Q is a confusing letter. We use
it when we want to make the “kw” sound, in which case it’s always paired with
u, or in the transliteration of a foreign word. It’s really a kind of useless
letter since we have perfectly good letters to make any sound it makes. But it
has survived, where letters like thorn and eth have not.
If you look at the alphabet gif,
you’ll see that Q looked more like a circle on top of a stick back in early
Latin. It got that symbol from Etruscan, a language from a region now part of
Italy, and the ones
that would pass on the alphabet to the Romans (and thus, the rest of Europe). Their
alphabet derived from that of the
Euboan Greeks that traveled to Italy. Q was the letter “qoppa” in Greek,
the symbol for it pretty much the same circle-stick thing. It disappeared from use, probably because they had kappa.
Now, the Greek alphabet was
created from the Phoenician alphabet sometime around the ninth century BCE.
Q was part of the Phoenician alphabet, where q was called qoph,
where the symbol appeared as a circle with a line running all the way down.
Before that was proto Sinaitic, an
abjad (consonant alphabet) that developed somewhere around 1800 BCE—almost four
thousand years ago. Q was called qoph (the ph was like in phone, but rather p
with a soft sound at the end, making it more like qoppa) and it was represented by a symbol that looks like a figure 8.
K also existed in this form, so I’m not sure how Q was used differently from
that, except as “kw”.
TL;DR: Q has always been a redundant
letter, but no one but the Greeks stopped using it.
Sources
Q exists because Star Trek needs it.
ReplyDeleteMy thought exactly, Andrew! Without Q, Picard would have to find someone else to be exasperated by.
ReplyDeleteQ is awkward in sign language. As is X. Coincidence?
ReplyDeleteGood point, Liz. They are awkward.
ReplyDeleteBut without Q, we writers wouldn't have the quiet we need to write. ;)
It's a weird and wacky letter, but it's quintessential. Ha!
ReplyDelete