Qoph

Qoph
Phonemic representation [q], [g], [ʔ], [k]
Position in alphabet 19
Numerical value 100
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician

Qoph or Qop (Phoenician Qōp ) is the nineteenth letter of the Semitic abjads. Aramaic Qop is derived from the Phoenician letter, and derivations from Aramaic include Hebrew Qof ק‬, Syriac Qōp̄ ܩ and Arabic Qāf ق.

Its original sound value was a West Semitic emphatic stop, presumably [kˤ] or [q]. In Hebrew gematria, it has the numerical value of 100.

Origins

The origin of the glyph shape of qōp () is uncertain. It is usually suggested to have originally depicted either a sewing needle, specifically the eye of a needle, or the back of a head and neck (qāf in Arabic meant "nape").[1] According to an older suggestion, it may also have been a picture of a monkey and its tail (the Hebrew קוף means "monkey").[2]

Besides Aramaic Qop, which gave rise to the letter in the Semitic abjads used in classical antiquity, Phoenician qōp is also the origin of the Latin letter Q and Greek Ϙ (qoppa) and Φ (phi).[3]

Arabic qāf

The main Pronunciations of written <ق> in Arabic dialects.

The Arabic letter ق is named قاف qāf. It is written in several ways depending in its position in the word:

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

It is usually transliterated into Latin script as q, though some scholarly works use ḳ.[4]

Pronunciation

According to Sibawayh, author of the first book on Arabic grammar, the letter is pronounced as a voiced phoneme.[5] As noted above, Modern Standard Arabic has the voiceless 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, Southern and Western Yemen and parts of Oman, Northern Iraq, parts of the Levant especially Druze dialects. However, most other dialects of Arabic will use this pronunciation in learned words that are borrowed from Standard Arabic into the respective dialect.
  • [ɡ]: in most of the Arabian Peninsula, Northern and Eastern Yemen and parts of Oman, Southern Iraq, some parts of the Levant, Upper Egypt (Ṣaʿīd), Sudan, Libya, Mauritania and to lesser extent in some parts of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco but it is also used partially across those countries in some words.[6]
  • [ʔ]: in most of the Levant and Egypt, as well as some North African towns such as Tlemcen and Fez.

Other pronunciations:

Marginal Pronunciations:

The Maghribi text renders qāf and fāʼ differently than elsewhere would:
منكم فقد ضل سواء السبيل فبما نقضهم ميثـٰـقهم لعنـٰـهم وجعلنا قلوبهم قـٰـسية يحرفون الكلم عن مواضعه ونسوا حظاً مما ذكروا به ولا تزال تطلع‬

Maghrebi variant

The Maghrebi style of writing qāf is different: having only a single point (dot) above; when the letter is isolated or word-final, it may sometimes become unpointed.[9]

The Maghrebi qāf
Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Form of letter: ڧ‬
ٯ‬		 ـڧ‬
ـٯ‬		 ـڧـ‬ ڧـ‬

The earliest Arabic manuscripts show qāf in several variants: pointed (above or below) or unpointed.[10] Then the prevalent convention was having a point above for qāf and a point below for fāʼ; this practice is now only preserved in manuscripts from the Maghribi,[11] with the exception of Libya and Algeria, where the Mashriqi form (two dots above: ق) prevails.

Within Maghribi texts, there is no possibility of confusing it with the letter fāʼ, as it is instead written with a dot underneath (ڢ‬) in the Maghribi script.[12]

Hebrew Qof

The Oxford Hebrew-English Dictionary transliterates the letter Qoph (קוֹף) a transliteration as q or k; and, when word-final, it may be transliterated as ck. The English spellings of Biblical names (as derived from Latin via Biblical Greek) containing this letter may represent it as c or k, e.g. Cain for Hebrew Qayin, or Kenan for Qenan (Genesis 4:1, 5:9).

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts Cursive
Hebrew		 Rashi
script
SerifSans-serifMonospaced
ק ק ק

Pronunciation

In modern Israeli Hebrew the letter is also called kuf. The letter represents /k/; i.e., no distinction is made between Qof and Kaph.

However, many historical groups have made that distinction, with Qof being pronounced [q] by Iraqi Jews and other Mizrahim, or even as [ɡ] by Yemenite Jews under the influence of Yemeni Arabic.

Gematria

Qof in gematria represents the number 100. Sarah is described in Genesis Rabba as בת ק' כבת כ' שנה לחטא‬, literally "At Qof years of age, she was like Kaph years of age in sin", meaning that when she was 100 years old, she was as sinless as when she was 20.

Unicode

Characterקقܩࠒ
Unicode nameHEBREW LETTER QOFARABIC LETTER QAFSYRIAC LETTER QAPHSAMARITAN LETTER QUF
Encodingsdecimalhexdecimalhexdecimalhexdecimalhex
Unicode1511U+05E71602U+06421833U+07292066U+0812
UTF-8215 167D7 A7217 130D9 82220 169DC A9224 160 146E0 A0 92
Numeric character reference&#1511;&#x5E7;&#1602;&#x642;&#1833;&#x729;&#2066;&#x812;
Character𐎖𐡒𐤒
Unicode nameUGARITIC LETTER QOPAIMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER QOPHPHOENICIAN LETTER QOF
Encodingsdecimalhexdecimalhexdecimalhex
Unicode66454U+1039667666U+1085267858U+10912
UTF-8240 144 142 150F0 90 8E 96240 144 161 146F0 90 A1 92240 144 164 146F0 90 A4 92
UTF-1655296 57238D800 DF9655298 56402D802 DC5255298 56594D802 DD12
Numeric character reference&#66454;&#x10396;&#67666;&#x10852;&#67858;&#x10912;

References

  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: "The old explanation, which has again been revived by Halévy, is that it denotes an 'ape,' the character Q being 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/ in early 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.
  4. ↑ e.g., The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition
  5. ↑ Kees Versteegh, The Arabic Language, pg. 131. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001. Paperback edition. ISBN 9780748614363
  6. ↑ This variance has led to the confusion over the spelling of Libyan leader Muammar 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] under Berber and French influence.
  7. ↑ Bruce Ingham (1 January 1994). Najdi Arabic: Central Arabian. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 90-272-3801-4.
  8. ↑ Lewis jr. (2013), p. 5.
  9. ↑ van den Boogert, N. (1989). "Some notes on Maghrebi script" (PDF). Manuscript of the Middle East. 4. p. 38 shows qāf with a superscript point in all four positions.
  10. ↑ Gacek, Adam (2008). The Arabic Manuscript Tradition. Brill. p. 61. ISBN 90-04-16540-1.
  11. ↑ Gacek, Adam (2009). Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers. Brill. p. 145. ISBN 90-04-17036-7.
  12. ↑ Muhammad Ghoniem, M S M Saifullah, cAbd ar-Rahmân Robert Squires & cAbdus Samad, Are There Scribal Errors In The Qur'ân?, see qif on a traffic sign written ڧڢ‬ which is written elsewhere as قف, Retrieved 2011-August-27
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