Q-Letter

q, seventeenth letter of the modern alphabet. It corresponds to Semitic koph, which may derive from an earlier sign representing the eye of a needle, and to Greek koppa. The form of the majuscule has been practically identical throughout its known history.

In the form found on the Moabite stone, the vertical stroke extended to the top of the loop, and the same is the case with an early form from the island of Thera. The Etruscan form was identical with the Greek. The Latin alphabet had two forms, the latter of which resembled the modern Q.

In the minuscule form the stroke was moved to the right side of the letter because of the speed of writing. This produced a cursive form similar to the modern q in the 6th century ce. Uncial writing also had a form similar to q, and the Carolingian form was practically identical. In Semitic the sound represented by the letter was an unvoiced guttural pronounced farther back than that represented by the letter kaph. In Greek the letter was largely redundant, and in the eastern alphabet it was entirely superseded by kappa (Κ).

In the Chalcidian alphabet, however, it lingered and spread from there, probably through the Etruscan, into the Latin alphabet, where it was used only with a following u, the combination representing the unvoiced labiovelar sound in such words as quaestor. The combination of these two letters holds to the present day, and in modern English q is not used unless followed by u, even if, in words such as oblique, the sound is a simple velar and not a labiovelar. The most usual position of the sound is initial in words such as queen and quick. The letter is used apart from u only rarely in words of foreign origin, especially to represent a Semitic guttural, as in Qatar or Iraq.