Qn.

Etymology: Letter form. The seventeenth letter of the modern English alphabet and the sixteenth of the ancient Roman alphabet was in the latter an adoption of the Ϟ (κόππα , koppa ) of some of the early Greek alphabets. The Phoenician letter from which this was derived had the forms ?, ?, ?, and was used as the sign for the voiceless uvular stop (corresponding to Hebrew ק, Arabic ﻕ). Though this sound had no real equivalent in Greek, Ϟ is found in early inscriptions, e.g. as the initial letter of Κόρινθος Corinth, but was not accepted as a letter of the Attic alphabet, being retained only as a numerical symbol for the number ninety. In Latin, however, Q was regularly employed, in combination with V , in representing the double sound /kw/ which arose partly from the labiovelar, as in quis , quattuor , and partly from a palatal k followed by the labial semivowel, as in equus . Such spellings have largely been retained in the modern Romance languages, even when (as in modern French) the consonant cluster has generally been simplified to /k/. Letter name. Latin kū (probably c200 a.d. in classical Latin, though explicit evidence is lacking). quu is found in early Middle English. The modern English pronunciation /kjuː/ probably reflects derivation of the letter name immediately < French. Sound, and distribution within English. The consonant cluster /kw/ occurs frequently in Old English words of Germanic descent. In early writings in Old English (for example in the earliest glosses and occasionally in the Rushworth gospels) it is sometimes represented by qu (as an adoption from Latin orthography), but the normal representation in Old English orthography is cw (i.e. with the Old English letter wynn (see W n.); in early use also cu , occasionally cuu ). After the Norman Conquest, the spelling qu for /kw/ again begins to be found, although at first somewhat sporadically. (In some manuscripts it is particularly frequent in words of French origin, but this is not invariably the case.) By the end of the 13th cent. qu (with u frequently indicated by an abbreviation) is the usual spelling (also, although extremely rare before 1300, qv or qw ), and cw ceases to be found (although ku and kw are found in some manuscripts of the 14th and 15th centuries). In early Middle English qu also occurs very occasionally for /w/ and /k/. In later Middle English qu , qw , qwh (and in Scots also quh ) are found also for the reflex of Old English hw in texts from the north, north midlands, and east of England and from Scotland (for maps see A. McIntosh, M. L. Samuels, & M. Benskin A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English III. (1986) 372–3). For evidence of such spellings in early Middle English in place names from northern English counties from the end of the 12th cent. onwards see H. Orton Phonology of a South Durham Dialect (1933) §304. Such spellings remain characteristic of Scots throughout the Older Scots period. (For an extended contemporary defence of such spellings see A. Hume Of Orthogr. Britan Tongue (c1620) 18.) Conversely, spellings with wh or w (or sometimes qwh , quh ) are found in words with initial /kw/ (of Germanic or Romance origin) from the latter part of the Middle English period onwards; in early use they may sometimes show inverse spellings, but cases of alliteration of such forms with words with the reflex of Old English hw in Middle English alliterative verse argue otherwise, as does the later evidence from regional sources. Compare especially the forms listed at quaint adj., queem adj., quey n., quick n.² For discussion of the occurrence of /hw/ or /w/ in such words in some modern northern English dialects (and for examples also of wh apparently for cw in place names from the 13th cent. onwards) see H. Orton Phonology of a South Durham Dialect (1933) §§262–7. In Old French /kw/ and /k^w/ were generally simplified to /k/ in the 11th or 12th cent., but were preserved longer in Anglo-Norman, as is reflected in many loanwords in Middle English. In some words of French origin, qu varies with c in Middle English and early modern English. There is considerable variation before the diphthongs oi or ui and their reflexes: see e.g. the forms listed at coif n., coil v.³, coin n., coyn n., quoit n., cuirass n., cuir-bouilli n., cuisse n., cushion n., custron n., quinyie n., and quaint adj. More rarely que appears as a variant for initial co or cu in words of (likely) French origin: compare e.g. forms at conjure v., conquest n., coral n.¹, curch n., congeon n.; perhaps compare French regional forms with kem or quem for etymological com . Occasionally quo is found for co (in words not of Romance origin): compare forms at cod n.¹, core n.¹, coy n.¹; compare also coddle v.¹, coss v., cote v.¹, and perhaps cudgel n. For developments of cu compare queest n., cunster n., quern n.², quirl n., and quid n.³ Compare also quitch n.³ Q occurs without following u in a small number of loanwords, and particularly in loans from Arabic (and other languages using the Arabic alphabet) and Hebrew, transliterating Arabic qāf and Hebrew qōp, which etymologically represent a voiceless uvular stop; compare e.g. qabbala , variant of Cabbala n., Qaraite , variant of Karaite n., Qoran , beside more usual Qur'an , Quran (see Qur'an n.), and also qasida n., qawwal n., Qatari n., etc. Following scholarly practice, this convention has become increasingly standard since the mid 20th cent., where formerly the letter K was normally used. Q is also used in a few Inuit loanwords to represent the uvular stop. Q also increasingly occurs in loanwords from Chinese representing the aspirated voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate /tɕ'/, following Pinyin practice and replacing CH (compare Wade-Giles ch' ); compare e.g. qigong n., Qing n., qipao n., etc.