View source for Qoph

{{Short description|Nineteenth letter of many Semitic alphabets}}
{{About|the Semitic letter|the band|Qoph (band)}}
{{Redirect|Kuf||KUF (disambiguation)}}
{{Phoenician glyph|letname=Qoph|previouslink=Tsade|previousletter=Tsade|nextlink=Resh|nextletter=Resh|archar=ق|sychar=ܩ|hechar=ק|amchar=𐡒|gechar=ቀ|phchar=𐤒|grchar=[[Ϙ]], [[Φ]]|lachar=[[Q]]|cychar=[[Ҁ]], [[Ф]], [[Ԛ]]|ipa={{IPAlink|q}}, ({{IPAlink|g}}, {{IPAlink|ʔ}}, {{IPAlink|k}})|num=19|gem=100}}
{{SpecialChars}}
'''Qoph''' is the nineteenth [[Letter (alphabet)|letter]] of the [[Semitic abjads]], including [[Arabic script|Arabic]] ''qāf'' {{Script|Arabic|ق}}, [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] ''qop'' 𐡒, [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] ''qūp̄'' {{Script|Hebr|ק}}, [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] ''qōp'' 𐤒, and [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]] ''qōp̄'' ܩ.

Its original sound value was a [[West Semitic languages|West Semitic]] [[emphatic consonant|emphatic stop]], presumably {{IPAblink|kʼ}}. In [[Abjad numerals|Arabic (Abjad)]] and [[Hebrew numerals|Hebrew]] numerals, it has the numerical value of 100.

==Origins==
[[File:Fish net needle MET 15.3.944 view 2.jpg|thumb|Needle from Ancient Egypt, 13th–10th century BC]]
The origin of the glyph shape of ''qōp'' ([[File:Phoenician_qoph.svg|12px]]) is uncertain. It is usually suggested to have originally depicted either a [[sewing needle]], specifically the [[eye of a needle]] (Hebrew {{lang|he|קוף}} ''quf'' and Aramaic {{lang|arc|קופא}} ''qopɑʔ'' both refer to the eye of a needle), or the back of a head and neck (''qāf'' in Arabic meant "[[nape]]").<ref>
Travers Wood, Henry Craven Ord Lanchester, ''A Hebrew Grammar'', 1913, p. 7.
A. B. Davidson, ''Hebrew Primer and Grammar'', 2000,  [https://books.google.com/books?id=L3e0nqF9_1MC&pg=RA1-PA4 p. 4].
The meaning is doubtful. "Eye of a needle" has been suggested, and also "knot" Harvard Studies in Classical Philology vol. 45.</ref>
According to an older suggestion, it may also have been a picture of a monkey and its tail (the Hebrew {{lang|he|קוף}} means "monkey").<ref>
Isaac Taylor, ''History of the Alphabet: Semitic Alphabets, Part 1'', 2003, [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.52285/page/n1/mode/1up p. 174]: 
"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'.</ref>

Besides [[Aramaic alphabet|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'').<ref>
Qop may have been assigned the sound value  /kʷʰ/ in [[Archaic Greek alphabets|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.</ref>

==Arabic qāf==
{{Infobox grapheme|name=qāf قاف|letter=ق|script=[[Arabic script]]|type=[[Abjad]]|language=[[Arabic language]]|phonemes={{IPAlink|q}} ({{IPAlink|g}}, {{IPAlink|ʔ}}, {{IPAlink|k}}, {{IPAlink|ɢ}})|alphanumber=21|number=|fam2=𐤒|fam3=𐡒|fam4=𐢚‎|direction=Right-to-left|fam5=ٯ}}The Arabic letter {{lang|ar|ق}} is named {{lang|ar|قاف}} ''{{transl|ar|DIN|qāf}}''. It is written in several ways depending in its position in the word:
{{Arabic alphabet shapes|ق}}
Traditionally in the [[Maghrebi script|scripts of the Maghreb]] it is written with a single dot (now obsolete), similarly to how the letter ''[[Pe (Semitic letter)#Arabic fāʾ|fā]]'' [[ف]] is written in Mashreqi scripts:<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=al-Banduri|first=Muhammad|date=2018-11-16|title=الخطاط المغربي عبد العزيز مجيب بين التقييد الخطي والترنح الحروفي|trans-title=Moroccan calligrapher Abd al-Aziz Mujib: between calligraphic restriction and alphabetic staggering|url=https://www.alquds.co.uk/الخطاط-المغربي-عبد-العزيز-مجيب-بين-الت/|website=Al-Quds|language=Arabic|access-date=2019-12-17}}</ref>
{{Arabic alphabet shapes|ڧ}}

It is usually transliterated into Latin script as ''q'', though some scholarly works use ''ḳ''.<ref>''e.g.'', ''The Encyclopaedia of Islam'', Second Edition</ref>

===Pronunciation===
According to [[Sibawayh]], author of the first book on [[Arabic grammar]], the letter is pronounced [[voiced phoneme|voiced]] (''maǧhūr''),<ref>[[Kees Versteegh]], ''The Arabic Language'', pg. 131. [[Edinburgh]]: [[Edinburgh University Press]], 2001. Paperback edition. {{ISBN|9780748614363}}</ref> although some scholars argue, that Sibawayh's term ''maǧhūr'' implies lack of [[Aspiration (linguistics)|aspiration]] rather than voice.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Al-Jallad|first=Ahmad|url=https://www.academia.edu/38100372|title=A Manual of the Historical Grammar of Arabic (Draft)|year=2020|page=47}}</ref> As noted above, [[Modern Standard Arabic]] has the [[voiceless uvular plosive]] {{IPAslink|q}} as its standard pronunciation of the letter, but dialectal pronunciations vary as follows:

The three main pronunciations:

*{{IPAblink|q}}: in most of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, [[Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic|Southern]] and [[Tihamiyya Arabic|Western]] Yemen and parts of Oman, Northern Iraq, parts of the Levant (especially the [[Alawite]] and [[Druze]] dialects). In fact, it is so characteristic of the [[Alawite]]s and the [[Druze]] that Levantines invented a verb "yqaqi" /jqæqi/ that means "speaking with a /q/".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Samy Swayd|title=Historical Dictionary of the Druzes|date=10 March 2015|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-4422-4617-1|page=50|edition=2}}</ref> 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.
*{{IPAblink|ɡ}}: in most of the [[Arabian Peninsula]], [[San'ani Arabic|Northern]] and [[Hadhrami Arabic|Eastern]] Yemen and parts of Oman, Southern [[Mesopotamian Arabic|Iraq]], some parts within Jordan, eastern Syria and southern Palestine, [[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.<ref>This variance has led to the [[Muammar al-Gaddafi#Name|confusion over the spelling]] of [[Libya]]n leader [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]]'s name in Latin letters. In Western Arabic dialects the sound {{IPAblink|q}} is more preserved but can also be sometimes pronounced {{IPAblink|ɡ}} or as a simple {{IPAblink|k}} under [[Berber languages|Berber]] and [[French language|French]] influence.</ref>
*{{IPAblink|ʔ}}: in most of the [[Levant]] and [[Lower Egypt|Egypt]], as well as some North African towns such as [[Tlemcen]] and [[Fez, Morocco|Fez]].

Other pronunciations:

*{{IPAblink|ɢ}}: In [[Sudanese Arabic|Sudanese]] and some forms of [[Yemeni Arabic|Yemeni]], even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.
*{{IPAblink|k}}: In rural [[Palestinian Arabic|Palestinian]] it is often pronounced as a [[voiceless velar plosive]] {{IPAblink|k}}, even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.

Marginal pronunciations:

*{{IPAblink|d͡z }}: In some positions in [[Najdi Arabic|Najdi]], though this pronunciation is fading in favor of {{IPAblink|ɡ}}.<ref name="Ingham1994">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1W7sEB_Kg8C|title=Najdi Arabic: Central Arabian|author=Bruce Ingham|date=1 January 1994|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=90-272-3801-4|page=14}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |degree=MA |last=Lewis |first=Robert Jr. |date=2013 |title=Complementizer Agreement in Najdi Arabic
|url=http://home.uchicago.edu/~robertlewis/writings/thesis.pdf  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619075254/http://home.uchicago.edu/~robertlewis/writings/thesis.pdf |archive-date=June 19, 2018 |publisher=University of Kansas |page=5}}</ref>
*{{IPAblink|d͡ʒ}}: Optionally in [[Iraqi Arabic|Iraqi]] and in [[Gulf Arabic]], it is sometimes pronounced as a [[voiced postalveolar affricate]] {{IPAblink|d͡ʒ}}, even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.
*{{IPAblink|ɣ}} ~ {{IPAblink|ʁ}}: in [[Sudanese Arabic|Sudanese]] and some Yemeni dialects ([[Yemeni Arabic|Yafi'i]]), and sometimes in [[Gulf Arabic]] by 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 {{angbr|<big>ق</big>}} as a velar {{IPA|[ɡ]}} occurred or the probability of it being connected to the pronunciation of [[Gimel|jīm]] {{angbr|{{lang|ar|[[ج]]}}}} as an affricate {{IPA|[d͡ʒ]}}, but the [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabian peninsula]] which is the homeland of the Arabic language, there are two sets of pronunciations, either the {{angbr|{{lang|ar|[[ج]]}}}} represents a {{IPA|[d͡ʒ]}} and {{angbr|{{lang|ar|[[ق]]}}}} represents a {{IPA|[ɡ]}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=al Nassir |first=Abdulmunʿim Abdulamir |url=https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10917/1/354409.pdf |title=Sibawayh the Phonologist |publisher=University of New York |year=1985 |pages=80 |language=ar |access-date=23 April 2024}}</ref> which is the main pronunciation in  most of the peninsula except for western and southern [[Yemeni Arabic|Yemen]] and parts of [[Omani Arabic|Oman]] where {{angbr|{{lang|ar|[[ج]]}}}} represents a {{IPA|[ɡ]}} and {{angbr|{{lang|ar|[[ق]]}}}} represents a {{IPA|[q]}}. 

The Standard Arabic (MSA) combination of {{angbr|{{lang|ar|[[ج]]}}}} as a {{IPA|[d͡ʒ]}} and {{angbr|{{lang|ar|[[ق]]}}}} as a {{IPA|[q]}} does not occur in any natural modern dialect in the Arabian peninsula, which shows a strong correlation between the palatalization of {{angbr|{{lang|ar|[[ج]]}}}} to {{IPA|[d͡ʒ]}} and the pronunciation of the {{angbr|{{lang|ar|[[ق]]}}}} as a {{IPA|[ɡ]}} as shown in the table below:
{{Gim and qaf pronunciation}}

=== Pronunciation across other languages ===
{| class="wikitable"
|+Pronunciation of {{angbr|{{lang|ar|[[ق]]}}}} in other languages
!Language
!Dialect(s) / Script(s)
!Pronunciation ([[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]])
|-
![[South Azeri|Azeri]]
![[Azerbaijani alphabet#Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet|Arabic alphabet]]
| style="text-align:center" |{{IPAslink|g}}
|-
![[Sorani|Kurdish]]
![[Sorani alphabet|Sorani]]
| rowspan="6" style="text-align:center" |{{IPAslink|q}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Urdu Alphabet|Urdu]]
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Uyghur alphabets|Uyghur]]
|-
![[Uzbek language|Uzbek]]
![[Uzbek alphabet#Arabic script|Arabic script]]
|-
![[Kazakh language|Kazakh]]
![[Kazakh alphabets#Arabic script|Tote Jazu]]
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Persian alphabet|Persian]]
!Dari
|-
!Iranian
| style="text-align:center" |{{IPAslink|q}} or {{IPAslink|ɢ}}~{{IPAslink|ɣ}}
|-
![[Malay language|Malay]]
![[Jawi script|Jawi]]
| rowspan="4" style="text-align:center" |{{IPAslink|q}} or {{IPAslink|k}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Pashto alphabet|Pashto]]
|-
![[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]
![[Shahmukhi]]
|-
![[Swahili language|Swahili]]
![[Swahili Ajami|Ajami]]
|-
![[Hausa language|Hausa]]
![[Hausa Ajami|Ajami]]
| style="text-align:center" | {{IPAslink|kʼ}}
|}
Note: {{IPAblink|q}} is a native sound to [[Turkic languages]], but in [[Indo-Iranian languages]] (excl. Kurdish) it mostly occurs as an Arabic or a Turkic influence. [[File:Maghribi script sura 5.jpg|195px|thumb|right|The Maghribi text renders ''{{transl|ar|DIN|qāf}}'' and ''{{transl|ar|fāʼ}}'' differently than elsewhere would]]

===Maghrebi variant===
{{confused|text=[[ف]], a letter with the same initial and medial forms in other languages}}

The [[Maghrebi script|Maghrebi style]] of writing ''{{transl|ar|DIN|qāf}}'' is different: having only a single point (dot) above; when the letter is isolated or word-final, it may sometimes become unpointed.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=van den Boogert|first1=N.|title=Some notes on Maghrebi script|journal=Manuscript of the Middle East|date=1989|volume=4|url=http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/reference/articles/boogert_notes_maghribi_script.PDF}} p. 38 shows ''{{transl|ar|DIN|qāf}}'' with a superscript point in all four positions.</ref>

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ The Maghrebi ''{{transl|ar|DIN|qāf}}''
|Position in word:
!Isolated
!Final
!Medial
!Initial
|-
|Form of letter:
|style="font-size:300%;line-height:170%"|{{Script/Arabic|ڧ}}<br />{{Script/Arabic|ٯ}}
|style="font-size:300%;line-height:170%"|{{Script/Arabic|ـڧ}}<br />{{Script/Arabic|ـٯ}}
|style="font-size:300%;line-height:170%"|{{Script/Arabic|ـڧـ}}
|style="font-size:300%;line-height:170%"|{{Script/Arabic|ڧـ}}
|}

The earliest Arabic manuscripts show ''{{transl|ar|DIN|qāf}}'' in several variants: pointed (above or below) or unpointed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gacek|first=Adam|title=The Arabic Manuscript Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GfZYCcOL8dYC&pg=PA61|year=2008|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-16540-3|page=61}}</ref> Then the prevalent convention was having a point above for ''{{transl|ar|DIN|qāf}}'' and a point below for ''{{transl|ar|fāʼ}}''; this practice is now only preserved in manuscripts from the Maghribi,<ref>{{cite book|last=Gacek|first=Adam|title=Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NeaHnLb6RdUC&pg=PA145|year=2009|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-17036-0|page=145}}</ref> with the exception of Libya and Algeria, where the [[Mashriq]]i form (two dots above: {{lang|ar|ق}}) prevails.

Within Maghribi texts, there is no possibility of confusing it with the letter ''{{transl|ar|[[fāʼ]]}}'', as it is instead written with a dot underneath (<big>{{script/Arabic|ڢ}}</big>) in the Maghribi script.<ref>Muhammad Ghoniem, M S M Saifullah, <sup>c</sup>Abd ar-Rahmân Robert Squires & <sup>c</sup>Abdus Samad, [http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Scribal/scribal.html Are There Scribal Errors In The Qur'ân?], see ''{{transl|ar|DIN|qif}}'' on a traffic sign written <big>{{script/Arabic|ڧڢ}}</big> which is written elsewhere as {{lang|ar|قف}}, Retrieved 2011-August-27</ref>
{{clear}}

==Hebrew qof==
The ''Oxford Hebrew-English Dictionary'' transliterates the letter Qoph ({{Script/Hebrew|קוֹף}}) as ''{{transl|he|q}}'' or ''{{transl|he|k}}''; and, when word-final, it may be transliterated as ''{{transl|he|ck}}''.{{fact|date=September 2021}}<!--When it comes to scholarly transliterating of Biblical Hebrew, no serious Semitologist would transcribe it otherwise than as ''q'' or possibly ''k'' with a dot under it, and the transliteration would be consistent regardless of the position in the word. In informal or traditional adaptations that have passed through Greek and Latin, anything is possible. If it's Modern Israeli Hebrew, which the dictionary in question reportedly describes, it could be spelt with any letter that expresses the pronunciation /k/, b/c it is now pronounced the same as ''kaph''; but still I doubt that different English letters are used for the same Hebrew letter, and the practice of a single dictionary hardly deserves mention in any case.--> 
The English spellings of Biblical names (as derived via [[Vulgate|Latin]] from [[LXX|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).

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! colspan="5" |<small>[[Orthography|Orthographic]] variants</small>
|-
! colspan="3" |<small>Various print fonts</small>
! rowspan="2" |<small>[[Cursive Hebrew|Cursive<br/>Hebrew]]</small>
! rowspan="2" |<small>[[Rashi script|Rashi<br/>script]]</small>
|-
!|<small>Serif</small> !! <small>[[Sans-serif]]</small> !! <small>[[Monospaced]]</small>
|-
| width="20%" |<span style="font:30pt 'Times New Roman', 'SBL Hebrew', David, Narkisim, 'New Peninim MT', 'Taamey Frank CLM', serif">ק</span>
| width="20%" |<span style="font:28pt Arial, 'DejaVu Sans Condensed', 'DejaVu Sans', Tahoma, 'Noto Sans Hebrew', Alef, sans-serif;">ק</span>
| width="20%" |<span style="font:30pt 'Courier New', 'Miriam Fixed', 'Miriam Mono CLM', FreeMono, monospace;">ק</span>
| width="20%" |[[File:Hebrew letter Kuf handwriting.svg|22px]]
| width="20%" |[[File:Kuf (Rashi-script - Hebrew letter).svg|40px]]
|}

===Pronunciation===
In [[Hebrew language|modern Israeli Hebrew]] the letter [[Hebrew alphabet#Pronunciation of letter names|is also called]] '''''{{transl|he|kuf}}'''''. The letter represents {{IPA|/k/}}; i.e., no distinction is made between the pronunciations of Qof and [[Kaph|Kaph with ''Dagesh'']] (in modern Hebrew).

However, many historical groups have made that distinction, with Qof being pronounced {{IPAblink|q}} by [[Iraqi Jews]] and other [[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrahim]], or even as {{IPAblink|ɡ}} by [[Yemenite Jews]] influenced by [[Yemeni 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.{{fact|date=September 2021}}

===Numeral===
Qof in [[Hebrew numerals]] represents the number 100. [[Sarah]] is described in [[Genesis Rabba]] as {{Script/Hebrew|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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.aish.com/tp/i/moha/The-First-Matriarch.html |title=A deeper look at the life of Sarah. |author=Rabbi Ari Kahn |date=20 October 2013 |publisher=aish.com |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref>


==Unicode==
{{charmap
|05E7|name1=Hebrew Letter Qof
|0642|name2=Arabic Letter Qaf
|06A7|name3=Arabic Letter Qaf with Dot Above
|08BC|name4=Arabic Letter African Qaf
|0729|name5=Syriac Letter Qaph
|0812|name6=Samaritan Letter Quf
}}

{{charmap
|10396|name1=Ugaritic Letter Qopa
|10852|name2=Imperial Aramaic Letter Qoph
|10912|name3=Phoenician Letter Qof
}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Qoph (letter)}}

{{Arabic language}}
{{Hebrew language}}
{{Northwest Semitic abjad}}

[[Category:Arabic letters]]
[[Category:Hebrew letters]]
[[Category:Urdu letters]]
[[Category:Phoenician alphabet]]