/as its standard pronunciation of the letter, but dialectical pronunciations vary as follows:

The three main pronunciations:

[q]:in most of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco,SouthernandWesternYemen and parts of Oman, Northern Iraq, parts of the Levant (especially theAlawiteandDruzedialects). In fact, it is so characteristic of theAlawitesand theDruzethat Levantines invented a verb "y QAQ i" /jqæqi/ that means "speaking with a /q/".^[8]However, most other dialects of Arabic will use this pronunciation in learned words that are borrowed from Standard Arabic into the respective dialect or when Arabs speak Modern Standard Arabic.
[ɡ]:in most of theArabian Peninsula,NorthernandEasternYemen and parts of Oman, SouthernIraq,some parts within Jordan, eastern Syria and southern Palestine,Upper Egypt(Ṣaʿīd),Sudan,Libya,Mauritaniaand to lesser extent in some parts ofTunisia,Algeria,andMoroccobut it is also used partially across those countries in some words.^[9]
[ʔ]:in most of theLevantandEgypt,as well as some North African towns such asTlemcenandFez.

Other pronunciations:

[ɢ]:InSudaneseand some forms ofYemeni,even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.
[k]:In ruralPalestinianit is often pronounced as avoiceless velar plosive[k],even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.

Marginal pronunciations:

[d͡z]:In some positions inNajdi,though this pronunciation is fading in favor of[ɡ].^[10]^[11]
[d͡ʒ]:Optionally inIraqiand inGulf Arabic,it is sometimes pronounced as avoiced postalveolar affricate[d͡ʒ],even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.
[ɣ]~[ʁ]:inSudaneseand some Yemeni dialects (Yafi'i), and sometimes inGulf Arabicby Persian influence, even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.

Velar gāf

It is not well known when the pronunciation of qāf⟨ق⟩as a velar[ɡ]occurred or the probability of it being connected to the pronunciation ofjīm⟨ج⟩as an affricate[d͡ʒ],but theArabian peninsulawhich is the homeland of the Arabic language, there are two sets of pronunciations, either the⟨ج⟩represents a[d͡ʒ]and⟨ق⟩represents a[ɡ]^[12]which is the main pronunciation in most of the peninsula except for western and southernYemenand parts ofOmanwhere⟨ج⟩represents a[ɡ]and⟨ق⟩represents a[q].

The Standard Arabic (MSA) combination of⟨ج⟩as a[d͡ʒ]and⟨ق⟩as a[q]does not occur in any natural modern dialect in the Arabian peninsula, which shows a strong correlation between the palatalization of⟨ج⟩to[d͡ʒ]and the pronunciation of the⟨ق⟩as a[ɡ]as shown in the table below:


Languages - Dialects	Pronunciation of the letters
Languages - Dialects	ج	ق
Proto-Semitic	[ɡ]	[kʼ]
Dialects in parts of Oman and Yemen¹	[ɡ]	[q]
Modern Standard Arabic²	[d͡ʒ]	[q]
Dialects in most of theArabian Peninsula	[d͡ʒ]	[ɡ]

Notes:

Western and southern Yemen:Taʽizzi, AdeniandTihamiyyadialects (coastal Yemen), in addition to southwestern (Salalahregion) and eastern Oman, includingMuscat,the capital.
As used in theArabian Peninsula:inSanaa;قis[ɡ]inSanʽani dialectand also in the literary standard (local MSA), whereas the literary standard pronunciation inSudanis[ɢ]or[ɡ].For the pronunciation ofجin Modern Standard Arabic, checkJīm.

Pronunciation across other languages


Language	Dialect(s) / Script(s)	Pronunciation (IPA)
Azeri	Arabic Alpha bet	/g/
Kurdish	Sorani	/q/
Malay	Jawi	/q/or/k/
Pashto		/q/or/k/
Persian	Dari	/q/
Persian	Iranian	/ɢ/~/ɣ/or/q/
Punjabi	Shahmukhi	/q/or/k/
Urdu		/q/or/k/
Uyghur		/q/

Maghrebi variant

TheMaghrebi styleof writingqāfis different: having only a single point (dot) above; when the letter is isolated or word-final, it may sometimes become unpointed.^[13]

The Maghrebiqāf
Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Form of letter:	ڧ‎ ࢼ‎	ـڧ‎ ـࢼ‎	ـڧـ‎	ڧـ‎

The earliest Arabic manuscripts showqāfin several variants: pointed (above or below) or unpointed.^[14]Then the prevalent convention was having a point above forqāfand a point below forfāʼ;this practice is now only preserved in manuscripts from the Maghribi,^[15]with the exception of Libya and Algeria, where theMashriqiform (two dots above:ق) prevails.

Within Maghribi texts, there is no possibility of confusing it with the letterfāʼ,as it is instead written with a dot underneath (ڢ‎) in the Maghribi script.^[16]

Hebrew qof

TheOxford Hebrew-English Dictionarytransliterates the letter Qoph (קוֹף‎) asqork;and, when word-final, it may be transliterated asck.^{[citation needed]} The English spellings of Biblical names (as derived viaLatinfromBiblical Greek) containing this letter may represent it ascork,e.g.Cainfor HebrewQayin,orKenanforQenan(Genesis 4:1, 5:9).

Orthographicvariants
Various print fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced	Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
ק	ק	ק

Pronunciation

Inmodern Israeli Hebrewthe letteris also calledkuf.The letter represents/k/;i.e., no distinction is made between the pronunciations of Qof andKaph withDagesh(in modern Hebrew).

However, many historical groups have made that distinction, with Qof being pronounced[q]byIraqi Jewsand otherMizrahim,or even as[ɡ]byYemenite Jewsunder the influence ofYemeni Arabic.

Qoph is consistently transliterated into classical Greek with the unaspirated〈κ〉/k/, while Kaph (both its allophones) is transliterated with the aspirated〈χ〉/kʰ/. Thus Qoph was unaspirated /k/ where Kaph was /kʰ/, this distinction is no longer present. Further we know that Qoph is one of the emphatic consonants through comparison with other Semitic languages, and most likely was ejective /kʼ/. In Arabic the emphatics are pharyngealised and this causes a preference for back vowels, this is not shown in Hebrew orthography. Though the gutturals show a preference for certain vowels, Hebrew emphatics do not in Tiberian Hebrew (the Hebrew dialect recorded with vowels) and therefore were most likely not pharyngealised, but ejective, pharyngealisation being a result of Arabisation.^{[citation needed]}

Numeral

Qof inHebrew numeralsrepresents the number 100.Sarahis described inGenesis Rabbaasבת ק' כבת כ' שנה לחטא‎, literally "At Qof years of age, she was likeKaphyears of age in sin ", meaning that when she was 100 years old, she was as sinless as when she was 20.^[17]

Unicode

Character information
Preview	ק		ق		ڧ		ࢼ		ܩ		ࠒ
Unicode name	HEBREW LETTER QOF		ARABIC LETTER QAF		ARABIC LETTER QAF WITH DOT ABOVE		ARABIC LETTER AFRICAN QAF		SYRIAC LETTER QAPH		SAMARITAN LETTER QUF
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	1511	U+05E7	1602	U+0642	1703	U+06A7	2236	U+08BC	1833	U+0729	2066	U+0812
UTF-8	215 167	D7 A7	217 130	D9 82	218 167	DA A7	224 162 188	E0 A2 BC	220 169	DC A9	224 160 146	E0 A0 92
Numeric character reference	ק	ק	ق	ق	ڧ	ڧ	ࢼ	ࢼ	ܩ	ܩ	ࠒ	ࠒ

Character information
Preview	𐎖		𐡒		𐤒
Unicode name	UGARITIC LETTER QOPA		IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER QOPH		PHOENICIAN LETTER QOF
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	66454	U+10396	67666	U+10852	67858	U+10912
UTF-8	240 144 142 150	F0 90 8E 96	240 144 161 146	F0 90 A1 92	240 144 164 146	F0 90 A4 92
UTF-16	55296 57238	D800 DF96	55298 56402	D802 DC52	55298 56594	D802 DD12
Numeric character reference	𐎖	𐎖	𐡒	𐡒	𐤒	𐤒

References

^ Travers Wood, Henry Craven Ord Lanchester,A Hebrew Grammar,1913, p. 7. A. B. Davidson,Hebrew Primer and Grammar,2000,p. 4. The meaning is doubtful. "Eye of a needle" has been suggested, and also "knot" Harvard Studies in Classical Philology vol. 45.
^ Isaac Taylor,History of the Alphabet: Semitic Alphabets, Part 1,2003,p. 174: "The old explanation, which has again been revived by Halévy, is that it denotes an 'ape,' the characterQbeing taken to represent an ape with its tail hanging down. It may also be referred to a Talmudic root which would signify an 'aperture' of some kind, as the 'eye of a needle,'... Lenormant adopts the more usual explanation that the word means a 'knot'.
^ Qop may have been assigned the sound value /kʷʰ/ inearly Greek;as this was allophonic with /pʰ/ in certain contexts and certain dialects, the letter qoppa continued as the letter phi. C. Brixhe, "History of the Alpbabet", in Christidēs, Arapopoulou, & Chritē, eds., 2007, A History of Ancient Greek.
^al-Banduri, Muhammad (2018-11-16)."الخطاط المغربي عبد العزيز مجيب بين التقييد الخطي والترنح الحروفي"[Moroccan calligrapher Abd al-Aziz Mujib: between calligraphic restriction and Alpha betic staggering].Al-Quds(in Arabic).Retrieved2019-12-17.
^e.g.,The Encyclopaedia of Islam,Second Edition
^Kees Versteegh,The Arabic Language,pg. 131.Edinburgh:Edinburgh University Press,2001. Paperback edition.ISBN 9780748614363
^Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2020).A Manual of the Historical Grammar of Arabic (Draft).p. 47.
^Samy Swayd (10 March 2015).Historical Dictionary of the Druzes(2 ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 50.ISBN 978-1-4422-4617-1.
^This variance has led to theconfusion over the spellingofLibyanleaderMuammar al-Gaddafi's name in Latin letters. In Western Arabic dialects the sound[q]is more preserved but can also be sometimes pronounced[ɡ]or as a simple[k]underBerberandFrenchinfluence.
^Bruce Ingham (1 January 1994).Najdi Arabic: Central Arabian.John Benjamins Publishing. p. 14.ISBN 90-272-3801-4.
^Lewis, Robert Jr. (2013).Complementizer Agreement in Najdi Arabic(PDF)(MA thesis). University of Kansas. p. 5. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 19, 2018.
^al Nassir, Abdulmunʿim Abdulamir (1985).Sibawayh the Phonologist(PDF)(in Arabic). University of New York. p. 80.Retrieved23 April2024.
^van den Boogert, N. (1989)."Some notes on Maghrebi script"(PDF).Manuscript of the Middle East.4.p. 38 showsqāfwith a superscript point in all four positions.
^Gacek, Adam (2008).The Arabic Manuscript Tradition.Brill. p. 61.ISBN 978-90-04-16540-3.
^Gacek, Adam (2009).Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers.Brill. p. 145.ISBN 978-90-04-17036-0.
^Muhammad Ghoniem, M S M Saifullah,^cAbd ar-Rahmân Robert Squires &^cAbdus Samad,Are There Scribal Errors In The Qur'ân?,seeqifon a traffic sign writtenڧڢ‎which is written elsewhere asقف,Retrieved 2011-August-27
^Rabbi Ari Kahn (20 October 2013)."A deeper look at the life of Sarah".aish.RetrievedMay 9,2020.

External links

[1] Travers Wood, Henry Craven Ord Lanchester,A Hebrew Grammar,1913, p. 7. A. B. Davidson,Hebrew Primer and Grammar,2000,p. 4. The meaning is doubtful. "Eye of a needle" has been suggested, and also "knot" Harvard Studies in Classical Philology vol. 45.

[2] Isaac Taylor,History of the Alphabet: Semitic Alphabets, Part 1,2003,p. 174: "The old explanation, which has again been revived by Halévy, is that it denotes an 'ape,' the characterQbeing taken to represent an ape with its tail hanging down. It may also be referred to a Talmudic root which would signify an 'aperture' of some kind, as the 'eye of a needle,'... Lenormant adopts the more usual explanation that the word means a 'knot'.

[3] Qop may have been assigned the sound value /kʷʰ/ inearly Greek;as this was allophonic with /pʰ/ in certain contexts and certain dialects, the letter qoppa continued as the letter phi. C. Brixhe, "History of the Alpbabet", in Christidēs, Arapopoulou, & Chritē, eds., 2007, A History of Ancient Greek.

[:3-4] -Banduri, Muhammad (2018-11-16)."الخطاط المغربي عبد العزيز مجيب بين التقييد الخطي والترنح الحروفي"[Moroccan calligrapher Abd al-Aziz Mujib: between calligraphic restriction and Alpha betic staggering].Al-Quds(in Arabic).Retrieved2019-12-17.

[5] e.g.,The Encyclopaedia of Islam,Second Edition

[6] Kees Versteegh,The Arabic Language,pg. 131.Edinburgh:Edinburgh University Press,2001. Paperback edition.ISBN 9780748614363

[7] Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2020).A Manual of the Historical Grammar of Arabic (Draft).p. 47.

[8] Samy Swayd (10 March 2015).Historical Dictionary of the Druzes(2 ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 50.ISBN 978-1-4422-4617-1.

[9] This variance has led to theconfusion over the spellingofLibyanleaderMuammar al-Gaddafi's name in Latin letters. In Western Arabic dialects the sound[q]is more preserved but can also be sometimes pronounced[ɡ]or as a simple[k]underBerberandFrenchinfluence.

[Ingham1994-10] Bruce Ingham (1 January 1994).Najdi Arabic: Central Arabian.John Benjamins Publishing. p. 14.ISBN 90-272-3801-4.

[11] Lewis, Robert Jr. (2013).Complementizer Agreement in Najdi Arabic(PDF)(MA thesis). University of Kansas. p. 5. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 19, 2018.

[12] Nassir, Abdulmunʿim Abdulamir (1985).Sibawayh the Phonologist(PDF)(in Arabic). University of New York. p. 80.Retrieved23 April2024.

[13] van den Boogert, N. (1989)."Some notes on Maghrebi script"(PDF).Manuscript of the Middle East.4.p. 38 showsqāfwith a superscript point in all four positions.

[14] Gacek, Adam (2008).The Arabic Manuscript Tradition.Brill. p. 61.ISBN 978-90-04-16540-3.

[15] Gacek, Adam (2009).Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers.Brill. p. 145.ISBN 978-90-04-17036-0.

[16] Muhammad Ghoniem, M S M Saifullah,^cAbd ar-Rahmân Robert Squires &^cAbdus Samad,Are There Scribal Errors In The Qur'ân?,seeqifon a traffic sign writtenڧڢ‎which is written elsewhere asقف,Retrieved 2011-August-27

[17] Rabbi Ari Kahn (20 October 2013)."A deeper look at the life of Sarah".aish.RetrievedMay 9,2020.

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