Qoph#Arabic Qāf

File:Fish net needle MET 15.3.944 view 2.jpg

The origin of the glyph shape of qōp (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").

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.

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").

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'.

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).

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.

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

{{Arabic alphabet shapes|ڧ}}

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

According to Sibawayh, author of the first book on Arabic grammar, the letter is pronounced voiced (maǧhūr),Kees Versteegh, The Arabic Language, pg. 131. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001. Paperback edition. {{ISBN|9780748614363}} although some scholars argue, that Sibawayh's term maǧhūr implies lack of aspiration rather than voice.{{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}} 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, 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/".{{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}} 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, 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.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 {{IPAblink|q}} is more preserved but can also be sometimes pronounced {{IPAblink|ɡ}} or as a simple {{IPAblink|k}} under Berber and French influence.
• {{IPAblink|ʔ}}: in most of the Levant and Egypt, as well as some North African towns such as Tlemcen and Fez.

Other pronunciations:

• {{IPAblink|ɢ}}: In Sudanese and some forms of Yemeni, even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic.
• {{IPAblink|k}}: In rural 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, though this pronunciation is fading in favor of {{IPAblink|ɡ}}.{{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}}{{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}}

• {{IPAblink|d͡ʒ}}: Optionally in 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 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.

It is not well known when the pronunciation of qāf {{angbr|ق}} as a velar {{IPA|[ɡ]}} occurred or the probability of it being connected to the pronunciation of jīm {{angbr|{{lang|ar|ج}}}} as an affricate {{IPA|[d͡ʒ]}}, but the Arabian peninsula, 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]}}{{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}} which is the main pronunciation in most of the peninsula except for western and southern Yemen and parts of 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}}

File:Maghribi script sura 5.jpg manuscript renders {{transl|ar|DIN|qāf}} and {{transl|ar|fāʼ}} differently than elsewhere would]]

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

The 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.{{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.

The earliest Arabic manuscripts show {{transl|ar|DIN|qāf}} in several variants: pointed (above or below) or unpointed.{{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}} 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,{{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}} with the exception of Libya and Algeria, where the Mashriqi 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 ({{script/Arabic|ڢ}}) in the Maghribi script.Muhammad Ghoniem, M S M Saifullah, ^cAbd ar-Rahmân Robert Squires & ^cAbdus 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 {{script/Arabic|ڧڢ}} which is written elsewhere as {{lang|ar|قف}}, Retrieved 2011-August-27

{{clear}}

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}}

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).

In modern Israeli Hebrew the letter is also called {{transl|he|kuf}}. The letter represents {{IPA|/k/}}; 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 {{IPAblink|q}} by Iraqi Jews and other 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}}

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.{{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}}

{{Arabic alphabet shapes|ܩ‎}}

{{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

}}

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{{commons category|Qoph (letter)}}

{{Arabic language}}

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{{Northwest Semitic abjad}}

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