Qoph
Arabic	Syriac	Hebrew	Aramaic	Phoenician
ﻗ,ﻕ	ܩ	‎
Phonemic representation (IPA):				kˁ, q
Position in alphabet:				19
Gematria/Abjad value:				100

Qoph or Qop (In Hebrew: Kuf) is the nineteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew ‎ and Arabic alphabet ק transliteration" class="Unicode" style="white-space:normal; text-decoration: none">qāf ק (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, and the letter Qoppa in certain early varieties of the Greek alphabet.

Origins of Qoph

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 (Qaph in Arabic meant the nape).

Arabic qāf

Arabic alphabet
ק     ﺍ     ﺏ     ﺕ     ﺙ     ﺝ
ﺡ     ﺥ     ﺩ     ﺫ     ﺭ     ﺭ
?     ﺵ     ﺹ     ﺽ     ﻁ     ﻅ
ﻉ     ﻍ     ﻑ     ﻕ     ﻙ
ﻝ     ﻡ     ﻥ     ه‍     ﻭ
History · Transliteration Diacritics · Hamza ﻱ Numerals · Numeration  •  • [ e]

The letter is named qāf, and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:

glyph
stand alone	at the beginning	in the middle	at the end
ق	ق?	ـق?	ـق

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/; in Sa'idi Arabic (the Arabic of the Sa'id, Southern or Upper Egypt), 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.

Qoph in Hebrew

Hebrew alphabet
א‎    א‎    ב‎    ג‎    ד‎    ה‎
ו‎    ז‎    ח‎    ט‎    י‎
כך‎    ל‎    מם‎    נן‎    ס‎    ע‎
פף‎    צץ‎    ק‎    ר‎    ש‎
History Transliteration Niqqud Dagesh Gematria Cantillation Numeration

Syriac alphabet
	ܐ	ܒ	ܓ	ܕ
ܗ	ܘ	ܙ	ܚ	ܛ	ܝ
ܟܟ	ܠ	ܡܡ	ܢܢ	ܣ	ܥ
ܦ	ܨ	ܩ	ܪ	ܫ	ܬ

Hebrew Pronunciation

In modern Israeli Hebrew, Qoph usually represents /k/ i.e., no distinction is made between Qoph and Kaph. However, many historical groups have made that distinction, with Qoph being pronounced as a voiceless uvular plosive by Iraqi Jews and other Sephardim (IPA: [q]) or even as a voiced velar plosive by Yemenite Jews (IPA: [g]).

Significance of Qoph

Qoph in gematria represents the number 100. Sarah is described in Genesis Rabba as "בת ק' כבת כ' שנה לחטא", literally At Qoph 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).

Qoph 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."