Qoph ( Phoenician Qōp Phoenician_qoph

) is the nineteenth letter of the Semitic scripts. Aramaic Qop Qoph

is derived from the Phoenician letter, and derivations from Aramaic include Hebrew Qof , Syriac Qōp̄ ܩ and Arabic . Its original sound value was a

West Semitic The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of ancient Semitic languages. The term was first coined in 1883 by Fritz Hommel.emphatic stop, presumably . In

Hebrew numerals The system of Hebrew numerals is a quasi-decimal alphabetic numeral system using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The system was adapted from that of the Greek numerals in the late 2nd century BCE. The current numeral system is also known as t ...

, it has the numerical value of 100.

Origins

The origin of the glyph shape of ''qōp'' ( Phoenician_qoph

) is uncertain. It is usually suggested to have originally depicted either a sewing needle, specifically the

eye of a needle The term "eye of a needle" is used as a metaphor for a very narrow opening. It occurs several times throughout the Talmud. The New Testament quotes Jesus as saying in Luke 18:25 that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle tha ...

(Hebrew and Aramaic 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'').

Hebrew Qof

The ''Oxford Hebrew-English Dictionary'' transliterates the letter Qoph () as ' or '; and, when word-final, it may be transliterated as '. 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 ''Qena'an'' (Genesis 4:1, 5:9).

Pronunciation

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

Kaph Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician kāp , Hebrew kāf , Aramaic kāp , Syriac kāp̄ , and Arabic kāf (in abjadi order). The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek kappa (Κ), Lati ...

(in modern Hebrew). However, many historical groups have made that distinction, with Qof being pronounced by Iraqi Jews and other Mizrahim, or even as by Yemenite Jews under the influence of 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

represents the number 100.

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a piou ...

is described in Genesis Rabba as , literally "At Qof years of age, she was like

years of age in sin", meaning that when she was 100 years old, she was as sinless as when she was 20.

Arabic Qāf

The Arabic letter is named '. It is written in several ways depending in its position in the word: 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: 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 Arabic grammar or Arabic language sciences ( ar, النحو العربي ' or ar, عُلُوم اللغَة العَرَبِيَّة ') is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with ...

, 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 as its standard pronunciation of the letter, but dialectical pronunciations vary as follows: The three main pronunciations: *: in most of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco,

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

and Western Yemen and parts of Oman, Northern Iraq, parts of the Levant (especially the

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...

and

Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...

dialects). In fact, it is so characteristic of the

s and the

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. *: in most of the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

and Eastern Yemen and parts of Oman, Southern Iraq, some parts within Jordan, eastern Syria and southern Palestine, Upper Egypt (''Ṣaʿīd''),

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

, Libya,

Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...

and to lesser extent in some parts of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco but it is also used partially across those countries in some words. *: in most of the Levant and Egypt, as well as some North African towns such as Tlemcen and

Fez Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...

. Other pronunciations: *: In

Sudanese Sudanese or Sudanic may refer to: *pertaining to the country of Sudan **the people of Sudan, see Demographics of Sudan *pertaining to Sudan (region) **Sudanic languages **Sudanic race, subtype of the Africoid racial category See also *Sudanese Civ ...

and some forms of Yemeni, even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic. *: In rural Palestinian it is often pronounced as a voiceless velar plosive , even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic. Marginal pronunciations: *: In some positions in Najdi, though this pronunciation is fading in favor of . *: Optionally in Iraqi and in Gulf Arabic, it is sometimes pronounced as a voiced postalveolar affricate , even in loanwords from Modern Standard Arabic or when speaking Modern Standard Arabic. * ~ : in

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 as a velar occurred or the probability of it being connected to the pronunciation of Jīm as an affricate , but the

Arabian peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

which is the homeland of the Arabic language, there are two sets of pronunciations, either the represents a and represents a which is the main pronunciation in most of the peninsula except for western and southern Yemen and parts of Oman where represents a and represents a . The Standard Arabic (MSA) combination of as a and as a does not occur in any natural modern dialect in the Arabian peninsula, which shows a strong correlation between the palatalization of to and the pronunciation of the as a as shown in the table below: Maghribi script sura 5

Maghrebi variant

The Maghrebi style of writing ' is different: having only a single point (dot) above; when the letter is isolated or word-final, it may sometimes become unpointed. The earliest Arabic manuscripts show ' in several variants: pointed (above or below) or unpointed. Then the prevalent convention was having a point above for ' and a point below for '; 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 ', as it is instead written with a dot underneath () in the Maghribi script.Muhammad Ghoniem, M S M Saifullah, ^cAbd ar-Rahmân Robert Squires & ^cAbdus Samad
Are There Scribal Errors In The Qur'ân?
see ' on a traffic sign written which is written elsewhere as , Retrieved 2011-August-27

Unicode

References

External links

{{Northwest Semitic abjad Arabic letters Hebrew letters Phoenician alphabet