| ← Tsade Qoph Resh → | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenician | Hebrew | Aramaic | Syriac | Arabic |
|
ק | |
ܩ | ﻕ |
| Phonemic representation: | kˁ, q | |||
| Position in alphabet: | 19 | |||
| Numerical (Gematria/Abjad) value: | 100 | |||
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Qoph or Qop (In modern Hebrew: Kuf, Arabic: Qāf) is the nineteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew ק and Arabic alphabet qāf ق (in abjadi order). Its sound value is an emphatic (pharyngealized) velar stop, IPA: [kˁ], or uvular stop /q/.
It became over time the letter Q in the Latin alphabet,[citation needed] and the letter Qoppa in certain early varieties of the Greek alphabet.
Contents |
| Phoenician alphabet (ca. 1050–200 BCE) |
| 𐤀 𐤁 𐤂 𐤃 𐤄 𐤅 |
| 𐤆 𐤇 𐤈 𐤉 𐤊 𐤋 |
| 𐤌 𐤍 𐤎 𐤏 𐤐 |
| 𐤑 𐤒 𐤓 𐤔 𐤕 |
| Semitic abjads · Genealogy |
| Hebrew alphabet (1000 BCE–present) |
| א ב ג ד ה ו |
| ז ח ט י כך |
| ל מם נן ס ע פף |
| צץ ק ר ש ת |
| History · Transliteration Niqqud · Dagesh · Gematria Cantillation · Numeration |
| Syriac alphabet (200 BCE–present) |
| ܐ ܒ ܓ ܕ ܗ ܘ |
| ܙ ܚ ܛ ܝ ܟܟ ܠ |
| ܡܡ ܢܢ ܣ ܥ ܦ |
| ܨ ܩ ܪ ܫ ܬ |
| Arabic alphabet (400 CE–present) |
| ا ب ت ث ج ح |
| خ د ذ ر ز س |
| ش ص ض ط ظ ع |
| غ ف ق ك ل |
| م ن ه و ي |
| History · Transliteration Diacritics · Hamza ء Numerals · Numeration |
The origin of Qoph is usually thought to have come from a pictogram of a monkey, with the body and tail shown (In Hebrew, Qoph, spelled in Hebrew letters as קוף, means "monkey", and K'of in Old Egyptian meant a type of monkey). Others have proposed that it originated from a pictogram of someone's head and neck (Qaf in Arabic meant the nape).
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| Various Print Fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi Script |
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| ק | ק | ק |  |
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In modern Israeli Hebrew, Kuf usually represents /k/; i.e., no distinction is made between Kuf and Kaph. However, many historical groups have made that distinction, with Kuf being pronounced as a voiceless uvular plosive by Iraqi Jews and other Mizrahim (IPA: [q]) or even as a voiced velar plosive by Yemenite Jews (IPA: [g]) (under the influence of Yemeni Arabic).
Kuf in gematria represents the number 100. Sarah is described in Genesis Rabba as "בת ק' כבת כ' שנה לחטא", literally At Kuf years of age, she was like Kaph years of age in sin (i.e. when she was 100 years old, she was as sinless as when she was 20).
Kuf is used in an Israeli phrase: after a child will say something false, one might say "B'Shin Qoph, Resh" (With Shin, Qoph, Resh). These letters spell Sheqer, which is the Hebrew word for a lie. It would be akin to an English speaker saying "That's an L-I-E."
The letter ﻕ is named ﻗﺎﻑ qāf, and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:
| Position in word: | Isolated | Initial | Medial | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Form of letter: | ق | قـ | ـقـ | ـق |
منكم فقد ضل سواء السبيل فيما نقضهم ميثـٰـقهم لعنـٰـهم وجعلنا قلوبهم قـٰـسية يحرفون الكلم عن مواضعه ونسوا حظاً مما ذكروا به ولا تزال تطلع
The letter qāf is matched only by ǧīm among Arabic consonants in the number of pronunciations applied to it dialectically. As noted above, Modern Standard Arabic has the voiceless uvular plosive IPA: [q] as its standard pronunciation of the letter, but in northern Egyptian Arabic, as well as Levantine Arabic, the letter is often pronounced as the hamza or glottal stop /ʔ/ but is preserved in several significant words; in Sa'idi (the Arabic of the Sa'id, Southern or Upper Egypt) and some forms of Yemeni Arabic, it is frequently pronounced the voiced velar plosive, /ɡ/; and in rural Palestinian Arabic it is often pronounced as /k/. 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 IPA: [q] is more preserved but can also be sometimes pronounced as /ɡ/ or a simple /k/ under Berber and French influence.
The Maghribi style of writing qaf is different. Once the prevalent style, it is now only used in Maghribi countries for writing Qur'an with the exception of Libya which adopted the Mashriqi form. There is no possibility of confusing it with the letter fa' as fa' is written with a dot underneath in the Maghribi script[1].
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