Q is the seventeenth letter of the Latin alphabet.
The Semitic sound value of Qôp was /q/. In Greek this sign (called Qoppa in Greek) probably came to represent several labial plosives, among them /k_w/ and /k_w_h/. These sounds changed to /p/ and /p_h/ respectively. Therefore, Qoppa was transformed into two letters: Qoppa, which stood for a number only, and Φι (Phi) which stood for the aspirated sound /p_h/ that came to be pronounced /f/ in Modern Greek. The Etruscans used Q only in conjunction with V, symbolizing thus a /k_w/. and V. Some scholars claim that Q and Phi are unrelated.
In most Modern Languages, Q is rather superfluous; in Romance and Germanic languages it usually appears followed by the letter u. In English this most often denotes the affricate /kw/, as it does in Italian; in German, /kv/; and in French, Spanish, and Catalan, /k/. (In Spanish, "qu" replaces c for /k/ before the vowels i and e, since in those contexts c is a fricative.). In Azeri, Uzbek, Tatar languages Q is pronounced the same as the Semitic sound q.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
Quebec represents the letter Q in the NATO phonetic alphabet.
Q is also:
- An abbreviation for 'Question'.
- A character in the James Bond series, see Q (James Bond).
- A character in the Star Trek series, see Q (Star Trek).
- The leading character in the famous Chinese novel A True Story of Ah Q by Lu Xun. Because of this novel, "Ah Q" in China means someone who always claims spiritual victory despite frequent defeat.
- The name of a bacterial infection, see Q fever.
- A name for anti-submarine ships, see Q-ship.
- The pen name of writer Arthur Quiller-Couch.
- The abbreviation used by scholars of the New Testament to describe the Q document, a hypothetical lost written "Source" (German, Quelle, hence, Q) behind the Synoptic Gospels.
- The stock symbol for the recently bankrupt Qwest Communications International Inc
- A bold Q is used by mathematicians to denote the set of rational numbers.
- In physics, a symbol for characterizing filters, see Q factor.
- In physics, a symbol for electric charge.
- An "equational programming language"; see Q programming language.
