Qoph

Template:Short description Template:Template other Template:SpecialChars Qoph is the nineteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician qōp 𐤒, Hebrew qūp̄ Template:Script, Aramaic qop 𐡒, Syriac qōp̄ ܩ, and Arabic qāf Template:Script. It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian , South Arabian , and Ge'ez .

Its original sound value was a West Semitic emphatic stop, presumably Template:IPAblink. In Hebrew numerals, it has the numerical value of 100.

Origins

File:Fish net needle MET 15.3.944 view 2.jpg

Needle from Ancient Egypt, 13th–10th century BC

The origin of the glyph shape of qōp (File:Phoenician qoph.svg) is uncertain. It is usually suggested to have originally depicted either a sewing needle, specifically the eye of a needle (Hebrew quf and Aramaic qopɑʔ both refer to the eye of a needle), or the back of a head and neck (qāf in Arabic meant "nape"). According to an older suggestion, it may also have been a picture of a monkey and its tail (the Hebrew means "monkey").

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).

Arabic qāf

The Arabic letter is named Template:Transliteration. It is written in several ways depending in its position in the word:Template:Infobox grapheme

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic

Traditionally in the scripts of the Maghreb it is written with a single dot, similarly to how the letter fā ف is written in Mashreqi scripts:

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic

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

Pronunciation

According to Sibawayh, author of the first book on Arabic grammar, the letter is pronounced voiced (maǧhūr), although some scholars argue, that Sibawayh's term maǧhūr implies lack of aspiration rather than voice. As noted above, Modern Standard Arabic has the voiceless uvular plosive Template:IPAslink as its standard pronunciation of the letter, but dialectal pronunciations vary as follows:

The three main pronunciations:

• Template:IPAblink: in most of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, Southern and 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 Alawites and the Druze that Levantines invented a verb "yqaqi" /jqæqi/ that means "speaking with a /q/". 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.
• Template:IPAblink: in most of the Arabian Peninsula, Northern and Eastern Yemen and parts of Oman, Southern 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.
• Template:IPAblink: in most of the Levant and Egypt, as well as some North African towns such as Tlemcen and Fez.

Other pronunciations:

• Template:IPAblink: In Sudanese and some forms of Yemeni, even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.
• Template:IPAblink: In rural Palestinian it is often pronounced as a voiceless velar plosive Template:IPAblink, even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.

Marginal pronunciations:

• Template:IPAblink: In some positions in Najdi, though this pronunciation is fading in favor of Template:IPAblink.
• Template:IPAblink: Optionally in Iraqi and in Gulf Arabic, it is sometimes pronounced as a voiced postalveolar affricate Template:IPAblink, even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.
• Template:IPAblink ~ Template:IPAblink: in Sudanese and some Yemeni dialects (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 Template:Angbr as a velar occurred or the probability of it being connected to the pronunciation of jīm Template:Angbr as an affricate , but the Arabian peninsula, there are two sets of pronunciations, either the Template:Angbr represents a and Template:Angbr represents a which is the main pronunciation in most of the peninsula except for western and southern Yemen and parts of Oman where Template:Angbr represents a and Template:Angbr represents a .

The Standard Arabic (MSA) combination of Template:Angbr as a and Template:Angbr as a does not occur in any natural modern dialect in the Arabian peninsula, which shows a strong correlation between the palatalization of Template:Angbr to and the pronunciation of the Template:Angbr as a as shown in the table below: Template:Gim and qaf pronunciation

Pronunciation across other languages

Language	Dialect(s) / Script(s)	Pronunciation (IPA)
Azeri	Arabic alphabet	Template:IPAslink
Kurdish	Sorani	Template:IPAslink
Malay	Jawi	Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink
Pashto		Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink
Persian	Dari	Template:IPAslink
	Iranian	Template:IPAslink~Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink
Punjabi	Shahmukhi	Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink
Urdu		Template:IPAslink or Template:IPAslink
Uyghur		Template:IPAslink

File:Maghribi script sura 5.jpg

The Maghribi quran manuscript renders Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration differently than elsewhere would

Maghrebi variant

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

The Maghrebi Template:Transliteration

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Form of letter:	Template:Script/Arabic Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic

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

Within Maghribi texts, there is no possibility of confusing it with the letter Template:Transliteration, as it is instead written with a dot underneath (Template:Script/Arabic) in the Maghribi script.

Hebrew qof

The Oxford Hebrew-English Dictionary transliterates the letter Qoph (קוֹף‎) as Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration; and, when word-final, it may be transliterated as Template:Transliteration. The English spellings of Biblical names (as derived via Latin from 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
Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
ק	ק	ק	File:Hebrew letter Kuf handwriting.svg	File:Kuf (Rashi-script - Hebrew letter).svg

Pronunciation

In modern Israeli Hebrew the letter is also called Template:Transliteration. The letter represents ; i.e., no distinction is made between the pronunciations of Qof and Kaph with Dagesh (in modern Hebrew).

However, many historical groups have made that distinction, with Qof being pronounced Template:IPAblink by Iraqi Jews and other Mizrahim, or even as Template:IPAblink 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.

Numeral

Qof in Hebrew numerals 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.

Syriac qop

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic	Template:Script/Arabic